Editor’s Note: The following demo review opportunity came courtesy of Tribeca Games. This title and other worthy competitors are vying for awards in the first-ever games category at the long-running festival. Please keep in mind that these reviews are based on demos, all of which vary in length from 20 minutes to an hour, and are not necessarily fully representative of the final, finished game. Our intent is to give you a sense of what makes these games unique, how well the games executed the developers' vision, and to put them on your radar before everyone you know is playing them.
Mere hours before the esteemed Tribeca Games panel awardedNORCOthe category’s first-ever award win, I had a chance to check out the game’s demo for myself. It suffices to say that the point-and-click mystery from Geography of Robots and published by Raw Fury is absolutely worthy of that award. But if you’d like to know a little more about the game before it comes to a platform near you, read on for my review of the uniquely styled Southern Gothic visual novel that isNORCO. (Be sure to wishlist on Steam here.)
Here’s the announcement trailer to give you an idea of the game’s aesthetic:
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If you’re looking for an action-first gaming experience,NORCOis not that. What itis, however, is something special. The writing is phenomenal, on par with the likes ofDisco Elysiumwhen it comes to delivering three-dimensional characters who live deep within a gray area of morality. Your character has seen some shit since leaving their suburban New Orleans home sometime earlier; the uniquely American experiences traveling through the Midwest, the Rockies, the Pacific Coast are laid out in flashes of memory and anecdotes. One such experience in the Southwest, and I’m paraphrasing here, saw your character surviving “the meme that became a war that set Albuquerque on fire, before the juntas swarmed in and bloodied the streets.”
It’s moments like that which occur off the screen but are captured in thoughts and memories as you peel back layers of the story, a tale replete with relatable horrors, like environmental catastrophes driven by corporate greed. It’s as ifHunter S. Thompsonchronicled his travels of a near-future world envisioned byPhilip K. Dickand set inJoe R. Lansdale’s familiar Southern stomping grounds. Yeah it’s that level of storytelling, but the game doesn’t take itself too seriously all the time. There’s a delightful bodega cat who positively loves head-scritches, perhaps more than is socially acceptable.
NORCOisn’t just about the struggles of the here and now, however. A mystery – the disappearance of your brother Blake soon after your mother’s death – will need both discoveries of the past and present if you are to solve it. The cause of your mother’s cancer and her frantic search for answers in her final days, the loss of family patriarch Blue, the state of the android Millions and how they came to serve your family, and what your ultimate purpose is, these are all things you’ll uncover, or at least attempt to, while you navigate an ever-more imperiled New Orleans.
Though my time withNORCOwasn’t nearly long enough to get to the root of the mystery, or the haunting memory of a “strange, wild-eyed man who knows your name, crouched in a ditch and staring at you,” its strong sense of style and storytelling were undeniable from the start. The Tribeca Games judges clearly felt the same way, having awardedNORCOthe festival’s first-ever category prize. Now the rest of us will just have to wait a bit longer to experience the full story for ourselves; put this one on your radar ASAP.
Check out an extended look atNORCOhere:
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