Noob - The Factionless
Noob - The Factionless
Game
Game2023
Gord
Developer Covenant.dev
Gord is a strategy video game developed by Covenant.dev and published by Team17. Players must manage a settlement under constant threat of attack by monsters. It combines elements of role-playing, real-time strategy, and city-building games. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
282 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Nov 3, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
55
Mixed
103 positive · 85 negative
95% range 48–62%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 103 | 85 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 2 | 0 | 87 |
| Mastodon * | 1 | 0 | 4 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mixed
249 of 432 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
54% recommend · 102 yes, 86 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 188 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mixed (551 of 1,014 positive).
Some players enjoy the dark Slavic fantasy setting and story, despite bugs. [1][2][3] Many reviewers find the game repetitive and poorly balanced, with frustrating mechanics. [4][5][6] Several players recommend buying only on sale due to the game's flaws. [1][7][8]
Liked
Representative posts
- [4]
The concept of "Gord" is very interesting. It has a pleasant visual design. Story, sound and voice acting are enjoyable too. Gord tries to merge many different styles but doesn't manage to pull the strength of any single type. The controls are okay but it cannot be compared to RTS strategy games. However, it completely fails at gameplay and the essential core of every game, the game rules. Additionally, there still …
- [6]
The mechanics are shallow and boring. Building isn't fun and your base feels constricted. Voice acting is truly awful. The missions feel like repeats of themselves where you build the same base over and over. The combat is unimaginative and stale. The greater horrors are the only interesting things in the game and there isn't enough depth to them to save the game. It's hard to describe how much of a disappointment …
- [1]
This game has some problems, but I still enjoyed it. Once you learn the game mechanics and have some patience with the bugs (save regularly!) its pretty satisfying and I loved the setting, especially the ''horrors'' concept. The theme reminded me a lot of the Witcher series, so if you like that you'll probably enjoy this. The village building elements are good, but could be better, same with the combat and RPG …
- [2]
I jumped into the game with a great dose of scepticism after reading all of the negative reviews. Finishing the campaign after around 20 hours left me wanting more, so I purchased the DLC right away. This has to be one of the most overlooked and underrated games I have seen. The artistic design referring to Slavic mythology is something truly unique. The gameplay is a well-balanced mixture of survival settlement …
- [3]
An interesting combination of a fairly simple city builder with team map exploration set in a Slavic dark fantasy world. I also really liked story and cutscenes. The big flaws that will probably scare away a large part of players are the quite numerous bugs - which, since the game came out 1.5 years ago, are unlikely to be fixed - and also not very user-friendly interface. These are the two things you will mainly be …
Summarised from 34 of the 265 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 10, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Players who liked Gord talk about great atmosphere and Slavic mythology theme; those who didn't talk about repetitive gameplay and poor mechanics. Which matters more to you?
Critics, per Wikipedia
On Metacritic, Gord received mixed reviews for Windows and PlayStation 5. IGN called it "as miserable as its downtrodden villagers" and criticized what they felt were "monotonous micromanagement, a poor interface, and by-the-numbers combat". Though they liked the atmosphere, PC Gamer said it is "a thoroughly middling blend of city-building, survival gaming, and RTS". Rock Paper Shotgun similarly described it as "detailed and moody" but said it is "a disappointing game that fails to capture the appeal of any of its component genres". GamesRadar also enjoyed Gord's atmosphere and said it has a strong start. However, they felt it becomes repetitive and can not compete against the many…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 282 · most liked firstThe concept of "Gord" is very interesting. It has a pleasant visual design. Story, sound and voice acting are enjoyable too. Gord tries to merge many different styles but doesn't manage to pull the strength of any single type. The controls are okay but it cannot be compared to RTS strategy games. However, it completely fails at gameplay and the essential core of every game, the game rules. Additionally, there still some annoying bugs. Gord has great potential but it suffers too much from a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have extensive experience with city builders and similar games like this. It's rare that I post reviews of games but I feel like I need to share my experience after seeing that the DLC the game is offering, for an additional $15-$20, is completely outrageous considering the base game has terrible progression mechanics and lack of real difficulty. Like most games like these, people play the skirmishes and play around with the difficulty sliders. There are a lot of options to choose from,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →To me, Gord Miller's the best hockey PBP guy, and to know why you really need to hear him on a World Juniors game calling Finland-Latvia on a Monday afternoon and the call is like "Kippokaken, Käikopakken & Kerkokäikonnen gain the zone against Beržnieks & Birznuējs" and my goat doesn't STUTTER
