DUE SOUTH

This stunning point-and-click parable isn’t the next Kentucky Route Zero – it’s the first NORCO

- Alexis Ong

Norco is a many-headed creature – a narrative hydra of place, personhood, nostalgia, and spirituality. But to start with the basics, it’s a real Louisiana town named for the New Orleans Refining Company, a monumental piece of psychogeographical storytelling, and in February 2022, I’m ready to call it my game of the year. Note: there will be some spoilers for the game from this point onward.

The tiny dev collective Geography of Robots has called Norco’s style ‘petroleum blues’, a nod to the area’s relationship with the oil corporation that has defined both the town and the environmental decline that colours its existence. The game pointedly avoids the disaster porn and fetishisation that tend to dominate media portrayals of the Deep South, and while a big part of Norco revolves around grief and trauma, it’s also full of rousing punk momentum channeled from the DIY music scene. The result is nothing short of incredible.