Narcosis

 PC
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 18 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 18
  3. Negative: 2 out of 18

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  1. dr_zoidberg590
    Apr 24, 2017
    3
    In a post-SOMA world, this game is unforgivably bad. Dirty tricks played constantly on the player, naff jump-scares, interminable walking speed, a story that practically doesn't exist, buggy, completely punishing nonsensical experience that thinks it's so profound, when it just isn't. Also the graphics are like something from 10 years ago. The corpses just look ridiculous. No way toIn a post-SOMA world, this game is unforgivably bad. Dirty tricks played constantly on the player, naff jump-scares, interminable walking speed, a story that practically doesn't exist, buggy, completely punishing nonsensical experience that thinks it's so profound, when it just isn't. Also the graphics are like something from 10 years ago. The corpses just look ridiculous. No way to navigate so you're walking blind at a snail's pace. The game basically suggests that all will be eventually explained if you just plow on, but it never is. Disappointing.… Expand
  2. CarrieNotHere
    Apr 7, 2017
    8
    Narcosis is not really a survival horror game, more like an improved walking simulator... and a great one. Gloomy, creepy, mind f*cking...
    One of the best video game experience I had in the last year.
  3. LaBouleMagique
    Apr 25, 2017
    8
    If horror-survival games in VR are your thing, Narcosis delivers a linear, weird story that is overlaid with top-notch voice acting. The claustrophobia, the environments, and the hallucinations — if that's what they really are — come together to create an experience that left this diver a bit different than he was before he started.
  4. Nienh
    Jun 15, 2019
    9
    This game is for people looking for mature story telling.
    Narcosis is about fate and existentialism (and parents-children relationships?) and the end is just... :o
    A part of me died with this this game.

    You can finish it in around 2.5hs.
  5. PublicNuisance
    May 11, 2020
    5
    I looked forward to finally playing Narcosis. It seemed like I would love the setting and story. It turns out I was right. Sadly that’s about all I liked. I figured out in the first 30 minutes that I wasn’t going to have a good time. I tried to go forward and find some enjoyment but you can only bang your head against the wall so many times before you have to throw in the towel. The thingsI looked forward to finally playing Narcosis. It seemed like I would love the setting and story. It turns out I was right. Sadly that’s about all I liked. I figured out in the first 30 minutes that I wasn’t going to have a good time. I tried to go forward and find some enjoyment but you can only bang your head against the wall so many times before you have to throw in the towel. The things that I loathed were the timed nature of the game; the one hit kill enemies and the lack of manual saves combined with the previous two. The game forces you to continuously find oxygen, and while realistic, it hampers my ability to go at my own pace and enjoy the atmosphere and scenery. My next issue was one hit kill enemies you encounter. These giant crab like spiders that can kill you in one hit to anywhere on your body. The idea is to sneak around them, hide and go past them. Well I dislike stealth aspects of games so that wasn’t enjoyable. What I did enjoy was the story and atmosphere as I mentioned. It was top notch. The audio was fantastic as well. I may not have liked those spiders but the sound of them scurrying around on my headphones at 2AM put me on edge like few other games have. The graphics were pretty good. The aquatic life was great; people and objects were decent but not awesome. The platforming parts of the game I encountered were enjoyable.

    I played Narcosis on Linux using Proton. It never crashed on me and I didn’t notice any bugs. The game uses the Unity engine. There is 1 setting for AA; 1 setting for AO; and 2 other graphics options to go with Vsync. As mentioned there is no manual save system. The checkpoints weren’t the worst spacing I have seen but far from the best. Alt-Tab didn’t work. Performance was great. One time the game dipped to 93 FPS but other than that it was above 100 FPS the whole time and was smooth.

    Disk Usage: 8100 MB
    GPU Usage: 23-96 %
    VRAM Usage: 1959-4028 MB
    CPU Usage: 38-51%
    RAM Usage: 3.9-4.8 GB
    Frame Rate: 93-144 FPS
    Game Settings: Highest, AA and AO turned on, 1920x1080

    I feel like this is simply not a game for me rather than a bad game overall. It just happened to employ many of my pet peeves as game play mechanics. If the things I mentioned as not liking are things you enjoy then there is probably a good chance you’ll like Narcosis. I paid $4.37 CAD for Narcosis and feel that was a fine price for the content. Even $10 would have been alright. The full price of $17.49 CAD is a bit steep for me even if I had of enjoyed it. I played it for 90 minutes before tapping out.

