A game hasn't hit me so hard since Disco Elysium, interesting that in both cases the developers came from outside the industry - they had something to say and thought games were the best way to say it.
This, along with Disco Elysium really feel like some distinct games I need to "feel" through experience. It does look beautiful adn extremely interesting.
The region of Louisiana Norco is in has been labeled a "sacrifice zone". I loved playing this game because as you described, it expanded that concept to "the whole world is the sacrifice zone". But nonetheless, people are still people. We keep living and finding our joys along the way.
The Army Corps of Engineers map, openly available, for what to voluntarily flood to save other areas is fascinating. Big chunks of Louisiana are in the Open The Gates And Flood These Guys First region.
I absolutely loved this video and it may have convinced me possibly to play the game. I've seen a few other people cover this game and it seems like a worthwhile experience.
Loved this game so much, and this kind of games in general --Night in the Woods, Disco Elysium, Embracelet, I love these very "local" games telling the story of some very specific place, be it a real location or some fictional place meant to convey a message about the real world. Hoping for more games made by people who want to tell the story of their hometowns.
Looks promising! I'm definitely adding it to the wishlist; was a big fan of point & click games in my childhood, and I recognized the Broken Sword 2 when you were giving examples haha :) Was one of my favourites!
Ooohhh, this one looks really interesting, I might just have to play it. Haven't seen this game covered anywhere else, glad to see you give it the review it deserves :)
I recommend playing Grim Fandango... with a guide for the puzzles. I did that and it's one of my favorite games ever. The dialogue, worldbuilding and characters are incredible.
Since you mentioned the Sam and Max games, think you’d ever consider covering them on the channel? Personal favourites of mine and would love to hear your thoughts.
NORCO looks like what I had hoped CYPHER would be. I'll snag it on GOG when there's a sale. Thank you for the excellent review, and for sharing such personal thoughts. If you want to continue to dip your toes in the water of point and clicks, may I recommend "The Shiva: Rabbi Stone Has A Crisis Of Faith"? There are zero 'moon logic' puzzles, it's fairly short, and it kind of serves as a subtle primer on the Logotherapy school of philosophy slash psychology. Failed, failing, emotionally broken Rabbi has to investigate the murder of an ex congregant to avoid taking the rap.
@@thesummerofmark should be on Steam. The Shivah, I own it there anyway. It's also a great entry point into the Wadjet Eye/Dave Gilbert games. Norco is right up there with Unavowed and Primordia for me.
Kinder surprise egg, a quite astonishing commodity. The surprise of this excessive object, the cause of your desire, is here materialised in the Geist of an object which fills in the inner void of the chocolate egg. The whole delicate balance is between these two dimensions: what you bought, the chocolate egg, and the surplus, probably made in some Chinese gulag or whatever, that you get for free. I don't think that the chocolate frame is here just to send you on a deeper voyage towards the inner treasure, the what Plato calls the 'Agalma', which makes you a worthy person, which makes a commodity the desirable commodity. I think it's the other way around. We should aim at the higher goal, the gold in the middle of an object, precisely in order to be able to enjoy the surface.
ima sucker for a good point and click, mostly the cyberpunk ones. how have i never heard of this? cool video, had to mute here and there cuz i think ill play this
@Zyrxil How is it clickbait? Do you even know what clickbait is? I legit think it’s the most important game of this decade on account of the topics it covers.
@@Zyrxil Well you're right about one thing, pretty much the only thing people vote on there is the title. I posted mark's video on Alpha Protocol on there. It actually did quite well and got a couple hundred upvotes. But in the comments it was pretty clear nobody clicked through on the video, they just discussed Alpha Protocol in general. Which is fine but it's demonstrative of the sub's shallowness.
