It’s easy to capture a place’s art and architecture style but it’s much harder to capture the vibe, and the feeling of being there. NORCO hits a little close to home for me and I mean that in the most literal sense. I am from the New Orleans area and have been through that area hundreds of times. I’ve been through and around it and the feeling of crossing the spillway and seeing the closest thing in this world to Mordor glowing in the distance is a particular feeling and takes a sense of place beyond visual references.
NORCO
Developer: Geography of Robots
Price: $14.99
Platform: PC
MonsterVine was supplied with a PC code for review
There’s a difference between “realism” as most gamers and games define it, where it’s photorealistic and an exact replication, and “realism” in the sense of capturing the heart and soul of a place. This is the second. The game is set in an alternate/near-future history where the plants have exploded and oil pirates are fighting for what makes it out of the ground…but the real city is also a small, poor town in what’s called Cancer Alley, full of the desperate that work at the plant or want to get away from it. Sure, it’s pixel-art style but the I-10 bridge over the swamp in the intro? I’ve driven over that bridge countless times and still do several times a year. The last time I was on it, two dudes with beards in jacked up trucks with blacked out windows crashed into each other when they were weaving through traffic. (Did I stick around? Hahahaha, this body remains unperforated by bullets and I intend to keep it that way).
Your character ran away into the apocalypse because she had to get away. I didn’t experience any nuclear apocalypses, but I dropped out of college and moved across the country because I also had to get away. I didn’t wind up hopping freights and sneaking into trucks to travel, but I also spent years living a nomadic existence and chasing my dreams while getting laid off every 6 months-1 year (thanks, video game industry!) and accumulating little for it except the trauma (thanks again, video game industry!). Which is a polite way of saying I relate, maybe a little too much, to making the poorer decision because you have to get away.
My mother didn’t have a mysterious encounter while researching Lake Pontchartrain that might’ve been a UFO or might’ve been something far more sinister the way our lead character did…but I have been down in the spillway at night and I have seen some things that may not be a developing hive intelligence that could eat the world, but are pretty damn weird. Similarly, it’s just as weird to wake up in your basically-unchanged childhood bedroom as it is in the game.
The game itself? Pretty standard adventure game where you click around, look for clues and think about things, sometimes getting confused and having to go walk around all the scenes you’ve been through to see what you missed. There’s some quicktime events (which I am very bad at) and some Undertale-style minigames (that I am even worse at), but it’s mostly a game of poking around, exploring, and figuring things out.
Your mother’s death sends you home, as recapped above, and it turns out she got in over her head with cyberpunk memory devices, someone that may be Judas Iscariot, a prophet based out of an old mall–I was a mallrat in that mall, I would definitely see a cult springing up there–and a legion of nerds weirdly obsessed with space and traditional ideas of masculinity. (TIMELY! RELEVANT!).
If you’re chasing whatever the hottest new trend is or want a groundbreaking game with never-before-seen mechanics, obviously this is not a good match. But if you’re looking for a game that captures the vibe of a place, the mood of a place, and a story that rapidly spirals into both relevance (the nerds are cobbling together a rocket to go to the MOOOOON! They dress as crusaders!) and insanity, well, you can’t do much better. Between the setting, the rampant Catholic/Christian imagery, and the general near-future vibe, this was an experience. Normally I’m a bit of a dabbler, but I powered through this one in two nights, then powered through it again to make slightly different choices and see what changed. Very few story spoilers here, but let’s say it’s both deeply personal and deeply knowledgeable of the setting and surroundings…and completely bugfuck in an enjoyable way.
I don’t know if I’d call it the best game of the year, but it’s probably the most fascinating thing I’ve played in 2022.
The Final Word
See the swamp and join the cult!
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