neutral · AI labelView post →Hey new people! 1st time doing one of these. I'm Gord, Studio Director at A Shell in the Pit. Been in games 12 years. Done sound & music for a pile of stuff, created Fish Game & am a solo artist (also A Shell in the Pit). Hire us: ashellinthepit.com Music: tinyurl.com/ydunxe8c Fish Game: fish.game
neutral · AI labelView post →I got the game on sale, and for less than $10 its easily worth the price. The environment is haunting, and the story is interesting. However, there are some actual gameplay mechanics with fatal flaws that will cause even your campaign to fail no matter the difficulty, which prevents me from recommending this game. A significant portion of the game is about equipping your characters with items and controlling them as a squad, both mechanics of which are very badly implemented. In addition,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beautiful cinematics and arts, dark fantasy theme, slavic lore and all, but I cant still recommend it. :( You just play as small villagers where you can constantly change the professions as you want and lead them around the map to kill some small opponents and that's it. just lazy work here I couldn't build anything just because of the few trees in the village that I had already cut down... wtf get it on sale if you're gonna get it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's extremely repetetive and the wohle game is basically micro managing a handfull of villagers. Played it on the hardest difficulty without permadeath and it's not a hard game by definition it's just tideous and grindy as hell. It lacks a lot of quality of life features and the story is not good enough to keep everything together So to the people who heard that it's a "Citybuilder with Witcher twist", don't buy it, because it simply isn't that
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really wished to enjoy it, but right now it's just too rough. Would have preferred to leave a neutral review as I'd like to see the game fixed, rather than abandoned. There's a lot of good stuff here, but it needs to be tied together better. Haven't had any issues with crashes that other negative reviews mention. The story was rather enjoyable and I'd like to see it wrapped up, but playing through the missions is really rather frustrating right now. I think my main problem is that in a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Abandoned game by developers, DO NOT BUY even on sale. Don't give them money for this, is not worth it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has some problems, but I still enjoyed it. Once you learn the game mechanics and have some patience with the bugs (save regularly!) its pretty satisfying and I loved the setting, especially the ''horrors'' concept. The theme reminded me a lot of the Witcher series, so if you like that you'll probably enjoy this. The village building elements are good, but could be better, same with the combat and RPG elements. Some points to note; - I bought this game for €4.50 on a sale and it…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great artists (visuals,animations,voice acting) met terrible programmers and they made the infamous GORD . I would still recommend this gorgeous yet terrible game if you can get it on sale to just experience this weird composition of the good and the bad.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I jumped into the game with a great dose of scepticism after reading all of the negative reviews. Finishing the campaign after around 20 hours left me wanting more, so I purchased the DLC right away. This has to be one of the most overlooked and underrated games I have seen. The artistic design referring to Slavic mythology is something truly unique. The gameplay is a well-balanced mixture of survival settlement building with RTS-type exploration and combat. The story characters are memorable…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →To potential players: In my opinion this game as it is right now as of Jan 2025 is pretty mixed but tendency for a good game nevertheless. The basic idea is good but there are several issues you may find in other comments. I would buy the game again but only for the crazy sale price I got it for. Despite that I would like to respond to people saying the game is hard. It really is not. >If you are struggling with the base so here is how you win the campaign: >>1 person each building is enough.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I picked this up on sale despite reviews complaining about how difficult it is, and I have to say - as a non-hardcore gamer, who enjoys strategy, crafting, and uses games to relax... Those reviews are by whiny babies. Yeah, the game is challenging. If you're easily frustrated, maybe give this one a pass. On the other hand, if you are looking for an atmospheric darker version of your average colony management/survival sim, you've found it. Ethical choices - fight an impossible-to-kill…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Boldy down the tunnel and to the locker room after getting hit in the back of the head hard by a leaping Jamie Benn. Hynes having an angry conversation with referee Gord Dwyer. Benn slewfooted Boldy last game and no call
neutral · AI labelView post →Gord: Not going to blow your mind but it does scratch an itch. I had a good time with Gord. I breezed through the campaign on Normal difficulty and that felt more like a relaxed walk through the woods than a gauntlet. If you want something that’ll make you sweat, don’t be shy: turn that difficulty up a notch. Base-building? Barebones. Pretty basic, but still fun. The real magic happens when you’re out in the wild finding loot for your custom named units, and sending them off to fight horrors.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Short Foreword: There is something crucial most of the negative reviewers seem to miss about the game: It's meant to be grim and unforgiving. Put your family in that situation and see how they would hold up against giant snakes, monsters and horrors. Now include the elderly and infants. Here are my thoughts. - After 70 hours of gameplay, I still haven't experienced a single bug. (2 systems: 1-Lenovo legion 5 Pro, 2-Ryzen 7 9700X w/ MSI 5080 and 64GB RAM). - The game is dark, always dark.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If this was a real farm it would be dead I only go there once like every three months or so like "OH RIGHT, MY FARM, I FORGOT ABOUT YOU" Thank Gord for game time as a thing