@@thesummerofmark Do *you* know what clickbait is? "The most important game of this decade" is a hyperbolic description; whether in your mind you believed it to be clickbait or not, it fits right in with other hyperbolic titles like "The Best MMO ever is coming soon" or " will change EVERYTHING". It's certainly not title form that game essayists or in-depth reviewers will use. "(already) the most important game" just heightens the hyperbolism even more. Titling the video this way is a major turn-off to those sensitive to clickbait, and a turn-off to those looking for thoughtful content, i.e. your target audience. Furthermore, your actual video content doesn't back up your initial claim. You start out not examining Norco's importance as a game, but rather examining its importance to you personally. While that is fine, the two topics are not at all related; I don't know if you understand that or not. As a review, your video is fine- it's covers the important aspects of Norco and gives enough info so viewers can decide to try the game or not. But are you actually trying to review the game, or are you trying to create a video essay exploring the subjects Norco brings up? Considering length of the 'Writing and Themes' section along with the video title, it's obvious you very much want to do the latter. You desperately want to explain why this is the "most important game of this decade", but you cannot because no explanation could possibly justify such a claim, especially so soon after the game's release. Doom is perhaps the most important game of the 1990s, but anyone making the same claim in 1993 would not have the benefit of historical context to back them up. The alternative would be to examine why Norco is the most important (or at least incredibly important) in the current geopolitical context, but you don't have any central idea for that either, beyond "The world is in decaying and Norco examines and integrates realistic modern fears about society and the future into its setting and environment". However, that aspect of it is maybe the least unique. Norco inhabits a small but well tread niche shared by other games like Kentucky Route Zero and Disco Elysium and social/corporate dystopian fiction in general. A successful essay requires more than surface level examinations and obvious comparisons to other video games that also touched on similar subjects. I don't expect everyone to be Jacob Geller or Noah-Caldwell Gervais, especially as they're starting out, but going all Skinner-meme "No, it's the audience who is wrong" is not going to help your development as a creator.
This game was most boring I have played in years. It is a complete trash. Trash story and characters and trash gameplay. Wasted like 2 hours of my life that I will never get back.
Disclaimer: changed the original, “Why Norco is (already) the most important game of this decade” due to complaints of it being clickbait.
A game hasn't hit me so hard since Disco Elysium, interesting that in both cases the developers came from outside the industry - they had something to say and thought games were the best way to say it.
Yep. That's thanks to dev tools being so accessible today
This, along with Disco Elysium really feel like some distinct games I need to "feel" through experience. It does look beautiful adn extremely interesting.
Agreed. DE and Norco are as much mood pieces as they are games
If you liked Norco and Disco you'll probably like Night in the Woods, if you haven't tried it already.
The region of Louisiana Norco is in has been labeled a "sacrifice zone". I loved playing this game because as you described, it expanded that concept to "the whole world is the sacrifice zone".
But nonetheless, people are still people. We keep living and finding our joys along the way.
The Army Corps of Engineers map, openly available, for what to voluntarily flood to save other areas is fascinating. Big chunks of Louisiana are in the Open The Gates And Flood These Guys First region.
Awesome take, thanks for sharing your insight!
Great review for a great game. I like the use of Disco footage every time you needed a sad looking industrial harbour town.
Gotta use the 200 something GB of DE footage I have in my archive for something lmao
I absolutely loved this video and it may have convinced me possibly to play the game. I've seen a few other people cover this game and it seems like a worthwhile experience.
Excellent review!! 👍
I grew up around similar places, Norco now has *must play* written all over it.
Thank you! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on it
I didn't buy the game. But it's wishlisted now. As soon as I clear my backlog.
That's great to hear! If you liked DE you'll love Norco
Loved this game so much, and this kind of games in general --Night in the Woods, Disco Elysium, Embracelet, I love these very "local" games telling the story of some very specific place, be it a real location or some fictional place meant to convey a message about the real world. Hoping for more games made by people who want to tell the story of their hometowns.
Oh 100%. Hyper-localized, emo-coded stories are my shit
Looks promising! I'm definitely adding it to the wishlist; was a big fan of point & click games in my childhood, and I recognized the Broken Sword 2 when you were giving examples haha :) Was one of my favourites!
Just when I thought this was great, the Night in the Woods connection made it even more so! 🍂
Ooohhh, this one looks really interesting, I might just have to play it. Haven't seen this game covered anywhere else, glad to see you give it the review it deserves :)
I am coming back to watch this after I have time to finish the game, but I'll leave a like and a comment for the algorithm in advance :)
Appreciate it, I’ll take any algo juice i can get haha
This game and this UA-camr fucking kick ass
No u
The American Football comparison got me. Great review for a great game!
I saw an opportunity to plug an American Football reference and I took it. Thank you for your kind words!
"Puzzles give brain boo boo" had me laughing WAY too loud
HELL YEAH COMEDY
@@thesummerofmark helll yeah BRoTheRR
I recommend playing Grim Fandango... with a guide for the puzzles. I did that and it's one of my favorite games ever. The dialogue, worldbuilding and characters are incredible.
I have played it actually, forgot to mention it in this video. Many of my videos feature tracks from that game
FINE! I stopped the video and I bought the game and it is installing as I'm watching the rest of your video.
HELL YEAH
Since you mentioned the Sam and Max games, think you’d ever consider covering them on the channel? Personal favourites of mine and would love to hear your thoughts.
Thank you! They’re on my shortlist, I’ll definitely cover them in the future
You're videos are hype af
Thank you!!!
