NORCO

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Critics Recommend

Average Score

Total Reviews: 15

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NORCO’s sci-fi tale about mundane corporate evils is disturbing, personal and fresh. This is an experience that should not be missed.

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Critics Recommend

Critic Reviews: 15

Critics Consensus

# Reviews: 15

NORCO's sci-fi tale about mundane corporate evils is disturbing, personal and fresh. This is an experience that should not be missed.

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Awards & Recognition

Critic Reviews for NORCO

Critic Reviews

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15

Reviews

High Score - 100/100

100%

Average Score - 91/100

91%

Low Score - 80/100

80%

9/10

Richard Wakeling (GameSpot)

Norco weaves a compelling and utterly wonderful story that’s dark, beautiful, evocative, and distinctly human.

April 11, 2022 |

Full Review

A hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won’t cause massive damage.

April 1, 2022 |

Full Review

9/10

Noelle Warner (Destructoid)

Recommended

Chris Tapsell (Eurogamer)

Norco is a beautiful, surprising, human, and utterly magnetic debut.

March 30, 2022 |

Full Review

Richard Wakeling (GameSpot)

9/10 - (Read Review)

Norco weaves a compelling and utterly wonderful story that’s dark, beautiful, evocative, and distinctly human.

Noelle Warner (Destructoid)

9/10 - (Read Review)

A hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won’t cause massive damage.

Chris Tapsell (Eurogamer)

Recommended - (Read Review)

Norco is a beautiful, surprising, human, and utterly magnetic debut.

**Read all 15 critic reviews on the desktop version of VSG.

Read the Reviews (15 total)

Outlet	Author	Score	Date	Quote	Read
3DNews	Александр Бабулин	9 / 10	04-16-2022	Surprisingly attractive, powerful and in a good way strange game, which will remain in memory for a long time.	Read review
AnaitGames	Marta Trivi	9 / 10	03-30-2022	Norco is built through suggestive images that convey the idea that behind all the ugly and dirty, inside the low quality constructions and plastic jewelry, there can be a flow that gives them power.	Read review
But Why Tho?	Kyle Foley	10 / 10	03-31-2022	Overall, 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.	Read review
Checkpoint Gaming	Edie W-K	9 / 10	04-18-2022	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.	Read review
Destructoid	Noelle Warner	9 / 10	04-01-2022	A hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won't cause massive damage.	Read review
Eurogamer	Chris Tapsell	Recommended	03-30-2022	Norco is a beautiful, surprising, human, and utterly magnetic debut.	Read review
Game Informer	Jason Guisao	9.3 / 10	04-12-2022	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.	Read review
GameSpot	Richard Wakeling	9 / 10	04-11-2022	Norco weaves a compelling and utterly wonderful story that's dark, beautiful, evocative, and distinctly human.	Read review
Hardcore Gamer	Kyle LeClair	4.5 / 5 stars	04-01-2022	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.	Read review
Jump Dash Roll	Derek Johnson	9 / 10	04-01-2022	Norco is the good kind of point-and-click game; its engaging story is paired with a great world and solidly enjoyable gameplay for an experience that shouldn't be missed by fans of the genre.	Read review
PC Gamer	Alexis Ong	94 / 100	03-30-2022	A must-play for anyone interested in narrative-driven games.	Read review
Polygon	Marisa Clogher	Recommended	04-14-2022	Norco ends on a visceral note that will speak to Louisiana’s staunch hangers-on, but also to anyone seeking a beautiful, oppressive, and ultimately hopeful story. The past and future compound, and my reaction was unbridled. As I heaved and sobbed over my computer screen, I thought once again about faith — the kind it takes to stay here. If you don’t understand that faith, Norco may very well convince you.	Read review
TechRaptor	Andrew Otton	9.5 / 10	04-15-2022	NORCO is a brilliant game with an incredibly high level of craft, particularly with its writing. It is one of the most entertaining and thought-provoking games in years, and everyone should play it.	Read review
VideoGamer	Josh Wise	8 / 10	04-05-2022	What saves Norco is that the visions on offer belong as much to the imagined as the troublingly real.	Read review
Washington Post	Emily Price	Recommended	05-10-2022	This pairing of humans and the natural world up against a common antagonist, not necessarily as allies but as common victims, makes it clear how intimately Norco is tied to the swamps, valleys and fields that surround it. This interconnection between individuals with little in common on the surface but a shared place and history is where “Norco” locates the possibility for hope, a provocation that might offer those of us playing a model for our own local responses to corporate encroachment and environmental devastation. 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.	Read review

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Game Info

Game Description / Storyline:

Norco is a Southern Gothic point & click narrative adventure that immerses the player in the sinking suburbs and verdant industrial swamps of a distorted South Louisiana. Your brother Blake has gone missing in the aftermath of your mother’s death. In the hopes of finding him, you must follow a fugitive security android through the refineries, strip malls, and drainage ditches of suburban New Orleans.

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