Unlike the vignette Swampstar by independent collective Geography of Robots, Norco is too much of a game to spare it from a rating in favor of an appreciation as a piece of art on its own and in that context, it might look like I disagree with a majority of critics, giving the interactive amalgam of an RPG and a Visual Novel raving reviews, but I will actually not be able to say much different about it. My astonishing conclusion though is, that I'm still not all that impressed.

In theory, alternate Louisiana in Norco could be a fictional alien world to me just like Neo Tokyo or a city on Mars. I was even joking if the title describes narcotics for Trollans until I found out it was actually a brand name for pain medication. Little did I know, however, that Norco is also an actual census-designated place in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana that derived its name from the New Orleans Refining Company and is home to a major Shell manufacturing complex. I'm learning every day.

You don't have to think much about why the company in the game Norco is called Shield and with the Shell facility having experienced catastrophic explosions twice the story sure appears less far fetched. I recommend reading the Honeysweat interview with GoR's Yutsi if you'd like to know more on his growing up in sight of that factory, comparing it to Midgar in the world of Final Fantasy.

Even without knowing Norco specifically, I was of course aware of the condition our world is in and I think it's hard to not see how close the narration stays with things happening in reality. It sure is condensed and emphasized, but we have everything from AI to ponzi schemes, messed up religious beliefs, unregulated capitalism or privately organized space travel. It's not like Orwell is predicting the future a couple of decades away, it's more like holding up a mirror, showing us the dystopia we're creating for tomorrow or a day after.

Born and raised in a small town bordered by the dilapidated ruins of an industry, having watched a company burning down to the foundations and knowing the history of a group buying out farmers to build a production plant in the area, I can nothing but relate to protagonist Kay returning to Norco. It's what you recognize best at a carnival. There are those who are too young to escape and those who never made it out, but then there are other people in their thirties or rather forties, returning to family business - taking care of parents or bringing up children of their own in an environment that appears at least more family friendly than the big city.

For Kay it's late. She has tried to cut loose and ignored her cancer infested mother trying to get in touch. Time doesn't stand still when you're away and as much things don't seem to change as long as you're there, everything is weirdly different once you turned your back and tried to start a life of your own independently.

Norco uses pixel art to illustrate this story and I don't really understand how this can be seen as innovation, because digitizing photographs for instance is something going back to the old Amiga days at least. It's not ugly at all, but, especially with the retro trend of recent years, something I'd rather call standard opposite to some of the reviews I've read. Recreating that off grid Amiga feeling especially with the first person solo adventure layout is another cup of Grog.

I've mentioned it before in my review for One Night Stand, when playing Our World Is Ended as one of my first actual visual novels, I was missing interaction with the screen other than clicking text. Despite being described as a point'n'click I was lucky to read up enough on Norco before to not expect it being the familiar third person story puzzle, so I was merely amazed at first that Norco was allowing me to dive into the scenery as much as I'd define the character by text choices.

One thing I also enjoyed was the use of a mindmap to elaborate a thought process and reflect on the information received via dialogue, even though it often rather bothered me as doubling what I already understood. That tracking though also led to me speeding up reading to pass the character's annoying mumble (doesn't have to be voiced, but please…) and therefore forgetting key information I would have needed to authenticate for additional lore via the follow up Shield Nights (available for free on itch.io) that seems to consist mostly from background information I dug out elsewhere or could make sense of on my own, so I'm not tempted to replay Norco just to read some more liner notes.

The reason I'm not keen on revisiting Norco, not even to check for different character developments rather than the endings I think I caught the best from anyway, is that despite its captivating atmosphere it wasn't that much of a revelation to me. The fictional elements are better seen as surreal than to be dissected for a consistent explanation and the mood isn't the most welcoming happy place, so that adding an awkward fight system (autofight available after patch), clumsy boat ride or text adventure staircase mechanics acts as a repellent on me.

From a standpoint of classic graphic adventure gameplay Norco isn't very good even after the added expert mode. Most of the time it's either just not challenging, which is fine as long the plot goes on, or it's nerve wrecking in execution, which is destroying the flow. What Geography of Robots don't understand is guiding the player through puzzles alongside with the narration to unfold information seamlessly.