    My Score: 5/10

    My System:

    AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 5700 XT 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 20.0.6 | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB | Manjaro 20.0 | Mate 1.24 | Kernel 5.6.8-1-MANJARO | Proton 5.0-7    … Expand
  6. SuperkenGaming
    Jul 20, 2018
    7
    Narcosis
    Under the sea
    Narcosis is a little less than 4 hour long first person survival horror game that takes place in the depths of the ocean you play the entire game in a giant under water suit big daddy style your able to thrust forward, also big daddy style, as well as throw flairs and melee attack.. this at first feels like a super linear underwater walking simulator, the    Narcosis
    Under the sea
    Narcosis is a little less than 4 hour long first person survival horror game that takes place in the depths of the ocean
    you play the entire game in a giant under water suit big daddy style
    your able to thrust forward, also big daddy style, as well as throw flairs and melee attack..
    this at first feels like a super linear underwater walking simulator, the environment is cool and creepy, and then you run into a giant sea spider and you’re like nah, this aint no edith finch
    this is layers of fear under water, there are dead bodies of fellow personnel that you’ll run into as you’re trying to get to a shuttle to evacuate, where the survival bit comes into play is that oxygen is your health, you will have to search for decently spaced oxygen tanks to allow you to keep going as your oxygen is slowly depleted, though fish will attack you which while cause you to breathe harder and lose oxygen faster, this is where flairs and melee come into play.. you and slice and dice these fish or distract them… thankfully encounters such as these are greatly placed out.. youll mostly be using your flairs to see in dark rooms as youre exploring 2 separate bases in the game trying to get power back to the panels, I hate base exploring period, but these bases offer some purely terrifying and probably the best moments in the game, there will be shifting rooms, illusions… again reminding me of an underwater layers of fear and its really cool.. really got my heart racing…
    I felt in suspense through my entire playthrough not really knowing hwat the game is going to throw at me next..
    I do have quite a few issues with this game..
    I felt like the overall experience was more stressful than it was enjoyable scary.. it could just be because of the setting and the whole under water base thing that I automatically don’t like… but I didn’t enjoy exploring these areas.. I don’t have a solutionfor make space station like areas enjoyable to explore.. but theyre just not for me.. they stress me out.. but this is jjsut a personal vendetta.. not so personal though there are heavy chunks of this game where direction is just awful… specifically the laval cavern giant spider bit towards the end of the game…
    I ran around in circles, fell through what I felt were walls to land in some sort of spider nest only to be insta killed by the giant spider at the top after sruggling to climb back up only to learn that hes actually supposed to move when you get close and theres something wrong with his programming… once I got all of the triggering to work an hour later it was back to mildly enjoying being terrified, but this chunk of the game almost brought down the entire experience completely.. thankfully the final act picks it up and is well worth getting to
    I don’t want to spoil thing so ill lust say this game has a really great pay off, and there’s tons of mystery going on with some glowing green ghost guy
    This game is super stressful to get through, but I promise you it’s worth getting through…
    Narcosis is far from a polished enjoyable horror experience
    But its overall such a neat game that horror fans owe it to themselves to play through
    I give narcosis
    a 7/10    … Expand
  7. SABlister
    Apr 3, 2017
    4
    The game lacks the ability to produce the atmosphere a horror adventure stuck in the oppressive atmosphere of being stuck at the bottom of the ocean, alone, with dwindling oxygen should produce. Instead, the game throws in jump scares, occasionally plays with the players perspective, and clunky sea creature encounters. In VR, I'm sure the suit provides a more oppressive atmosphere, but notThe game lacks the ability to produce the atmosphere a horror adventure stuck in the oppressive atmosphere of being stuck at the bottom of the ocean, alone, with dwindling oxygen should produce. Instead, the game throws in jump scares, occasionally plays with the players perspective, and clunky sea creature encounters. In VR, I'm sure the suit provides a more oppressive atmosphere, but not enough to get past the slow plodding pace and lack luster scares with no impressive technical aspects in either sound or graphics.… Expand
  8. JasonR98
    Mar 2, 2021
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. For the most part I thought the game was decent apart from the annoying bugs I encountered, terrible jumpscares and lacklustre enemy’s. The twist ending however of the narrator through the full game not be the character you play but rather the character that accidentally gets you killed is pretty genius.… Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. CD-Action
    Jun 30, 2017
    80
    The game makes up for its shortness (ca. 4 hours) with an intelligent, well-delivered story, overwhelming atmosphere of solitude, fantastic audio (including voice acting worthy of a AAA game) and overall high level of polish. [07/2017, p.77]
  2. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Jun 5, 2017
    67
    Although Narcosis turned out to be pretty monotone, it has its own strengths: limited oxygen reserves make you think twice about stopping to take a breather, while subdued sounds keep you on edge. It probably won’t scare you, but it’s certainly an interesting experience. [Issue#220, p.55]
  3. IGN Spain
    Apr 27, 2017
    70
    Narcosis is a suffocating experience in the bottom of the ocean. An interesting game, but it feels a little incomplete in some ways, including its length.
    Read full review
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