There’s nothing like taking your first steps into a shared world. Whether it was the early days of World of Warcraft that first drew you in, or games like NeverWinter Nights, EverQuest, Ultima Online, or Runescape, that tangible sense of exploration and discovery is what makes the best MMORPGs truly special. Nowadays, the focus is usually on guiding players in the early hours and helping them understand exactly what they need and where to go. Project: Gorgon is a throwback to that magical experience, allowing you to remove the guardrails and immerse yourself in a world of fantasy. 1.0 has just been released and developer Elder Game is launching a new server with a rather unique twist.
Project: Gorgon first entered early access in March 2018 and has been quietly working with a small but dedicated community ever since. Eight years later, the 1.0 release is here, bringing with it a slew of additions, including all-new character models, the introduction of the capital state helm, training up to level 100 “and above” for all combat and most crafting skills, and a variety of new systems.
Elder Games says it wants Project: Gorgon to “feel like you’re immersed in an entirely new virtual world.” Although it does not explain its secrets, it contains many natural mechanisms that can be understood intuitively. Each NPC has a specific goal and rewards players for helping them. Store owners maintain a permanent inventory, which allows them to purchase items that others have sold to their store. You can engrave items, write books, and leave notes for other adventurers to read.
Project: Gorgon has no predetermined classes. Instead, combat skills are “completely free-form” and can be learned as much as you like. It combines standard combat, such as sword and staff combat, with animal handling, necromancy, chemical combat, and hand-to-hand combat. In battle, you can also employ strategies such as fighting fire mages near the lake and extinguishing their flames by jumping into the water.
In some cases, your choices can have long-term consequences. As a druid, you can transform into various animals, but you must always vow to protect nature. If you adopt lycanthropy, you can transform into a powerful wolf, but you will be forced to do so for three days every full moon. Doing one of these will be permanent for your character, so decide carefully.
Speaking of animal transformations, another fun weakness of Project: Gorgon is that you can transform into all sorts of creatures through various potions, enemy spells, and events. These are not just temporary debuffs, but permanent effects. Whether it’s a cow, a deer, a spider, a pig, a fox, a spider, or something else, it’s still there unless you go through a fairly complicated process to get rid of it.
While these beast forms may technically be curses, they are also a viable way to play, with their own set of abilities. For example, a cow is an excellent tank that can fend off enemy attacks and heal itself by chewing its cud. Pigs play a support role, healing and buffing allies, driving enemies out on the battlefield, and even instilling fear in enemies with their squeals.
All this leads me to the new “Fresh Start Server” which is scheduled to open in the next few days. Elder Games announced this in response to the growing interest in Project: Gorgon 1.0 as a way to bridge the gap between newcomers and long-time veterans. “We’ve heard from many players that they won’t buy until they can start on a new, clean server.”
The new server is the same in all respects, but characters cannot move between them and the old realm. However, developers don’t stop there. In order to discourage experienced players from competing for the lead in the newly launched world, players who created an account before December 1, 2025 and have accumulated more than 40 hours of play time will be forced to transform into a pig for the first week. Unlike normal beast form, this effect cannot be canceled.
“We call this the ‘support pig’ effect,” Elder Game writes. “Pigs are a great group support skill, so we want you to help support newbies in this way (the actual action is up to you, of course). We want long-term players to understand what this is all about. It’s just another challenge for you to conquer. Even with this additional wrinkle, we expect to see level 50/50 players dancing in Servule by the end of the second day. But don’t let them be pigs.”
Project Gorgon 1.0 is available now on Steam with a 25% discount until Wednesday, February 4th. Buy now and expect to pay $18.74 / £15.74, or $24.99 / £20.99 after the sale ends.. You can also download a free demo that allows you to “explore large parts of the game and learn numerous skills.” You’re limited to level 15, but you can keep your character if you buy the full version.
If you are already playing on an existing server, you can continue playing with your old character. Elder Games says it has foregone a 1.0 wipe in 2021 because it became “obvious that too many players were ‘waiting for post-wipe'” and testing became too difficult. If you want to wait for the newly launched server, it should be available within the next week.