Ironically the distributor Raw Fury also has Kathy Rain and Whispers of a Machine by Clifftop Games in their catalog and Norco would fit perfectly as the spiritual tie in I was wishing for between those two brilliant point'n'click adventures. It's almost frightening how precise Norco combines ethereal elements from the first and a probably more obvious futuristic technology from the latter to another mystery plot. It's possible that makes me biased, but I'm actually more dreaming of how exchange of expertise between those indie developers could be a benefit to all of us.

With a splendid post-industrial depressive black metal track scoring the rolling credits it was rather a relief to end this adventure. I couldn't stop playing but didn't really enjoy Norco in the true sense of the word. For that, it's too much a reminder how fucked up this world is, it's too close to the somber atmosphere of a rat's nest I tried to escape but always returned to somehow after traveling around no matter how long. It also causes awareness, not only for losses of the past, but also how my parents are becoming older, giving me a hard time deciding to move to the other end of the country for an actually awaiting future.

Told from both the perspectives of Kay and her mother with party members joining on and off Norco to me is a maelstrom that should at least offer satisfaction by putting some things in order, though it treats its puzzles rather as part of a minigame cocktail, so you won't just click text and look at some scenic pictures. I always appreciate media including toilet needs, but I would have required a little more than a few gags to possibly miss while exploring the environment.

It feels harsh to say after an otherwise enthralling story, but maybe that's what you get after spawning from a multimedia documentary by a pseudonym collective that might not yet have the experience to make a full grown game rather than a gaming part within the initial project. It's sad that Norco could have been the equivalent to calling Grave of the Fireflies the best anime you never want to watch again, but it wasn't meant to be. It's far from being comparable as a full emotional experience.

For that reason and hoping Geography of Robots can find a way to create a more wholesome product, I don't even think their demo End Millennium is a step in the wrong direction. Maybe writing is their strongest capability, so focusing on a text adventure would be a logical conclusion until they find support in puzzle design should they want to attempt the genre at all.

Sure, Norco can also function as an exercise for the collective to improve on, but then we should not hype for something that isn't present. I wouldn't mind supporting them with my purchase as much, had I been downloading the game from a niche indie platform, but I bought it from a major distributor for way above my average price.

My expectations weren't sky high and maybe I'm wrong when so many others seem to love it anyway, but I would rather have preferred the packaging to say "This is the best we can do at the moment, support us so we can improve on our promising art", because that's what it comes down to. And with that in mind it's something like an unpolished gem for an atmosphere of desolation and despair, justifying a generous playthrough.

Check out more of my backloggd adventure reviews for games like:

Full Throttle Remastered
Detective Gallo
Broken Age
Thimbleweed Park
Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure

My read on Norco, is that, in some places more than others, we live in such a fallen world that extreme psychosis is the only vector we have to make sense of existence.
v
v
v
v
v
I hope no one takes offense to this, I say this with love and sympathy but: boy is the southeastern corner of the United States a flaming hell climate. People who live there are built different.

- Im gonna lead with my most negative thought: I think pure blood adventure games really really struggle to bring the fun. Norco tends to have good pacing, and my penchant to go off-critical path saved me some grief - but boy is it just sort of not fun to do arbitrary puzzles. Idk, maybe this sounds like bad advice but I would have been fine if Norco was just a VN front to back. I dont think you need to make gameplay if you dont have good gameplay in mind. Idk, idk.

- I think everyone knows this, but Norcos got great writing. I was expecting a more non-fictional romp of some kind and was surprised to find (in the games own words) “some Da Vinci Code” shit. There is a slight “magic realism” thing going on a la Kentucky Route Zero but what this really is, is a mystery thriller in a, ahem, ”swamppunk” alternate near-future setting.

- Whats also unexpected, is that Norcos pretty funny. The game ostensibly takes place in a very dour world in a region thats fairly ready to just give up - but in that blase mindspace there is permission to get silly. The world around them is already absurd, why not start a cult where everyone is called Garrett? Why not do some after hours clowning? An honest world is a rotten long-expired dream, whats left to do but channel some levity?

- I dont want to labor this thought too much, but Norco also depicts some moments of genuine sadness. A melancholy sky hangs over everything that happens in Norco and once and awhile someone says a few words that blow the clouds away to give you a brief glimpse into the void behind it.

