NORCO is so painfully "of the moment", both stylistically and thematically, that its undeniably enigmatic and successfully executed atmosphere is robbed of a lot of gravitas by its cloyingly pandering hip-ness.
It's a game that feels as if it is becoming dated as you play it and one that will never be called "timeless". It's clearly class-obsessed but is trope-filled, meaning such themes are barely given any of the fair, in-depth thought they deserve outside of surface-level mentions. Probably saddest of all, the much-lauded writing amounts to C-tier work, at best, in the pantheon of amazing PC Game writing. It's perhaps even more hindered out of the gate by all of the hyperbole of so many fawning mainstream reviews, which set up fans of great game writing with inaccurate expectations going in.
If you want a game that makes you feel like a train hopping, DIY show-going, roach-filled microwave-owning, salt of the earth "interesting person" who is surrounded by occult magic and mystery in your tragic family, but is under the thumb of big oil and evil industry, buy this game! If you know shallow, mostly gameplay-free poverty porn visual novels when you see them, then you'll see it in NORCO fast and be sorely disappointed in the missed potential of so many possibly interesting ideas that only amount to a mish-mash of "vibes and feels".
Finally, I LOVE point and click adventures and LOVE experimental games, but when the pointing and clicking is mostly just a game of “I Spy” to trigger flavor text about certain objects and its “adventure” is one that, more or less, tells itself with very minimal player input or choice, I consider the “experiment” to be unsuccessful.
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"Blake is...a lot. An edgelord." -NORCO
It's a game that feels as if it is becoming dated as you play it and one that will never be called "timeless". It's clearly class-obsessed but is trope-filled, meaning such themes are barely given any of the fair, in-depth thought they deserve outside of surface-level mentions. Probably saddest of all, the much-lauded writing amounts to C-tier work, at best, in the pantheon of amazing PC Game writing. It's perhaps even more hindered out of the gate by all of the hyperbole of so many fawning mainstream reviews, which set up fans of great game writing with inaccurate expectations going in.
If you want a game that makes you feel like a train hopping, DIY show-going, roach-filled microwave-owning, salt of the earth "interesting person" who is surrounded by occult magic and mystery in your tragic family, but is under the thumb of big oil and evil industry, buy this game! If you know shallow, mostly gameplay-free poverty porn visual novels when you see them, then you'll see it in NORCO fast and be sorely disappointed in the missed potential of so many possibly interesting ideas that only amount to a mish-mash of "vibes and feels".
Finally, I LOVE point and click adventures and LOVE experimental games, but when the pointing and clicking is mostly just a game of “I Spy” to trigger flavor text about certain objects and its “adventure” is one that, more or less, tells itself with very minimal player input or choice, I consider the “experiment” to be unsuccessful.
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"Blake is...a lot. An edgelord." -NORCO