neutral · AI labelView post →ok i love this game. i really do. its hard and mean cause the devs just left it. its upsetting cause there is something here. its really good. just upsetting its left alone to never grow.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The mechanics are shallow and boring. Building isn't fun and your base feels constricted. Voice acting is truly awful. The missions feel like repeats of themselves where you build the same base over and over. The combat is unimaginative and stale. The greater horrors are the only interesting things in the game and there isn't enough depth to them to save the game. It's hard to describe how much of a disappointment this game was as a story driven colony sim.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Only 10% of the players have reached the 6th chapter of the campaign (that's about 5 hours of playtime) - that's how boring Gord is. The game is trying to be a city-builder and a Wartales-style RPG and fails miserably at both. The only redeeming quality of Gord is its visual style, but then again, the map is co dark all the time you can hardly see a thing.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beautiful cinematics and arts, dark fantasy theme, slavic lore and all, but I cant still recommend it. ;( The most frustrating thing for me is lack of some common inventory, where I can freely swap collected items between villagers. The fact you have to drop it and then manually make villager to go and collect it is just meh. Also the inventory villagers already have (3 items) is giving me anxiety, because I always have to run back to village, drop all the items off and then go back for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is totally boring from every perspective. I was so hopeful when I first heard about it. The music is very good and the atmosphere, but the gameplay is so stiff and repetitive. It's not really a challenge and it's so lackluster. The game has no real economy. You just play as small villagers where you can constantly change the professions as you want and lead them around the map to kill some small opponents and that's it. just lazy work here
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →overall good concept, leaned too hard into making the game "difficult" and just becomes stupid at times, 3 snakes should not be able to kill 8 people with maxed out combat abilities
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →🙁 Not sure if I would buy this again. Campaign is a 5/10 The game sells you a great idea and creates all this dramatic atmosphere and sense of tribal unity and dark forest survival, only to completely underdeliver when it comes to the actual gameplay. It just plain and simple boring after 3 missions. The goal is always the same, levels are very similar and all the needs and wants of your villagers often feel like a annoying burden rather than a pressure mechanic. I stopped playing after…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The lore is fun....but the gameplay is just awful. Your snakes are overpowered. You can't get across the map fast enough to complete objectives. You respawn monsters after we've cleared them and kill peoples too quickly in old age. The resources disappear too quickly....to be manageable. Its like you want the players to suffer. This feeling does not a good game make.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am sorry for the negative point, I tried to like it, but overall, I didnt enjoy my stay here. On the positive side, I would recomend this game to someone who enjoys micromanagement and party exploration, But still at this it feels a bit shallow. Its a shame, because the game could be a hit, like frostpunk or so. I would recomend to someone to scrap the gameplay and start again with the rest. Good: Beautiful lore, graphic, design overall, the atmosphere is the best I have seen, music is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wanted to like this, but the more I play it, the more game braking bugs I encounter. For as long as this game has been out and the fact that They have DLC out I would assume that at least most of them would have been fixed by this point, The game is also lacking in features which could be forgiven if it worked, but far too often the game will crash or bug out. If its on a 75% sale I would say it was worth it, but not full price.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a misery simulator. The dark fantasy world vibe would be great, except that the game literally starts ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on you with increasing frequency, the further you go. Your experienced pawns die of old age, new pawns do no come quickly enough, resources deplete and depending on season are not even available. You can afford a small contingent of warriors, except you run to one end of the map and then the attack on your camp or pawns is spawned on the other end of the map. You are still…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An interesting combination of a fairly simple city builder with team map exploration set in a Slavic dark fantasy world. I also really liked story and cutscenes. The big flaws that will probably scare away a large part of players are the quite numerous bugs - which, since the game came out 1.5 years ago, are unlikely to be fixed - and also not very user-friendly interface. These are the two things you will mainly be fighting with during the game... As proof, here are some of the bugs I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One thing about listening to the game on 1200 is adjusting for how much Dean and Gord love Tyler Kleven. BIG BODY.