Sights & Sounds
- Interestingly stylized pixel art that oscillates between scenes of dystopian cyberpunk decay and oddly beautiful--but often creepy--psychedelic scenes
- The music is fantastic. The credits song is a banger and worth sticking around for

Story & Vibes
- This game pulls off "weird" well. The narrative is cohesive and complete, just strange
- There's imagery and subject matter that some may find disturbing, but those facets of the game lend themselves well to plot's themes. I wouldn't call it tasteful, but it is consistent with the game's world
- Like other well-crafted adventure game worlds, the setting feels like another character. You're often given the opportunity to look at the skyline during important moments, and it's worth doing
- Despite the dour themes investigating the various catastrophic results of unfettered capitalism, the game is full of humor. If you explore enough, you'll find extended gross-out gags, darkly funny situations, and some incredibly absurd scenes

Playability & Replayability
- It's a story-focused point-and-click adventure game. You can imagine the gameplay
- The story is a lot to process, so I'm not itching to jump back in anytime soon. Wouldn't mind getting the remaining achievements someday, though

Overall Impressions & Performance
- Ran perfectly, no bugs. Won't tax your hardware too badly
- Should only take 5-7 hours to beat

Final Verdict
- 8.5/10. It's a great story. If you're into adventure games, this is one of the best of the year so far

ethereal and epiphanous; hauntingly religious, and ominously intriguing. Norco dares to tell a story that feels unlike any game before. its near-future pseudo-cyberpunk setting depicts the very-real city of Norco, Louisiana under the regime of the very-real supercorporation, Shell. its so grounded such that its dystopic themes and outcomes feel... possible, and acts as an exaggerated account of the real-life experiences of people living in the shadow of a domineering corporation, effectively in charge of many aspects of their lives. different from the fantastical and paradoxically compelling setting of "traditional cyberpunk", whose themes are understandably lost on most.

as the mystery unfolds - non-linear and often enigmatic - we approach the absurd. a government conspiracy, a religious cult, a biological abomination. thematically, the game deals with life and truth under an extreme capitalist force, and mankind's panic and response through religion. to seek a way out, to seek salvation, or maybe just seek quick answers in a complicated world.

gameplay-wise, its reminiscent of Kojima's SNATCHER, even the puzzles are the same style of cryptic. a great game, but sometimes obtuse. Norco can be obtuse, but not as bad.

in summation - Norco is a WEIRD game. it is FREAKY and FUNNY. it's not for everyone, but if you liked anything that I said, I recommend CHECKING it OUT.

Ao longo de 2022, vários títulos de peso foram soltados, e no meio desses tantos, alguns jogos independentes passam despercebidos pelo público. Dentre esses, NORCO é um jogo que definitivamente precisamos lembrar e trazer a tona sempre que possível.
Ambientado em Norco, uma CDP em New Orleans na Louisiana, o Point'n Click de estreia do estúdio Geography of Robots coloca você na pele de Kay, um (a) ex residente de Norco que saiu pela vida em busca de respostas filosóficas internas e refletir o seu passado, mas volta quando recebe a notícia da morte de sua mãe, que por sua vez, trabalhava em uma refinaria de petróleo situada nas proximidades da comunidade. Em termos técnicos, NORCO é admirável, cheio de mecânicas interessantes, uma Pixel Art realmente admirável e uma trilha sonora muito boa, além de alternar bem e de forma coesa épocas diferente em uma mesma linha de gameplay. O jogo realmente é incrível.

Todo o jogo é melancólico e busca principalmente com um certo teor de realismo mágico e muita originalidade, propor uma reflexão sobre os males do capitalismo e da indústria predatória. NORCO é um retrato melancólico de todas as feridas da sociedade estadunidense, o fanatismo religioso, colapso econômico, desigualdade social, escravidão, destruição do planeta. Tudo aqui respira melancolia, e mesmo não conhecendo a região real de Norco, toda a região dos subúrbios de New Orleans são familiares e imersivas. É o retrato da decadência e da tristeza de uma comunidade que convive com isso e é afetada por todo o contexto social citado. Um clássico, merece ser lembrado por gerações.

There's plenty of well-written games out there. But it's rare to run into amazingly written ones. Games where just the prose, coupled with some great audiovisual presentation of course, can get you so deeply enthralled that you forget everything else and become a sponge, trying to absorb as much of its world as you can. Games where you feel like you everything you do holds its own little meaning.

