My earliest memory of puzzle style games was playing Snake on my Mom’s old Nokia 3310 with a Care Bear case on it which had more in common with a brick than it did my iPhone. She’d hand me the phone when in the waiting room of any appointment we had to wait for, and I would go to work trying to keep my snake from eating his own tail. It was good enough to get a little kid excited for sitting in the waiting room of the DMV. If a game can do that, it can do anything. Puzzle games in that style have fallen by the wayside in the 17 years or so since then, but Gorsd, by developer/publisher Springloaded, brought those memories back to the surface on the Xbox One with an interesting game that had me hooked the minute I started the tutorial.
Gorsd is mostly a puzzle based game where your character explores a combat area with puzzles and enemies behind every door. Start at normal difficulty, but I didn’t last long before I was deemed unworthy by the gods and sent back down to easy. Even on easy, Gorsd’s adventure mode was difficult and quite a bit of a challenge. As far as simple games go, this format is hard to beat and hard to put down. I sat down in my chair to start my adventure through Gorsd and hours passed before I realized how long I was sitting there. Although I’d rather not admit how few of the levels I beat in that time. My favorite part of this game is the really unique art style combined with 16 bit graphics that bring you back to classic gaming. The world is built on unique imagery with loading, winning, and losing screens that are so unique (and a bit unsettling the first time I saw them). There’s even a multiplayer mode you can unlock during your adventure through Gorsd.
The puzzle gameplay works by setting you and your robot enemies on opposite sides of the puzzle with the objective being to turn the puzzle 100% your color. That can be done in 2 ways, you can move your character over the entire map and you can destroy the enemy with one of your bullets and turn the section where they were hit your color. You have to be careful when you fire the bullets though because they bounce off the walls of the puzzle and can destroy you just like they destroy your enemies. Unfortunately, I learned that lesson the hard way. The system of bullets really gave this game the extra push it needed and ended up being my favorite dimension of the game. It is critical to this game that you use the bullets well and shoot around corners effectively, that goes a long way toward helping you defeat the enemies and stay worthy to the gods of Gorsd.
Overall, this game was a great way to kill a couple afternoons. It was strange, challenging, and I could feel that the Springloaded team really pushed to execute their vision for Gorsd. However, I don’t know that this game has a lot of replay value unless you are looking to beat the game at every difficulty. I don’t see myself picking up my Xbox controller and replaying this game on a boring Saturday afternoon, but Gorsd is a great challenge for anyone looking for a new puzzle game that can remind you of simpler games and simpler times.
7/10
Check Out the Gorsd Trailer:
Gorsd is available for consoles and PC via Steam.
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Xbox One Review
My first console was the original Playstation and I would play Twisted Metal every now and then but games didn't hook me until I played the original Halo at my friend's house. As soon as I picked up that controller, I knew I needed an Xbox and I had to have that game. Since those early Halo days, I've branched out and played any game I could find with a great story and memorable characters but Master Chief is still my favorite. @thenotoriousTGT on Twitter
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