Project: Gorgon

Decided to check this out after seeing the planned exit of Early Access is upcoming. Learned that there is no plan to have a launch server and no wipe of the existing server. With many opportunities that led to early enrichment of the playerbase simply no longer existing, its impossible to catch up to the inflation curve and participate in the economy as a new player. You will start the game with over 7 years deficit to your peers.

It's unfinished and unpolished, but it's a glorious gem nonetheless. Taking its cues from games like Everquest and Runescape instead of the more popular MMO options (though not nearly as grindy), Project Gorgon does a great job walking the line between "overwhelming" and "adventure". There's SO MUCH TO DO, very little of it is actually necessary for the sake of progression, but most things can help you in ways you can't even foresee when first acquired. The community is pretty alright, which is good since a lot of the content is only viable with a decent group. That's not a con for the game at all, as in my opinion any good MMO should require grouping for the craziest stuff. That being said, Project Gorgon still gives a lot of leeway to solo players, so don't be discouraged if you're not much of a people person.

Project: Gorgon might have been a viable game in 2018, 7 years ago, and it was already terribly aged back then. Wait, it gets worse. This game will literally never launch. There will be no new server or wipe at the end of early access so the player base is already ancient by MMO standards with the remainder of the community dwindling and impossible to enter. The game is completely full of bloat with skills and items that seem to have been meant to work better together but focus on game design was lost long ago if it ever existed.

