Release Date: March 24, 2022
NORCO is an adventure game that presents an unusual vision of the future composed of elements of dystopian science fiction and southern gothic. The player explores the industrial suburbs of New Orleans in search of his lost brother.
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NORCO is an adventure game mixing science fiction and genre known as Southern Gothic. It is a debut game of Geography of Robots studio.
The action takes place in the near future, in the decaying industrial outskirts of New Orleans, located near the typical Louisiana swamps. The region was the site of a civil war several years ago, which left the industry and infrastructure in ruins. Life goes on there, however.
Our protagonist returns to his hometown on a mission to find his brother Blake, who disappeared without a trace after their mother's death. Old friends and neighbors seem to have no idea what happened. However, we quickly fall on the trail of a rogue cyborg who formerly worked in the security services of a local corporation and seems to have the information we need. Getting to him won't be easy, however.
NORCO is a traditional adventure game where players explore the world, engage in conversations and solve puzzles. There are a lot of puzzles and they require, among others, finding objects in locations, collecting and cleverly using objects and manipulating devices in the game world.
The game is strongly non-linear, both in of story and gameplay. We regularly have to make decisions which direct the story on new tracks. Starting the game we also shape the character's past, which then influences important elements of the story.
Most of the problems also have some alternative solutions. For example, we repeatedly encounter characters who are hostile to us, and it's up to us whether we fight them, or maybe try to convince them with arguments or trickery, or simply sneak unnoticed.
NORCO offers a single player mode only.
The strength of the game is the design. NORCO uses a pixelated retro style. The explored world is very well made. Each pixelart location is a small masterpiece. In addition, the game gains a lot from the unusual vision of the presented world. It combines the sultry and swampy atmosphere of southern gothic with colorful futurism and a heavy industrial atmosphere. The end result is truly unique. The effect is reinforced by the great music composed by Gewgawly I.
Platforms:
PC Windows March 24, 2022
PlayStation 4 November 17, 2022
Xbox One November 17, 2022
PlayStation 5 November 17, 2022
Xbox Series X/S November 17, 2022
Developer: Geography of Robots
Publisher: Raw Fury Games
Age restrictions: 16+
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System Requirements for Norco Video Game:
PC / Windows
Minimum System Requirements:
Intel Core i5, 4 GB RAM, graphic card 1 GB Intel Iris / Radeon RX Vega 8 or better, 4 GB HDD, Windows 7.
Recommanded System Requirements:
Intel Core i5, 8 GB RAM, graphic card 2 GB GeForce GTX 1050 or better, 4 GB HDD, Windows 10/11.
Game Ratings for Norco Video Game.
PlayStation Universe: 9.5 / 10 by Neil Bolt
Norco takes the point n' click adventure to a despair-stained new plane. I've never been so happy to feel unhappy as I did living in this tech-noir graveyard of a world.
GameSpot: 9 / 10 by Richard Wakeling
Norco weaves a compelling and utterly wonderful story that's dark, beautiful, evocative, and distinctly human.
Push Square: 8 / 10 by Graham Banas
In fact, the only area where it lets itself down is the UI. Games that use a cursor on console are starting on the back foot to begin with, but navigating what you can interact with is a particular nuisance in Norco. The cursor is fond of resetting, so you have to drag it all the way across the screen often, it's very easy to accidentally repeat dialogue choices, and sometimes it takes a few tries to hover over something before the interaction prompt actually shows up. Apart from this, the game offers a rich, fulfilling experience that you should try to experience as soon as you possibly can.
Average score from votes.