GORSD (PS4)

Creative and disturbing are two words that perfectly describe Springloaded's indie release, GORSD. Best likened to a Splatoon-like horror game of ancient Lovecraftian proportions this single player puzzle based adventure, and it's multiplayer counterpart brings something new to the table the likes of which I've never seen. With seven hours of gameplay in the singleplayer adventure along with eight different types of fill in the line competitive challenges you'll find either frustration or satisfaction in your failure or completion of the given objectives. As you trudge along in the guise of a womb-eye borne protagonist with tiny tentacles, or a bleeding worm mercifully spared death by the gods you'll find that the colored trail you leave behind, and the single bullet you can shoot, catch, and guide are your only means to victory within the gauntlet of trials set before you. Through the trials that are setup by the GORSD gods themselves within the world's temples that you find yourself in you'll have to prove your worth, or die trying. Again, and again and again ... It is a true testament of skills against friend or AI foe that will most certainly require your ability to master the mechanics.

GORSD and it's trippy cryptic contents is an experience that borders on insanity, and genius. Though the gimmick of the game, and the mechanics are explained before each given challenge and at the start everything else included, from the character you play as to the hideous worm-like creatures you converse with, are shrouded in mystery. A mystery heightened even further by an illuminated language, and curiously construed messages between the odd cast of characters. 

As the pint sized pink protagonist born of a womb-eye in a spurting of gore, within the ancient world of GORSD, you'll find that you have at your disposal a handful of actions that can be used to your benefit. Each of which apply to the 8 different types of challenges found in various temple locations, and the rooms therein. You can move along set pathways in a variety of objective based challenges to fill in the lines with your trail of color or you can use the lines and intersections themselves along with bullet barriers and other highlighted beacons to out maneuver and out cover your competition. That, and shoot your bullet in a guided manner to aid in your colorful attempt at what amounts to competitive graffiti. Whether it be against local players or the AI opponents. 

In the challenges given you'll find an assortment of different rules that must be followed in order to secure a victory. These rules all revolve around the use of the single bullet, and the trail of color that you can produce. Among the challenges you'll find standard, domination, hunter, time puzzle, TDM, kill count, and a few others. Standard challenges will require that you cover an entire playing field of lines with your color while other players or bots try to fill it in with their color. Using your bullet you can temporarily kill off players or bots causing them to have to respawn to a timer. Giving you the chance to cover more ground. The bullet in your possession can also be fired into adjacent lots, steered, and even shot across gaps to complete out of reach lanes that lie before you. The bullet will bounce back if it strikes a dead end though, and in this state can be caught by pressing R1. Catching the rebounding bullet will afford you another shot to use against enemies or in the aiding of completing more of the lanes in front of you with your color.

Different from standard challenges is the territorial domination challenge. In domination the objective is to complete lines surrounding blocked off tiles, and maintain those tiles under your color for as long as possible for points. Domination challenges last a couple of rounds, and will award the player or bot with the most points the victory. You can, as before, use the bullet to kill enemies or to help in the coverage of your color. Deviating from the usual color antics the hunter challenges are all about covering the most area before a death. In each round of the challenge one player or bot will be able to paint the lanes while the other tries to kill the painting player. In the end, on the final round, the player with the most percentage of the map covered will win. 

Adding a time rush mode into the mix the time puzzle challenge will have you going solo against the timer as you try to fully fill in the complete map's worth of lines. This requires smart use of the bullet, and guidance thereof as well as your own trail. Team Deathmatch is also a part of the competitive package of GORSD, and is nothing to be shrugged at. This challenge type is just as it sounds, but with it's own take on the inspired rules. To win this challenge that awards trophies per each of the three rounds you, and your team will need to out shoot your opponents. The only thing standing between you and them is the map lanes, and intersections as well as bullet absorption portals that will stop bullets in their tracks. The bullet shields doubling as a way to escape what would otherwise be an unfortunate end. In the end the player/team that wins the most rounds earns the victory. There is no respawn here. In a somewhat similar fashion, albeit not as one shot as TDM, there exists a challenge known as kill count. This challenge requires that the player or team score a certain amount of kills before the enemy does. Respawns are on during this challenge type. As previously mentioned there are a couple more modes awaiting your discovery, and each adding to the content value of this competitive package deal. Something to look forward to should you be interested.

The multiplayer ...

While I was unable to delve into the multiplayer portion of the game I do know there's a hefty amount of maps to play on, and rules that can be tweaked for local party play. The goals, and challenge types fairly much stay the same as in the adventure mode. It should be stated that in adventure mode you are progressing through temples filled with rooms that house the challenges. Rooms where difficulty can be changed, and where your death total is accounted for, for record sake. Completing the challenge rooms will unlock other areas that lead to more challenges, and GORSD god encounters. Further adding to the enigmatic lore, and mystery surrounding the creatures of the game. Such as the lipstick wearing Satan goat worm that you see on the cover, lol!

The presentation ...

For what it is, and the price asked this game looks and sounds bloody brilliant. It is done up with the usual pixels, and features it's own unique art style. A sort of top down world with odd Lovecraftian monoliths, and beings that are indescribably grotesque. It also has it's own unique special effects some of which border on being attempts at hypnotizing the audience with creepy images presented in a psychedelic manner. As far as the soundtrack goes it seems to have some heavy metal inspired tracks that fit oddly in with the visual design. It reminds me of oldschool heavy metal albums, in a way. The art, and the music.

The verdict ...

I had a sneak peek at the PSN store user ratings before I typed up this review, and I feel the 2 stars given is an unjust assessment of this game's value. I think the developer did good including a 7 hour singleplayer adventure mode, and side multiplayer content. I personally thought the gameplay, and it's gimmicks were cool. I think where people lost interest though is in the game's steep learning curve. That and the one and done nature of the game outside of local play. The game is one you definitely have to get used to. Even on easy difficulty things are very challenging. The difference between easy, and normal basically being respawn times, enemy count, and map layout. You have to learn how to best deploy the bullet, and how to best navigate the lanes on each map, and do so while adhering to the additional rules of each challenge. You get beyond that and you can, at the very least, get your money's worth out of the adventure mode. As far as recommendation goes I think it's alright for the price. That price being $16.99. It's a good party game if you've got friends to play locally with, and a good singplayer adventure for those who like indie game oddities.