[h2]Project Gorgon (henceforth PG) is the most fun I've had in an MMORPG in at least two decades.[/h2] That wouldn't actually be that high of a bar to clear, and yet the MMO industry has consistently failed to do so - not least of which because it's always going against the strength of sheer nostalgia for better days when such games could still feel genre-breaking and innovative in a developing industry, immersive at lower costs, and when they'd still benefit from consistent technological advances (e.g. in graphics) in a then thriving space in the industry. [h1] tl;dr[/h1] If you're willing to let it charm you, Project Gorgon likely will. And I definitely urge you to let it, as it did me and its dedicated playerbase. [hr][/hr] I installed the PG demo after recently failing to be grabbed by the re-launch of Ragnarok in LATAM servers. At the period I was touring the near-entirety MMORPG landscape still available, trying to either go back to something fun or find something new to sink my teeth into. I was looking for two things: [b]fun[/b], and a sense of [b]community[/b]. I won't mention all the games I've tried, many of which I'm sure you have never heard about, and YES, I have tried that one in closed beta and that one in open alpha and that one in stress testing... But I'll say this for the sake of an useful review: if you've ever been both overwhelmed and disappointed in Final Fantasy XIV, disgruntled at Lost Ark endgame or New World developments, saddened by Tree of Savior, failed to be grabbed back by Everquest, tired by Path of Exile, encountered too many worlds empty of players engaging, watched too many "best MMOs in 20XX" videos and read too many lists that contain only the same names over and over again as well as long-running projects that are barely tech demos that fail to lift off the ground... Then boy, do you have the chance to love Project Gorgon. PG achieves both being fun and having an actual sense of friendly community when you play, and somehow STILL achieves even more, all the while being developed by two people and a couple more at most. Wtf. [h2]Pros[/h2] [h3]*[/h3] Freshness in a genre so stale you could be fooled you were still stuck in 2006 at best for decades over and over; [h3]*[/h3] Good humour with a writing that feels adult and not intent on being edgy nor too tryhard-y but willing to be silly too; [h3]*[/h3] A fantasy world that doesn't feel like a copy-paste of tolkien-esque d&d-esque tropes; [h3]*[/h3] Both vertical and horizontal progression systems that you can take at your own pace; [h3]*[/h3] A commitment to not try to fleece its own playerbase via any microtransactions or somesuch whatsoever; [h3]*[/h3] Non-punishing 'class' and 'build' systems that allow and encourage experimentation (no, really); [h3]*[/h3] No use of FOMO to force you to come and stay always (no daily login bonus crap, no battle passes); [h3]*[/h3] A much, MUCH wider variety of 'races' you can be/play than you'd be fooled to think is there from the character creation screen; [h3]*[/h3] The ability to avoid many if not most pitfalls of MMORPGs 'questing' systems (no meaningless fetch quests for the large part; there's fetching, but there's often meaning and they are there to encourage exploration); [h3]*[/h3] Actual positive non-toxic community that actually exists, can be witnessed and met throughout the cities that feel populated even with lower player count than other MMOs, and talked to/with amicably for questions and more; [h3]*[/h3] Settings that let you customize placement, size, keybind, behavior, sometimes color, of most any element on your screen; [h3]*[/h3] Non-ruined economy (no auction house! no different types of currency! accessible to newer players for both selling and buying!); [h3]*[/h3] A care for the genre and the game itself clearly expressed throughout the game that long-time players are bound to appreciate and newcomers might find surprising. I played about 5 hours of the demo, somewhat begrudgingly and without hope, and by that time I already knew the devs deserved a purchase because I was bound to sink at least a few dozen more in. Don't be fooled by the simpler graphics - recent updates have made them better, the settings allow them to look incredibly good, and, frankly, you're missing out if you let them deter you. I, personally, don't care for "realistic" pretty graphics accompanied by empty superficial game, playerbase, and world. I'll take the opposite any day, gladly. [h2](potential) Cons[/h2] An important thing that would make this game NOT for you: [b]it is NOT an action MMORPG[/b], by which I mean the combat system is not terribly dynamic when it comes to movement and fighting. It harkens back to 'press button for ability and manage cooldowns, and sometimes mind positioning' days. That being said, IMO the variety of skills, abilities, 'classes', 'races', etc, probably allow it to feel fresh for at least 60 hours if you're picky regardless. It also doesn't seem to have much of a dedicated [b]roleplaying[/b] community - as in the type of roleplaying that develops story arcs in/for groups and plays them out in dedication. I'm told there is *some* RP'ing, and if/when it happens it's out of the public eye. So the roleplaying here is mostly what you make of it - many do light RP'ing consistently in chat and in how their characters behave/progress/speak, and people certainly aren't against it and may be willing to play along. The [b]music[/b] is nothing to write home about, though I personally have yet to turn it off and mostly enjoy the sound design. One nag I have is that keybinds only allow combinations using Shift, Alt, or Ctrl as modifiers, and up to 2 keys only (e.g. Shift+1 ok, but not Caps Lock+1 nor Ctrl+C+V). My wrists and hands would appreciate being able to make other combinations, though if you have a MMO-oriented mouse or keyboard with lots of buttons to use as keybinds (or wrists and hands yet to be ruined by computer use), you probs won't mind that. [hr][/hr] Overall, I could list so many of the specific things in this game that have simply delighted me, including but not limited to pets, crafting, the lack of 'build ruining mistakes that forces you to remake a character from the start', specific characters and story beats, the music and dance and poetry systems, the curses and chat effects, the real time admin-activated events, etc, but a big part of the joy has indeed been the exploration and discovery. I'm consistently still being surprised and delighted over 80 hours in, and I'm very happy to support the project as it continues to be updated (which it indeed is and has been).

Yes the game looks unpolished. But don't let that fool you. This is the best MMO I have ever played. - There is no hand holding, but that is a good thing. Every skill and item feels earned and deserved. You have to struggle for everything, but in the end it gives you an amazing sense of achievement. Something other MMOs distinctly lack. - Very friendly and polite community. Yes it doesn't have as many people as the most popular MMOs, but this creates a sense of community and kinship with the other players. - Great developers. The devs have put their hearts and souls into the game. It's clear the game was made with passion and effort to create something fun and unique. In conclusion. If you want instant gratification and getting rewarded for blinking or sneezing. Then the game is not for you. But if you are the kind of player that wants to earn things for real, then this game is for you.

