I recently replayed Norco (Geography of Robots), which I included in last year’s list of games I loved, for a video game club discussion — and I found myself enjoying it even more the second time around. The writing is rich and nuanced, with storytelling the utilizes its point-and-click format to explore a sense of isolation in a world impacted by climate change and corporate exploitation. This is a world with advanced technologies, like cybernetic robots and automated supermarkets, but these technologies are not readily available to the working class who are forced to live in communities that face regular flooding and continual entropy — a feeling that is perfectly reflected in the pixel art with its classical compositional style.
The story begins when Kay, who has long been estranged from her family, returns home following her mother’s death from cancer. She discovers that her brother has been missing for a couple of weeks and begins to search for him — only to uncover information about strange lights on Lake Pontchartrain, a cult full of Garretts, a viral network intelligence capable of infecting both wires and biological creatures of the bayou, corporate corruption, and genetic predetermination.
One of my favorite gameplay elements is the mind map, which serves as a kind of codex on Kay’s journey. The player can access this map and learn about the various people, places, and objects that are important to the overall mystery. As the player unravels more about her family and the goings on, the mind map updates with new information, forming new connections between the various elements.
The strongest storytelling and gameplay elements occur in the first two thirds of the game, as Kay and then her mother delve deeper into the mysteries of Norco. However, the final ending doesn’t quite come together for me. Nevertheless, this is a phenomenal game — one that I highly recommend playing.
The Past Within (Rusty Lake) is a cooperative puzzle adventure game for two players — which I had a blast playing with my twelve-year-old niece. The story involves a father providing his daughter with a way to bring him back from the dead decades later, and the challenge takes place across time. One player works in the past, while the other works in the present to solve the puzzles using clues from both timelines. These puzzles slowly unravel the mystery of the device for resurrection.
Each player is intended to only see what is on their own screens (and with most players likely playing virtually that’s easy enough). However, my niece and I were in the same room, so we freely cheated whenever we liked by showing each other our screens when our words failed. Regardless, we spent a delightful couple of hours working through the puzzles together — and we giggled and teased each other along the way. So, I would say that who you play with is definitely an element in how much a player is going to enjoy this game.
LocalThunk’s Balatro is a rogue-lite, poker-based game that completely ate my life as soon as I downloaded it onto my phone. In the game, the player attempts to progress through a series of binds by playing poker hands to accumulate chips. As the player progresses, they are able to purchase Jokers, Tarot cards, Planet cards, and Spectral cards, all of which provide various buffs to help them progress through the increasingly difficult binds.
I don’t have much to say about this one beyond the fact that I find the gameplay wildly fun and addictive — and I totally understand why it has been nominated for Game of the Year.
I’ve continued my playthrough of Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games), with most of my playtime taking place on flights. I’ve continued to grow the structures of my boat, adding additional farming and crafting elements that need to be managed. I still feel like I’m in the early stages of the game, and I’m feeling in a bit of stasis (despite the recent progression). I’m interested to see how the story and gameplay moves along as I continue playing.
If you’d also like to know about the books and movies that I enjoyed recently, you can check out my Culture Consumption for November.