Bio
Hi there! I play games sometimes
Personal Ratings
1★
5★

Badges


Shreked

Found the secret ogre page

GOTY '23

Participated in the 2023 Game of the Year Event

Organized

Created a list folder with 5+ lists

1 Years of Service

Being part of the Backloggd community for 1 year

Best Friends

Become mutual friends with at least 3 others

Pinged

Mentioned by another user

Busy Day

Journaled 5+ games in a single day

Liked

Gained 10+ total review likes

Noticed

Gained 3+ followers

GOTY '22

Participated in the 2022 Game of the Year Event

N00b

Played 100+ games

Roadtrip

Voted for at least 3 features on the roadmap

217

Total Games Played

013

Played in 2024

246

Games Backloggd


Recently Played See More

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Mar 25

Norco
Norco

Mar 22

Death's Door
Death's Door

Feb 26

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Feb 11

The Temple of No
The Temple of No

Feb 07

Recently Reviewed See More

It turned out to be quite an unusual and charming thing. An intriguing mixture of point-and-click quest and visual novel (and even with a combat system) in a dark mixture of not-too-distant cyberpunk and southern Louisiana mysticism that is Norco - a very involving, confusing and at times frightening experience. I was thinking about whether it was possible to effectively transform the old genre of text quests and the execution of the formula in this project is exactly what is needed to return this niche form of video games to modern realities. Beautiful pixel art and painstaking descriptions (and also a wonderful interface) create a truly intriguing world, the web of which is extremely interesting to unravel. The game successfully mixes creepy moments with quite funny humor (though it certainly could have been better in places), and thanks to your involvement in the world, you want to know even more about it even as the credits roll. It’s nice that the game surprises in moments and gives special segments in terms of gameplay (for example, an episode with a theater, which also turns out to be a preparation; or an episode in the town hall), and besides this, almost all the solutions to the “puzzles” are both intuitive (and the game helps well) and not too obvious. The story itself, in addition to excellent world-building and competent work with a parallel narrative structure, succeeds most of all, it seems to me, in deceiving the player’s expectations - several times during the game something completely unexpected happened and radically changed the picture of what was happening. But in the story, as for me, lies the main drawback of the game.

And specifically, unfortunately, its ending. Around somewhere from the appearance of the shopping center, it seems to me that the game loses a little focus of the narrative and where it then goes, although it looks partly logical, it still begins to raise questions. And the ending itself seems to me rather crumpled, written too abstractly at the climactic moments, and even with a choice of several endings, none of them seems satisfactory and does not really answer many questions (although the overall picture can be put together). This is partly just a subjective rejection, since I perhaps expected a different balance of power in this story, but abstracting from this, the entire final part of the game can hardly be called not (at least a little) disappointing. Which of course is a little sad, and only increases the desire to learn more about the world of the game.

However, other than that it's pretty good! Norco does an excellent job of showing the vitality of the genre in modern times while creating a unique mix with a compelling world and (with caveats) a quality story. Sometimes poetic, sometimes creepy, sometimes funny, sometimes surprising, sometimes sad. And it’s absolutely a pity that the Monkey wasn’t with me the whole game.

Monkey stares at you. You stare at Monkey

Halfway through I wanted to write something like "It's just The Stanley Parable Demonstration, but with an unfunny narrator" as a review, but the final gag is pretty funny though.

So, okay William and Crows Crows Crows, but also why.

(And also the achievements are still broken, huh. Minus an hour of life, thanks)

A charming thing that draws you in only to break you in the end. Form, structure, multi-level meta-commentary and in the end just an extremely emotional story that beautifully changes itself and changes you afterwards.

I'm thinking about the meaning of the game's title right now. Davey said that it took him a long time to find it, and it seems that he finally managed to accurately express this story in the title. This is the Beginner's Guide to video game development. This is the Beginner's Guide to videogames in general. This is the Beginner's Guide to human emotions, thoughts and states. And I think, although it sounds a little general, this is the Beginner's Guide to people.

And in the end, after so much time since the release, I hope Davey has sorted out all the issues. I hope he found freedom from this frighteningly vast labyrinth.