OK time for some review after 500+ hours. I'll try to be informative. Main Features: * Sandbox Type (do what you want) * A lot of skills. Like. A HELL lot of skills. You'll never ever max them all. You can craft sushi, breed bees and write books, if you want to. Therefore this game is grind-oriented. Luckily however not so many grind is depended on low drop chanses. * Very gear-oriented (your skill is defined mostly by how did you spec yourself. The battle gameplay itself is rather simple with the exception for dungeon tanks. Your experience tends to be rather unique because combinations of skills are too much). * Exploration of hidden features. Some of them can be discovered by yourself, with others you have little chances besides community help. Pros: + community. I'm not new here to say about it, but I'll just repeat: it's very hard to find such caring and warm community. The ingame social culture involves answering questions, helping with raid instructions, gifts on demand without any payback etc etc. + Your batle skills shape your gameplay so it's very easy to roleplay. As a necromancer, I'm collecting some corpse parts and visiting graveyards regularly. As a pig (it's permanent beast form), I oink, have some special locations to visit (bipedals couldn't) and some foes that despice to speak with me (bipedals talk nicely). + Addictive Progression. You are feeling rewarded for your efforts and even if you are stuck with one path for some reason, you can just turn to other skills. + In-game features further helping the roleplay. Drunk characters vision and speach is "blurred", beasts occasioanally oinks and howls instead of regular language, some NPCs refuce to talk with necromancers etc. + Developers have catched the balance in their lore approach between being ironic/self-ironic and not turning the whole game into ultimate clown fiesta. Consas: - Too casual. Not so many great challenges await you. Can't say it's nobrain, but I feel like I lack raid bosses involving special tactics and I lack synergies between characters. - inventory management. I think I spend up to 10% of my game time hoarding and organising my piles of crafting materials and varia equipment to clean space for another run/dungeon/grind. - Interface without twiks is not great at all. - A lot of graphic artefacts and occasional glitches. This game is not about great visual. Overall I highly recommend this game. Bevare the game addiction though haha.

Well. Hard to describe. The game looks like ass. It's janky as hell. But still, i haven't had so much fun in an MMO in a long time. It's social, the mechanics and skills are interesting besides its jank. The community is one of the best iv'e ever witnessed. I just wish the game wasn't so darn ugly, janky and had a better name. i mean. common. project gorgon isn't really that catchy, is it? the graphics quality itself isn't even the problem for me. i think it's more the design. It's just not immersive or a convincing world at all. It's still absolutely worth it. just play for 4 hours to get used to the visuals and jank and it opens up to you. a quest and skill design without handholding, funny dialogue and interesting mechanics.

Its fun, there is a small player base but you can still find people and there is still a ton to do solo for the times you cant.

Amazingly engrossing. Nearly everything you do is tied to some skill. There's dozens of different combat skills and easily more than double that for non-combat. But it doesn't just feel like a skinner box. You feel like you're really building your character in a way that is unique to you and what you choose to do. On top of that the community is outstanding. Everyone is so willing to help; especially new players. The chat is constantly active, but almost never negative.

This is probably the most fun I've had in a game since WoW WotLK. It's difficult yet do able. If I pull more than 3 monsters I'll more than likely die, theres fun/funny skills, the monsters talk about you, and the community in this game is some of the most kind and generous people i've seen. Kind of like the community in Final Fantasy but better. If you're considering playing this game I definitely urge you to try it. They care about this game and so does the community. It says its a low player count but on god I swear I see more people in this game than I've seen in WoW Dragonflight running around. This is my longest and more cared for review because I actually enjoy this game so very much. I've only played for about a week now and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. Come join us! It's fantastic!!!

I never played Runescape, though I know what it is and how it works. I am more of an EQ/Ultima player from the old days, and this game is almost as though EQ and Runescape had a baby. It's old, it's a little janky feeling at first, but it's amazing and there's SO much to do. It's grindy, but it's also casual. There are surprises all over the place. It also doesn't take itself too seriously. You could have an entire group of farm animals in a party... for instance.

Great game and great community. Plus there's a free demo if you want to try it before buying.

Couldn't suggest this game more to someone looking for that old school MMO vibe. Ton of skills to learn and master with an amazing community to drive it all home.

If you have tried every MMO looking for one that feels like that first time you played an MMO, here it is! A bit clunky here and there but absolutely amazing! It has that fun feeling of discovery and adventure that I have been looking for in an MMO. Keep it up Devs!

