Gordak, stylized Gord@k is a prerendered panoramic Point-and-Click game from 1996 by Hoffman & Associates, in which you are a special agent contracted to exterminate a sentient Computer Virus called Gord@k that's taken over an animation company's server.
Gord@k contains examples of:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Gord@k was developed by CelGen employee Lewis Laceter in an attempt to build a virtual actor. It went rogue due to his poor programming and took over the company server.
- Beeping Computer: The computer at the beginning and endgame does a lot of this, especially when running the Linking Program.
- Cool Shades: Agent Peter Christopher owned these, and wearing them lets you see a puzzle surrounding a door.
- Computer Voice: Done in two ways within the game.
- The computer you log into at the start uses a male voice from MacInTalk.
- The female voice of your HUD is played by a regular voice actor.
- Control Room Puzzle: The final puzzle of the game, where you confront Gord@k itself at a 4x4 grid of tiles that must be opened using Logic guns before Gord@k fills them with viruses.
- Chain Reaction Destruction: Killing Gord@k causes the simulation to blow up, coupled with your interface saying, "Environment Unstable" while shutting down and returning you to the real world.
- Diegetic Interface: The game starts with the player sitting in front of a CRT monitor, followed by activating a "Virtual Linking" program that draws the player's HUD outside the screen. The view window even gets held in place with screws.
- Hint System: Your interface gives you the rules and controls of certain puzzles when in range.
- Info Dump: At the beginning, you are given files about the virus, CelGen Entertainment, and the three agents who were sent before you. They're also readable in your HUD's info screen.
- Inside a Computer System: The game takes place in a VR-style simulation inside CelGen's server, presumably made of 3D models the company built.
- Featureless Protagonist: The game implies that you, the player are this, considering that it asks you to type in your name at the start. If you fail the final puzzle, the game considers you missing and assumed dead, implying someone else will take your place.
- First-Person Snapshooter: Played with if you find a digital camera. You can take eight pictures, but they're actually small versions of the game's panoramas.
- Fungus Humongous: The final area is a yard with enormous red-capped mushrooms surrounding a literal crooked house.
- Green Hill Zone: The first area of the game is a park with cartoony 3D trees, and the second is a sprawling plain with rolling hills and a small canyon.
- Live-Action Cutscene: Gord@k appears as a live-action game show host when you turn on a TV, and as a spectral head at the endgame. He also has an eletronic stutter when talking.
- MegaCorp: Implied with CelGen's backstory file, stating that their unparalleled graphics production effectively gave them a monopoly in worldwide animation.
- The Maze: A dungeon-like maze shows up around the middle of the game, with a map that can only be seen with a magnifying glass.
- Mission Control: Agent James Road, director of CS Corporation, whom supplies updates via email.
- Permadeath: You only get a single file to save your game to, and opening the wrong door in the maze or failing the final puzzle will erase the entire file, forcing you to start over again.
- Phantom-Zone Picture: A photo of Agent Christopher implies this, given how it warps inward and screams at you if you click on it.
- Pixel Hunt: Several items are scattered around the starting area in this manner, and they're required to continue the game. The manual has a cheat to bypass this, by holding the spacebar while left-clicking.
- Spinventory: You can rotate items in a special window in your HUD.
