NORCO

The title says it all. It's getting harder to bother with AAA games when gems like this are made with more heart and sold at lower prices.

Very well researched game, the ambient sound is amazing, gorgeous pixelart magical realist story, beautiful words

An entertaining Visual Novel/Adventure/RPG mixture with fitting old school graphics in an fascinating dystopian world. Some extra weirdness added to set it apart from many of the vanilla sci-fi adventures out there, plus some occasionally thrown in humorous dialogues to spice it up further. Pretty unique on its own, but like said, Primordia and the Steel Sky games are the most comparable titles that spontaneously come to mind, also authors like Michael Swanwick. The Visual Novel part predominates, so don't expect many puzzles. There are under a dozen I'd say, but those puzzles and minigames offer some variety to a genre I usually find way too generic (Visual Novels). As for the RPG part; there are a couple of turn-based battles, but nothing overly challenging. All in all a fun ride for about 7-8 hours. Looking forward to see more from the developer team in the future - maybe with a bit more gameplay.

From the very beginning I was sucked into this game's atmosphere, I didn't know what to expect but the art direction of the game was enough to interest me. The dialogue is so well written, I just wanted to learn more and more of the characters, events and world of Norco, it's fun, unsettling, intriguing and so freaking weird. The game is pretty straight forward, it's a point & click game to unravel a mistery that involves your family and other very weird characters, you have to investigate, talk to others and find a way to solve some situations to keep moving forward in the story but there are no major puzzles here. It's not a long game but after my first playthrough I inmediatly started a second one because I was only able to unlock 60% of the achievements, I think that there are still some secrets in this game that I'm more than eager to uncover, It's an unique game, everyone should try it.

Kay returns to her hometown in North Louisiana, her mother passed away, and her brother has disappeared. She is followed by a robot Millions. In her search for her brother she will unveil dark family secrets, the secret history of the town and will come into contact with weird and fleshed out characters and events. It's reassuring to see that the narrative is strong, implementing themes of depression, slavery, nature vs nurture, and by implementing some real life locations and local history, with near future dystopia, you have a story line that will stay with you, after the end credits go dark. What works well within the game? Art style, they brought in over 30 artists, and these pixels and the locations and characters are lively, and you will sometimes loose yourself just glaring at them for minutes. Narrative is quite lush, the characters are well written, the dialogues have gravitas to the words, and the descriptions of the places come from some great post modernistic novel. (Pynchon comes to mind, or even Philip K. Dick) Although the gameplay seems standard to your point and click adventures, you have the inventory, combining items, speaking to various characters, the world building did it for me. Various swamps, gas stations, convenience stores, and factories and streets, give us a vivid world which isn't that far from the real one. It might be too text heavy, but they have done something similar to Disco Elysium solution and how it can be more pleasant to the eyes. And they even added option for the dyslexic, which is a nice touch. OST does help a lot to set the dreary mood, a mixture of ambient electronic music and metal band Thou give a harsh metallic sludge contrast. It all feels so domestic, even though I haven't been to Louisiana before. But I can feel it in this game. If you are looking for a unique sensation, wonderful art style and clever storyline, then you will be in for a treat.