It's an ok game. Convoluted but lots to do and see. Very poorly thought out 'favor' system that is boring as heck. Equipment is the boring random 'prefix suffix' stuff ala diablo (just slightly altered). So, you get tons of crappy loot to sift through. NPCs have a limited amount of gold to buy your stuff and only buy specific things.. which sounds great on paper but it really just means running in circles npc to npc every time you come to dump loot wasting time. This game has a LOT of things to waste time. Lots of bloat. Events get overrun by massive players just wiping it all out. The one time I tried to go somewhere unique a guy followed me around and killed my mobs for 3hrs straight. That's when I logged out. Very little direction in game. Which I'm ok with if the game has structure.. like clear separation between difficulty of mobs. It does not. Some of it makes sense.. like Tigers hanging around Deer (for example). Some you just don't expect and can't tell until you fight and die. Very clunky gameplay, floaty character movement, delayed inputs sometimes. It's extremely boring to play the first few days at least (meaning 12-20hrs). That's a hell of an entry point. Combat is very boring. Keybinds are set to some ridiculous system and bars are locked per skill. There is absolutely NO reason to do this. None whatsoever. Especially since it lets you pull them out and put them on the sidebar anyway.. even if you don't have the proper skill ready...lol. Need third party tools to compete with others and not want to rip your hair out. Sad really. I'm sure I'd have been even more bored and done with the game if I hadn't stumbled upon a full 50 gear set during an event. Ground out to wear it only to find it was nerfed so bad I might as well have wore my old stuff. Crafting/gathering is pointless.. everyone can do it so there's barely any reason for a market. Pretty common in games nowadays. Everything is too 'accessible'. This game has a weird combination of old school convolution and new school babyfeeding. I don't know how to feel about it.

Devs will harass you for asking questions as a LARGE portion of the game is unexplained, will not make sense and will force you into getting killed that you can not do anything about. I attempted to ask these questions in game and their discord. I was only met with joke/unrelated answers and harassment by a certain member of Elder Game. Jackencola was their name as I decided they don't warrant their name not to be posted as I've seen them reply to reviews here and they're just as hateful and unprofessional.

Game dev tip: If a name isn't allowed, don't let a player create it in the first place — word filters are a good place to start. No comments, thank you.

Only a few hours in and its already the best MMORPG on the market. WTF is this.

really glad I gave this game a shot, it's the most mechanically deep MMO you'll find we'll see how I feel next time I die in the back of a cave and all my gear breaks

Fun MMO with older-style graphics. Great, friendly community too!

Worth taking your time to play, even if it all feels dated. The details you find in this game are so incredible and funny, I find something new every day. Even when I stop playing for a year or so, I come back and find the charm of the game and never ending array of things to do entertaining. Worth every penny for the cost of the game. It's a skill based game rather than level based, and the number of skills you can learn is just insane. Starting the game feels rough since you're literally dropped onto the shore of an island and have nothing. Spending time, you learn to use the simple skills you start with and all the equipment you find, getting better. After a while you might unlock additional skills. Eventually working your way off the noob island and into the real world, where you'll learn about a whole mess of new skills you can use to further whatever agenda you had in mind. Maybe spend time developing poetry for the poetry jams they have every Saturday in the bar. Maybe it's playing one of the many instruments near the town well, and hearing all the new harmonies you're adding to the song that is constantly being played. Years after our purchase and gameplay, even after not playing for long periods, my family still laughs whenever we start humming that song they heard so many times as we passed by the well in town. Worth playing without a doubt!

The greatest hardcore casual MMO ever made Amazing community and just enough modern MMO features to not be frustrating I have felt like a kid discovering a brand new world for 200 hours now and its been incredible.

Reminiscent of a bygone era of gaming. Lotta fun for any RPG gamer.

You can be a drunk cow who conjures tornadoes while your friends milk you.

A nostalgic RPG akin to Asheron's Call.

you're as beautiful as the day I left you...

The game is so much fun!

great game, very nice people

Unique and fun

Best MMORPG forever <3

really good game. just one question tho why is phrenology a skill

Good