While the dark lore of the game is captivating and very promising at the start, the gameplay is really raw and sometimes even boring. In fact, the outer shell of aesthetics and storyline is really the only selling point of the game, with its core being rather mediocre.

Exchanging items between the settlers is horribly ineffective, task scheduling often doesn't work as expected. Scouts... what's the point in them anyway (especially later in the game)? Progression of the settlers is also something I didn't quite understand. They sometimes age during one scenario, then rejuvenate in the next scenario. Some of them disappear from the selection menu, so it's really hard (and not very rewarding) to stick to uping a solid core.

Hopefully, the idea can be developed further into a more robust gameplay. For now, I would really not recommend this game, unless you're really into the genre.

Gord: It's tough for me to say whether this game is unsure of what it's trying to be, or if it is sure and it simply fails on the execution. Regardless, I think Gord is a lousy mess that'll quickly get you sick of its micromanagement.

The Steam reviews have made it clear this game is divisive, and for the first couple missions I was rooting for Team Gord. I enjoyed the premise of making a small, fortified settlement (or a “gord”, a real word that clearly some dev randomly found and became fanatically attached to) and, once comfortable, exploring the area marked by the main quest marker. I thought I had the hang of things and wondered why people were upset enough to give it “Mixed” reviews on Steam. It didn't take too long to find out.
I was only a few missions in on the Normal difficulty (there's also Easy, Hard, and Permadeath) when it got annoying, and what I'd consider the biggest annoyance to be is the sanity system. Everybody in my gord was losing their fucking minds when nothing was happening (and things were actually slowly improving!) and apparently a prerequisite for living in a swamp is you've got to be an alcoholic. Just this sanity system requires you to watch a dozen yellow meters like a hawk, rotating citizens in and out of the meadery so they can get plastered enough to stave off the shakes and get back to fishing. They won't do that on their own, either: once they're hammered enough to be “normal”, they won't get back to work without you telling them to. The bar only sits two (maybe upgrades improve this, I won't be finding out), meaning keeping everybody as sane/drunk as possible is a constant problem needing frequent attention, and that's just one of the many.

Though the sanity is my biggest gripe, others in the reviews point out what is really the first problem: the fact that they want you building a circular settlement. It's good they offer you the choice to define the shape (so you can make a square), but through the tutorials, a circle-shaped base is what they hammer into you. It's basically a trap as every building is square shaped, of course, meaning squares in a circle is going to leave a lot of wasted space. You obviously don't want wasted space. What was the thought process here?
I didn't mind the combat (some seem to hate it), it's quite simple with ranged or melee units, though annoyingly you can only have people don the fighter garb if you have gold to pay for it. Having an “army” -- even if it's just one guy wearing a helmet -- means your gold is constantly draining to pay for this fierce warrior's service, even when that “service” is currently falling asleep in the healing baths. You're incentivized to cross-train your entire gord's population so that you only have an army when you expressly need them, otherwise they're draining gold and therefore a waste; sorry, Achilles, but scouting is slow and expensive for our growing gord. Get back to heroically pulling mushrooms.
This isn't even necessarily a huge problem, but it's yet another thing you need to micromanage.

I didn't get very far and I felt like these things were adding up to an experience I can only describe as “annoying” with a dash of “dull”. There's potential here, and apparently the devs are listening to the gripes of reviewers, but I already want to move on. Maybe I'll check this out down the road, but I'd be fine with never seeing it again, too. The gord life is miserable, the alcoholism makes total sense, now.
I do not recommend Gord.