neutral · AI labelView post →This game is just not fun. The campaign is composed of the same repetitive scenario with difficulty just increasing by keeping your options blocked while you are confronted with enemies that you can not kill, your resource gathering is hampered by your diminishing population and you can do NOTHING, no research, no strategy where you could enhance your units ... NOTHING, just limitations because otherwise it would just be a pos strategic game. Your units are not strong and you avoid fighting,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Good: Great engaging story. Good graphics. The tension never lets up, danger abounds. Has so much potential. The Bad: Unfair quests, such as kill X amount of Y, but you already killed these, so you fail the quest. Death spirals, perfect storm of how village dies quickly. Many get poisoned, bath takes too long, they are also losing sanity, so have to jump out of bath to have a mead, but they stumble and get afflicted, which causes some other ailment. Someone needs to revive, but they walk…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gord impresses with an atmospheric setting and a promising core concept that suggests engaging city-building sessions. Unfortunately, the game fails in its execution. The gameplay feels too clunky; at times, it only seems to register the second click, as characters, for example, walk to the point instead of picking up an item you've selected. Instead of getting immersed in the game, players spend too much time micromanaging and correcting errors caused by the game itself. A particularly…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →unfinished, unpolished, clunky, unfortunate
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Look. the public feedback on this game was right - it was a great concept with very... flat execution. I keep getting flat-out bored a couple missions in. the pacing and mechanics are just... not engaging. I like the premace, in fact almost everything about the concept; but the execution just feels tedious to play.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →3/5, this game straddled the line between recommend or not for 40 hours. Fantastic premise of frostpunk-like colony survival meet age of empires, with good music, art and atmosphere, but clunky messy gameplay, and kind of shallow and repetitive.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gord: A Dark Fantasy Strategy...But Too Dark for Its Own Good 🌑⚔️ If you're looking for a deeply immersive strategy game, Gord might seem like an appealing option at first, but unfortunately, it falls short in quite a few areas. I was hoping for a rich, story-driven experience that balanced strategy and adventure, but instead, I found myself battling more than just the darkness—it was also the gameplay itself. 😬 The idea of managing a tribe, each with their own personal stories and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Reintro for the new folks: I'm Chris Tihor, a game writer and designer, and a partner at Talespinners. I've worked on a bunch of things but may be best known for working on Nancy Drew and Poirot games. More recently I worked on Trepang2 and Gord.
neutral · AI labelView post →Gord is a game of great potential. The fresh ideas it presents and the mechanics could have been great, even amazing, but they fall flat in execution. The Horrors were absolutely fantastic but felt underused, the characters and their development felt lacklustre and generally forgettable, the management was fun and had that Tetris charm of getting everything to fit just right, but it's too finicky to be fun, especially when expanding the palisade… I wanted to love the game, but regretfully, the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really enjoyed this game but the bugs became a real problem. Sometimes I would have to reboot the whole level from the start because of it. I load a game saved and was met with an error pop up and no way to exit the game, alt f4 didn't work or task manager either, so had to reboot my pc just to get out of it. Despite this I got to the last level of the DLC and was hit with so many game breaking bugs I had to give up. The NPC would stop doing their tasks or refuse to access a station…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm really on the fence about whether to recommend or not, the mixed reviews are justified. I liked the story line and dark atmosphere is good, although it's little more scripted than I was expecting. However there are some definite flaws/aspects that stop me from really enjoying it. It's pretty heavy on the micro management, you have to constantly keep an eye on your Gord members otherwise they just stand around and don't do anything, especially after you have given them a specific command.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game tryes to be a city builder and an RTS and fails at both spectacularly!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Happy heavenly birthday, Gord Downey. I would like to think you and Bill Barilko are having a game of shinney somewhere. #TheHip #FiftyMissionCap
neutral · AI labelView post →Game was not good when it first came out, so those bad reviews are warranted. I like it now. A lot of the micro management is gone and it's just a fun city builder. I do think the custom scenarios are more fun than the campaign. Personally I like to play on the hardest difficulty and play the Hunter scenario where I hunt down "horrors" which are like the games version of a boss.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I purchased the game at 75% off and I'm glad I did. Look, at 75% off you will get some enjoyment out of it but it's still disappointing. The game is trying to do something great by mixing a lot of genres and game mechanics together. I think they could have done it but they have failed here. It feels like they just released it far too early. So many problems and immersion breaking features. In the end what tipped me over the line for a down vote was the forced diversity. Two white parents…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →https://store.steampowered.com/curator/36307721-Healthy-Criticism/ I think that Gord is a visually striking game. It ultimately falls short of delivering a comprehensive experience in successfully delivering content from all the pots it reaches in. It tries to be an RTS but fails in enabling sufficient micromanagement. It tries to be a colony sim but it fails in delivering metrics that do not feel bland and unintuitive. It tries to be an exploration survival but it fails and implementing…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →30XX is out! I'm EXTREMELY proud of being a part of this wonderful project, alongside Millie Wissar, Rachel Sim and Gord - and also one of the nicest, best, most competent dev team I have ever worked on. Hope you love playing this game as much as we at @ashellinthepit.bsky.social loved doing it!
