This game is hyper-processed Grant bait: Melancholic robots, Eco-collapse brought on by capitalism, and Christian mysticism. Come on! I’m but a mortal man. How could I resist?

Put all of that in a point-and-click adventure interface, and you’ve got my favorite game of 2022 — a stacked year. It beat out the likes of “Immortality,” “Pentiment,” and “Citizen Sleeper” — all of which could have landed as my top pick in other years.

This game hates the gig economy, sneers at big oil and big tech, and fully knows that catastrophic floods are inevitable. There is an unflinching, grim outlook on life in Louisiana — both in the game and in reality. It can be hard to take, but it’s exceedingly obvious that it comes from a place of love and mourning.

I’m not from Louisiana, but I so clearly see myself in this game. The small team who made it feel as connected to their home as I do to mine. Delaware is a thousand miles away, but it resonates here in my own wetlands nonetheless.

The details are different in how we’re exploited by capital, but the effects are the same. Working class people suffer and die while the worst people in the country extract value from us. It feels bad all of the time, but the love cannot be completely erased. If you care about where you live, the bastards cannot grind you down. At least not completely.

As long as there is community, culture, and some semblance of natural beauty, the encroaching tide doesn’t scare me quite so much.

With that said, I don’t want you to leave here thinking that the entire game is all doom and gloom regarding our world slipping away from us in an extended nightmare. In fact, it has moments of real humor and humanity.

Relatively early on, there is a vignette in a convenience store that feels wildly accurate to the small town experience. Sure, it’s heightened for effect, but townie-who-picks-fights is somehow universal. And the extremely limited combat on offer made me break out in a smile.

Of course, I couldn’t end this piece without giving a huge shout out to the Garretts. These young men, all going by “Garrett,” end up following an outrageous cult leader that has a controversial theology that intersects directly with our protagonist.

This cult has its depressing moments, but it’s also where the writing shines the most. “Norco” capitalizes on the absurdity in every capacity, and it leads to an endgame that you absolutely will not be able to predict. I’d tell you to prepare, but I don’t think you can.

Viva la Garretts.

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“Norco” is available now on PC.

Image credit: “Norco,” Geography of Robots