Norco is one such game, but it's also imperfect, in many ways. None that are immediately apparent, Norco sounds, looks and reads great. But there's a couple things that feel like they don't belong. There's combat, for starters. You'll get in about... four, five fights in the whole game? They're all really easy and not a bother, it's just weird. The story feels oddly paced, disinterested in its main plot at first, only to become much more linear and fast-paced near the halfway point. There's still a good amount of things you can miss, but the freedom of choice that I really fucked with vanishes kinda quickly.

Perhaps the biggest flaw is that the game's themes, as pointed out by others, don't feel as cohesive as they should. The first half of the game is clearly about modern society and capitalism, while the second is more spiritual and symbolic (with a long detour in the middle about cults, which I feel is the worst part of the game). Both of those two halves, taken individually, are executed in a pretty gnarly way, but when looked at in the context of a single story, I genuinely struggle to see a throughline.

And that's a damn shame, because I'm a loser who likes to feel smart, and when I don't "get it", I feel non-smart. It's hard for me to let go of the idea that every game needs to "mean" something. So, let's try, spoilers ahead. I think this is a game about trying to find your own purpose and how difficult and possibly fruitless it is in today's world. The protagonist's mother gives up her past as a free spirit to try and make some dough for her family in her last days. Million, the family robot, can't ultimately escape her programmed purpose (I think? She deserved a better conclusion man, she was so cool and then got killed off abruptly. A fucking crime I tell ya). The Garrets are all looking for some purpose in the most toxic way, first starting some cult and eventually just trying to shoot themselves into space. Superduck is a hive mind of gigantic proportions, bending nature to its will, and is punished with a horrible death. Pawpaw forces all of your family into some preordained Da Vinci Code religious bullshit, with your final action being to just escape from it. It's about trying to find a little bit of freedom in a world that that keeps applying a more and more suffocating stranglehold on to you.

Or you know, it's about something else and I just made all of the above up. Even if I'm right, I don't know if it's supposed to end on a more hopeful note, or a sour one. Norco hurts, because it's so close to being an absolute classic for me, so close to having just the right symbolism. Or maybe I'm the one who's so close to finding the perfect way to look at it to let it blow my mind as it deserves. I don't know.

"We're all trapped in this limbo. A long twilight that bleeds out to the edges of time where even the most fantastic things become banal. This grey blanket of stale time. Stagnant, lonely time. To puncture it... To punch a hole in it. I understand the appeal. I do."

Visually and musically an absolute vibe. The tone is fairly bleak but was also shockingly funny. The gameplay is point and click adventure with some light turn based combat. Thankfully you aren't pixel hunting as by default everything you can interact with is highlighted. As for the combat, I really wish there was something more too it. It is so undemanding that I wonder why it was even added.

I would say that the visuals and soundtrack are what I'll remember this game for, rather than any particular parts of the narrative. Chex2Cash is going into a playlist ASAP.

The pixel art in this narrative point-and-click adventure game is some of the best and most intricate I've ever seen. This game understands and parodies internet culture and the alt-right in a way I've never seen in a game before. The story, which starts off very personal, then focuses more on cyberpunk themes and then drifts into the metaphysical, really won me over. Dialogue was wonderfully written, the humor was on point but when the game wanted to be serious, I could take it seriously - a fine line that not every game manages to walk. And the atmosphere of dirty, run-down cyberpunk New Orleans was superbly realized. Heavy themes such as racism and the consequences of colonization also find their place here and are handled with the necessary sensitivity....really great game

Really really love the art and writing in this game. Visual presentation goes hard and sells some of the characters and humor. Can't give it a 5/5 for two main reasons. One, because there were some parts where the narrative dragged and felt like I was just slogging to the next big part of the story. And two, I love adventure game puzzles (within reason), but this felt more like a visual novel with the trappings of an adventure game. Most notably, I never felt for a single moment like I didn't know exactly what I was supposed to do next. Overall, extremely solid indie story game, and I'll be keeping an eye on what Yuts writes in the future.

NORCO is a tricky one. It simultaneously has some of the best ambiance in point and click games to date - its southern gothic industrial-core setting managed to make me nostalgic for something I never lived through (I tentatively put it alongside Kentucky Route Zero in this regard) - and a mind bending story about faith, religion, capitalism and coming to terms with oneself that's part beautiful, part cathartic and part harrowing.