neutral · AI labelView post →VANCOUVER GAME DEVS! We're hosting a speaker session on June 23 featuring 🎵 Gord from legendary audio house, A Shell In the Pit 🅰️ Jeremy & Elliot from AM I NIMA, one of the hottest new demos on Steam Tickets ➡️https://bit.ly/vgdsJUN2025 @ho-games-studio.bsky.social @ashellinthepit.bsky.social
neutral · AI labelView post →After the 4th mission in the campaign this game constantly crashes. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling game files, as well as verifying the game files. I expected a bit more from the devs. To make matters worse, you will not be entitled to a refund if you have spent more than 2 hours playing it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very good game if you enjoy a struggle. its a mix of city sim building and fighting for survival and so far it has a great campaign
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Refs for this horrendously called game tonight: Gord Dwyer, Mitch Dunning. Lines: CJ Murray, Ryan Gibbons #CBJ
neutral · AI labelView post →Village building with survival elements. Exploration and fighting. Trying your best to make good decisions and not feed the baby to the monsters. Pretty good game. Not sure why it got negative reviews. I have been enjoying it. Use pause and keep an eye on everyone in your village , save often. This game takes a while to build up a population, and you have to protect everybody well to keep them all alive. Your gatherers will go and find monsters and you have to recall them and counter…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not a bad story-driven base-building management game, but plagued with bugs. Characters seem to keep getting stuck with a door over their heads (open loot mode or flee mode?) and don't take orders anymore unless you click-spam them next to them.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game too small and shallow. Had so much promise but the Devs has long abandoned it. Avoid
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hi! Like a lot of friends/colleagues I am moving here to connect and chat all things #gamedev I'm a Producer and have worked on a few titles including Gord, Blasphemous 2, and *unannounced*. Also, Lil Gator Game and Blossom Tales 2 in a publishing role. Lets connect 💗 (pinning this!)
neutral · AI labelView post →Game is set in the Slavic Dark-fantasy world and someone had a bright idea to shove in DEI politics. Thanks to them it's easy to pick who to sacrifice each time :) As for the game itself: It's a colony simulator that is plagued by the micromanagement you have to do. This is somewhat offset by the fact you will never create a truly massive colony as the game is not programmed with having people in the double digits, nevertheless, having your characters stand in one spot after finishing an…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →yes ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ❤️ recommended: THE GOODS: - Story telling, - Art - atmosphere - Music - voice acting - exploration - inmersive gameplay - the aging and birth system (16 top population) also you gather survivors from jails - Taming system and a lot of monsters - Horror gods are fun to comply, also not very a big issue to handle (never fight them lol) - Invocation system (temple unlocks different casting speels for offense or support) - The lore content - a lot of replayability with custom…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dear All who read this! In my opinion, I had the opportunity to play an excellent game. Positive things :D I really like the basic setting, that the game is set after a medieval fantasy apocalypse where people are trying to survive. Positive things about the game. I think the story is very imaginative, the main characters are sympathetic, everyone has their place in the story, we get to know them and their goals and feelings so they become very sympathetic or unlikable. The dubbing was…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →On sale it's a good deal. It's a fun game that focuses more on managing your little Gord (Basically an outpost in size) and appealing to a Diety while exploring the world. Art direction is great for the dieties. My complaint is below but it doesn't take away from the fun I did have. It lacks any mods and it lacks much of anything in terms of endless play mode. You are very limited on size and the UI leaves much to be desired when it comes to organizing people / your troops. This is not…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
Posts are quoted from public profiles with links to the original. Want yours removed? Contact us.
