NORCO Review: What is the story? Is the video game free to play?

The First 12 Minutes of NORCO Gameplay

NORCO is a 2022 point and click video game. The game takes place in an alternate version of Norco, Louisiana. Before its formal release, the game won the inaugural Tribeca Games Award at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2021.

What is the story of NORCO?

NORCO is a new indie game from developer Geography of Robots. It’s modelled after the classic adventure game style and is set in a sci-fi universe. The beginning of it sees you playing through chapter 1, set five years after your character left home for the first time. After you mother dies, you return to your childhood home to discover what’s been happening while you’re gone.

The game is set in an alternate version of Norco, a town in Louisiana, and in other portions of the state around New Orleans. The game follows Kay, a woman who has returned to Norco after her mother’s death. The game’s developer goes by a pseudonym, Yuts, derived from a nickname for his grandfather. Yuts spent his childhood and some of his later life in Norco. Growing up, Yuts was “frightened yet transfixed” by the landscape in and around Norco, which has been shaped by the petroleum industry and hosts a major Shell facility which has twice experienced catastrophic explosions.

Is NORCO game free to play?

NORCO is presented in a pixel art style reminiscent of other point-and-click games on PC. The game’s Steam store page promises an adventure full of puzzles and unique characters. Anyone interested in trying the game is in luck, as the first act is available on Steam and GOG now free of charge. According to today’s press release, anyone who plays the demo will be able to pick up right where they left off in the full game.

How to find The Pig Man Of The Bayou in NORCO?

In the game’s final act, you’ll be steering a boat around the bayou tracking down specific beacons. However, if you venture off the beaten path you can observe some of the region’s more surreal inhabitants. One of these is an otherwise unexplained and unmentioned Pig Man, who is squatting by the shore searching for fish to eat.

LeBlanc will mention an old fisherman’s custom of tossing gifts to the Pig Man to ensure good luck while out on the water. If you happen to have found the set of Mardi Gras beads hidden in the murky depths of the bayou, you’ll be allowed to toss them to the Pig Man for the “Carnival Pig” achievement. He may even have a gift for you in return.

How to Befriend Santa Claus in NORCO?

This one requires a bit of foresight. In the first flashback sequence, you’ll be presented with a dilemma. You only have one dollar to your name, and there are three people (technically four) you can give it to: a hotdog vendor, a couple, or a very sketchy Santa Claus. Santa claims to be raising money for “charitable” causes (though he neglects to give specifics). Giving your dollar to anyone but Santa will turn him against you. He’ll stubbornly refuse to interact with you for the rest of the game if you follow this route.

However, giving him your dollar will put you in his good graces. This leads to an alternate puzzle solution later, when searching for a way around a character blocking your path. Going to the local bar, you’ll encounter Santa again and he’ll remember your generosity. Thanks to your act of kindness earlier, you’ll be able to score a very unusual ‘gift’ from him.

How is the mode in NORCO?

“Norco’s” mode is dark but not foreboding — “Blade Runner’s” yearning for hope feels like an influence, as does the cryptic and at times spectral trappings of fellow game “Kentucky Route Zero.” Both are meditations on American class and kookiness, and making sense of a world that aims to confuse. Like in “Kentucky Route Zero,” we spend our time in “Norco” with those living on the outskirts of society, only in this vision, there is no longer any center worth clamoring toward.

Here, the town detective has juicy tales to tell, but he also can’t be bothered to investigate if nature calls. There may be aliens, but those mysterious flying structures could also just be gases taking flight from the poisoned Mississippi River. Hard to say, but political and religious extremists will become darlings of social media by creating a conspiracy around them. Who, after all, wants to deal with reality and all its complexities, formalities and paperwork, especially when the upper class views an increasingly uninhabitable Earth as a playground?

Throughout, we go back and forth in time, playing as Kay or her mother, Catherine. For all the game throws at us in terms of unhinged theories in an attempt to explain depressing realities, we are never lost. “Norco” has smartly created what it calls a “mindmap,” a sort of family tree of every key person or place we meet in the game. We can visit Kay’s mindmap anytime and devour her past and plot her future as if we are flipping through pages of an irresistible book. There’s lots of text here, combined with some light inventory-based puzzles — fans of, say, “The Secret of Monkey Island” or “Kentucky Route Zero” will be right at home — but “Norco” also presents us with interactive twists.

Is Norco coming to consoles?

A new batch of games is coming to Game Pass in the back half of March for consoles, cloud and PC. Among the new additions this month are Crusaders Kings 3 on consoles, Weird West, Shredders, The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos, and Norco, Microsoft announced on Tuesday.

Is Norco on Xbox?

We are thrilled to announce that the Tribeca-winning NORCO is available on Xbox PC Game Pass.

Is Norco game good?

Overwhelmingly Positive (118) – 95% of the 118 user reviews in the last 30 days are positive. All Reviews: Very Positive (385) – 95% of the 385 user reviews for this game are positive.

How long is Norco game?

“Norco” in its opening hours — expect the game to take somewhere around 10 hours to complete — toys with players as to what kind of game it will become.