NORCO

A modest title that demonstrates that a narrative-rich experience, made by a first-time indie developer, doesn’t always have to be overshadowed by ostentatious displays of bigger releases. Norco may refer to itself as a sort of pixel ephemera, but its adventure is a vast, cosmic tale that will be fondly remembered decades after.

NORCO is a game I could not stop thinking about. Even long after completing my first playthrough, I find myself thinking about Kay, Catherine, the AI security robot Millions, Private Investigator Leblanc, and the multitude of ordinary citizens I encountered that profoundly impacted me throughout my time in NORCO. It’s been a while since a game has managed to cause so much emotional damage in such a short period of time, and I cannot recommend NORCO highly enough.

In NORCO, past and present blend together; one moment you inhabit the shoes of the terminally diagnosed, and in another, learn in minute detail about how your childhood home will, in time, flood, become abandoned, and eventually be razed. All stories told in exquisite, beautiful detail, never pulling a punch.

On a good day, Norco is a bastion of beautifully evocative storytelling that invites any player to take refuge in its world. On a bad day, it cuts deep as a sobering, but loving portrait of a modern dystopia—a community on the edge of great change. But on a personal level, it's a game that understands who we are and what the internet has made us—how this digital constellation of fragmented subcultures has shaped the way we see the world and our place in it. There are few games in the world like Norco, and it belongs unequivocally in the highest tier of narrative experiences in the medium today.

I’ve never played a game like Norco, which elegantly celebrates and admonishes its cultural roots while simultaneously chronicling a strange doomsday scenario. Kay and Catherine’s shattered America is not so dissimilar from our own – burgeoning industrial complexes threaten to displace low-income families, automated systems supersede human workers, and the filthy rich work around the clock to deter upward mobility. The game isn’t always gloomy. One cool night, I sat atop City Hall and gazed at the constellations with a stranger. Hours earlier, I flipped through treasured memories on a faulty flatscreen TV. Norco is an unforgettable reminder that there’s an inherent beauty behind the madness.

NORCO somehow strikes an incredibly challenging balance in storytelling: it tells enough of a narrative to create a coherent, believable story, but it also sows a lasting tale by respecting the player’s intelligence and leaving much to their imagination. Its story can absolutely be a conversation piece among enthusiasts. I already want to reflect on what I’ve done in NORCO and realize themes or subtleties I missed while playing; this story will stick with you. If you’re a thoughtful gamer who doesn’t mind mysticism and a tale that leans toward depressing, NORCO is an absolute, unequivocal must-play. We need more capable storytellers like this in games.

NORCO is hauntingly beautiful. A surreal tale that is dystopic and futuristic but at the same time extremely rooted in the hopeless and sad reality of the suburban industrial areas of USA. A sort of a great acid trip that we won't soon forget.

I’m not sure I’ve ever related more to a character in a video game than I do to Kay. Our experiences aren’t identical, but her pain is mine, or at least it’s close enough that I can feel it. Norco isn’t able to fully give her the healing she’ll always want but never fully achieve, but its understanding of pain, loss, and the need to keep moving are a remarkable achievement which helped me process some of my own feelings as well. Any fan of adventure games should absolutely check it out.

NORCO is a one-of-a-kind adventure, expertly written with (almost) perfect artistic direction. The lack of frequent puzzles is made up for by their unusual quality and variety. A must-play for narrative adventure fans.

Through these mutually affecting connections between humans, nature and technology, “Norco” creates its own robotic story, disturbing, personal and fresh, an experience that should not be missed.

Even if you don’t normally enjoy point-and-click adventures, Norco is a must-play for anyone interested in story-driven games. It’s one of the best-narrated tales since Dysco Elysium, rich with the real-life history of the town of Norco with some imaginative fiction mixed in. It’s dark, funny, and scary in all the right places, and even if the ending doesn’t wrap up all the mysteries it opens, it’s still sure to leave its mark on you.

Norco's beautiful, evocative, and contemplative storytelling takes you on a fascinating journey that will occupy your thoughts for weeks and months after the credits roll. It earns its place alongside games like Kentucky Route Zero and Disco Elysium, effectively depicting the Southern Gothic genre with a mystifying adventure that's built on sublime writing and a poetic exploration of societal issues, environmental catastrophe, and what it means to be human. It's not always captivating from a gameplay perspective, but this is a negligible flaw in the grand scheme of things. Games like Norco don't appear very often. It's one to treasure.

It is impossible to write better. A beautiful and unforgettable point and click clearly indebted to Kentucky Route Zero.

If nothing else, NORCO will go down as the game this year that had the most unique world, but it also stands a huge chance of going down as the game with the best writing, story (or stories) and atmosphere. Who could have thought that Louisiana would be a perfect backdrop for a bizarre sci-fi mystery? Geography of Robots did, and it’s thanks to them that we got this memorable journey that folks should check out, even if it may be hard to describe what happened.

NORCO takes you on a wild, bizarre journey that makes you feel like you’ve really gone through something when you come out the other side. In a sea of point-and-click narrative adventures, it oozes style, polish, and earnestness in a way that makes me think it will become a staple of the genre in years to come...Geography of Robots may be a studio that’s still in its early days, but after playing this game, you’d think they’re seasoned pros. When I get excited about video games’ potential in what they can do as a brand new storytelling medium, NORCO is exactly the kind of experience I envision.

This is a fascinating creation, brilliantly unsettling and uncanny, that plays its cards with enormous subtlety. It’s so interesting to see Southern Gothic depicted so effectively in a video game, and leaves just the right amount of mystery by the end.

NORCO is an exploration-based narrative adventure that truly shines thanks to its universe and characters.

Norco offers an incredibly atmospheric story - without gameplay surprises.

What saves Norco is that the visions on offer belong as much to the imagined as the troublingly real.