Fuck yes
HELL YEAH
NORCO looks like what I had hoped CYPHER would be. I'll snag it on GOG when there's a sale. Thank you for the excellent review, and for sharing such personal thoughts.
If you want to continue to dip your toes in the water of point and clicks, may I recommend "The Shiva: Rabbi Stone Has A Crisis Of Faith"? There are zero 'moon logic' puzzles, it's fairly short, and it kind of serves as a subtle primer on the Logotherapy school of philosophy slash psychology. Failed, failing, emotionally broken Rabbi has to investigate the murder of an ex congregant to avoid taking the rap.
Thanks Sean! Are you talking about the 2006 game? Seems very obscure and interesting, but I can't find it on any digital stores
@@thesummerofmark should be on Steam. The Shivah, I own it there anyway. It's also a great entry point into the Wadjet Eye/Dave Gilbert games. Norco is right up there with Unavowed and Primordia for me.
@@RobinOttens nice, thanks for the info. I’ll definitely check them out
Kinder surprise egg, a quite astonishing commodity. The surprise of this excessive object, the cause of your desire, is here materialised in the Geist of an object which fills in the inner void of the chocolate egg. The whole delicate balance is between these two dimensions: what you bought, the chocolate egg, and the surplus, probably made in some Chinese gulag or whatever, that you get for free. I don't think that the chocolate frame is here just to send you on a deeper voyage towards the inner treasure, the what Plato calls the 'Agalma', which makes you a worthy person, which makes a commodity the desirable commodity. I think it's the other way around. We should aim at the higher goal, the gold in the middle of an object, precisely in order to be able to enjoy the surface.
ima sucker for a good point and click, mostly the cyberpunk ones. how have i never heard of this? cool video, had to mute here and there cuz i think ill play this
POG
u are pog
@@thesummerofmark no u
I like puzzle games I just don't like point and click puzzle games.
Hey, someone posted your video on r/games on reddit! Unsurprisingly it's not doing very well right now, as expected of r/games.
It's almost like clickbait video titles turn people off. Weird.
@Zyrxil How is it clickbait? Do you even know what clickbait is? I legit think it’s the most important game of this decade on account of the topics it covers.
@Tenchi I saw lol. Weird fixation on the title
@@Zyrxil Well you're right about one thing, pretty much the only thing people vote on there is the title.
I posted mark's video on Alpha Protocol on there. It actually did quite well and got a couple hundred upvotes. But in the comments it was pretty clear nobody clicked through on the video, they just discussed Alpha Protocol in general. Which is fine but it's demonstrative of the sub's shallowness.
@@thesummerofmark Do *you* know what clickbait is?
"The most important game of this decade" is a hyperbolic description; whether in your mind you believed it to be clickbait or not, it fits right in with other hyperbolic titles like "The Best MMO ever is coming soon" or " will change EVERYTHING". It's certainly not title form that game essayists or in-depth reviewers will use. "(already) the most important game" just heightens the hyperbolism even more. Titling the video this way is a major turn-off to those sensitive to clickbait, and a turn-off to those looking for thoughtful content, i.e. your target audience.
Furthermore, your actual video content doesn't back up your initial claim. You start out not examining Norco's importance as a game, but rather examining its importance to you personally. While that is fine, the two topics are not at all related; I don't know if you understand that or not.
As a review, your video is fine- it's covers the important aspects of Norco and gives enough info so viewers can decide to try the game or not. But are you actually trying to review the game, or are you trying to create a video essay exploring the subjects Norco brings up? Considering length of the 'Writing and Themes' section along with the video title, it's obvious you very much want to do the latter. You desperately want to explain why this is the "most important game of this decade", but you cannot because no explanation could possibly justify such a claim, especially so soon after the game's release. Doom is perhaps the most important game of the 1990s, but anyone making the same claim in 1993 would not have the benefit of historical context to back them up.
The alternative would be to examine why Norco is the most important (or at least incredibly important) in the current geopolitical context, but you don't have any central idea for that either, beyond "The world is in decaying and Norco examines and integrates realistic modern fears about society and the future into its setting and environment". However, that aspect of it is maybe the least unique. Norco inhabits a small but well tread niche shared by other games like Kentucky Route Zero and Disco Elysium and social/corporate dystopian fiction in general. A successful essay requires more than surface level examinations and obvious comparisons to other video games that also touched on similar subjects.
I don't expect everyone to be Jacob Geller or Noah-Caldwell Gervais, especially as they're starting out, but going all Skinner-meme "No, it's the audience who is wrong" is not going to help your development as a creator.
I miss getting high on Norco in the hospital.
This game was most boring I have played in years. It is a complete trash. Trash story and characters and trash gameplay. Wasted like 2 hours of my life that I will never get back.