I just can't get my thoughts on Norco together in a coherent string of sentences, which is maybe fitting for a game whose writing has no interest in being coherent.
That's not to say that it's poorly written, but its flowery and poetic prose can be a dense struggle in a way that's a little offputting. I can't decide if I'm just not smart enough to "get it" or if the game is trying too hard to refine its audience to "the intellectual crowd". I was a big fan of Disco Elysium which isn't entirely different in style (albeit a little more playful), but perhaps the voice acting helped me take it all in.
Even by its release in 2022, it felt a little bit dated to me. One group is an obvious analogue to the far-right Proud Boys. As of the time of this review that group is unfortunately still around, but Norco may have made more of an impact if it had come a few years sooner or had gone all-in on the satire rather than having them feel like a comic relief set of goofballs. It just felt a bit surface-level and toothless. The game has a lot it wants to say about capitalism, environmentalism, disillusionment and so on, but none of it really ties together outside of vague vibes.
The way characters talk, referring to others as "edgelords" or talking about "watching hentai with the boys", feels so online in a way that is either painfully true or just kind of awkward. Although the attempts at humour should have been a way to break up the verbose writing style of the narrator, they generally fell flat.
There are a few minigames and combat sequences that feel out of place and surplus to requirements. They weren't engaging enough to be fun in their own right and felt like they were included because adventure games usually have that kind of thing in them.
Norco starts and ends strong enough, but it drags in the middle and had it been a few hours longer, I think I might have dropped off.
That's not to say that it's poorly written, but its flowery and poetic prose can be a dense struggle in a way that's a little offputting. I can't decide if I'm just not smart enough to "get it" or if the game is trying too hard to refine its audience to "the intellectual crowd". I was a big fan of Disco Elysium which isn't entirely different in style (albeit a little more playful), but perhaps the voice acting helped me take it all in.
Even by its release in 2022, it felt a little bit dated to me. One group is an obvious analogue to the far-right Proud Boys. As of the time of this review that group is unfortunately still around, but Norco may have made more of an impact if it had come a few years sooner or had gone all-in on the satire rather than having them feel like a comic relief set of goofballs. It just felt a bit surface-level and toothless. The game has a lot it wants to say about capitalism, environmentalism, disillusionment and so on, but none of it really ties together outside of vague vibes.
The way characters talk, referring to others as "edgelords" or talking about "watching hentai with the boys", feels so online in a way that is either painfully true or just kind of awkward. Although the attempts at humour should have been a way to break up the verbose writing style of the narrator, they generally fell flat.
There are a few minigames and combat sequences that feel out of place and surplus to requirements. They weren't engaging enough to be fun in their own right and felt like they were included because adventure games usually have that kind of thing in them.
Norco starts and ends strong enough, but it drags in the middle and had it been a few hours longer, I think I might have dropped off.