It also has some of the most questionable gameplay decisions I've seen in games of this genre, mainly the combat sections which are completely unnecessary and inconsequential, and some basic point and click "going back and forth" to pad out for more content. Sure, some of it helps you get even more immersed into the game, but the morsels of lore you gather along the way sometimes don't pay off the filler (I'm looking at you, city hall elevator puzzle).

The game is wonderful, but would've been better if it was just a straightforward point & click interactive novel.

Great humor, great ambiance, gorgeous pixel are visuals and a great story that will fry your brain during its last act, whose themes will surely stay in my thoughts for quite some time.

A game I just loved the whole vibe of, from the melancholic moments to the more humorous situations. I was immediately enamored by the sci-fi dystopian swampy Louisiana, a setting I did not see before. All presented with gorgeous pixel art and equally good sounding music. Unfortunately with continuing playtime the game started to fall a bit flat for me. I liked the intimate first part more than the second, where spiritual elements begin to dominate the story. And albeit ending in a picturesque feverish dream, which I won't forget, the game kinda lost me. Still highly recommended.

Glorious realization of aesthetic and narrative in the point and click format.

This game evokes the spirit of "NOLAish" (it's more about the folks who are in the surrounding areas) in a way that is pitch perfect to me. (I lived in New Orleans for seven years so I might be wrong!)

The characters are the right type of weird and disgusting to already make the narrative one worth indulging in. Add in a genuinely unique cyberpunk story and some batshit direction and you have an excellent and compelling story.

The story works well enough on its own but it is painted with perfect visuals and audio. The dreary synths capture the mood of the game perfectly and the pixel art captures the Southern Louisiana ageless look in a way that perfectly and subtlety suggest we are several decades in the future.

The puzzles in the gameplay are many steps down from dumb old adventure game logic but also a step up from "I just need to click this thing". They're maybe modern Resident Evil in difficulty if that makes sense. Which felt good to me! I feel like adventure games (and I think this is JRPGs as well) are mostly memorable for their worlds and vibes and this level of puzzle allows you to exist in the world and interact with it interestingly, without resorting to clicking on every nook and cranny.

I got the platinum trophy on PS5 and as an added extra amazing thing this game does there is a "Chapter Select" feature which gives you bookmarks for every 30 minutes of gameplay or so. So you can go back and get all the achievements/ see alternate scenes with ease.

Just a marvelous media product with a genuinely great cyberpunk story and untouchable visuals and audio.

modern cosmic horror. i had the pleasure of visiting new orleans for a week once, and while i was there all i could think about was the disconnect between the sort of spirituality being advertised to tourists and the possibility of another world beneath all the cracks in the pavement. i wrote down these journals in the style of a lovecraftian protagonist. it was fun! so you can imagine my delight at seeing a game that is not only set in the bayou, but also knows how to construct and make rich a version of it that crosses over into cyberpunk, magical realism, dark comedy, and horror. i've been playing this game off and on for months, and sometimes i'd boot it up for just 30 minutes, read some dialogue, get absolutely lost in the synth soundtrack, and find myself doing something else entirely. i don't want to detract from how visually rich and colorful the art style is, but it really felt like i read a book. specifically, it captures that feeling of a book you can't put down. i'm not generally one to play point-and-clicks with a lot of text, at least until recently. highly recommended for people who want to play call of cthulu in a setting where half of the NPCs call you (female protagonist) "bruh"

Very much my thing, this felt like the southern gothic lovechild of Kentucky Route Zero and Disco Elysium. I love when games try dare to try weird and out there things without fear of alienating the audience.

A mix of visual novel and point and click gameplay elements, its real hook is its writing and visuals. It boasts some of the most moving and evocative writing I’ve read in a videogame probably since playing Disco Elysium last year. It’s hard to wrap my head around how a team gets to write and actually design such an experience. It’s also comprised of beautifully crafted pixel art. There’s a particular frame that instantly became my new desktop wallpaper. And the music, what a surprise. Just a terrific moody score that goes so hard.

There’s just so much depth and thematic nuance here, enough to think about for a long time after playing. It oozes creativity and artistry, and a certain kind of weird earnestness and sincerity.