Narcosis

 PC
Narcosis Image
Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 17 Ratings

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  • Summary: Narcosis is a survival story set at the hostile depths of the Pacific Ocean. Stranded after an accident, an industrial diver takes desperate steps to surface before his oxygen - and sanity - give out.

Trailer

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Narcosis - Official Trailer

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. GamingTrend
    Apr 10, 2017
    90
    Narcosis is a survival horror game that provides so much more than a few gimmicky jump-scares. This is a beautifully written, immersive psychological thriller which tells a compelling, tragic story, demands observation, planning and problem solving, and yes, also throws a few shriek-worthy jump-scares into the mix. It leaves you questioning reality and explores just what a person and the human mind can handle when pushed to the limit. Solid voice acting and narration makes this an incredibly personal story, and while it’s not entirely free of motion sickness, being aware of where your head and body are can help you avoid the worst of it. Odds are, you’ll be so full of adrenaline that you probably won’t fully register the motion sickness until you take off the headgear. Narcosis is a shining example of a virtual reality psychological thriller done right, and a is must play for any horror junkie.
  2. Digital Chumps
    Apr 3, 2017
    83
    Presentation quality is quite good, with the protagonist’s voice-acting being especially notable. Your character at times will have a brief monologue, talking about life working for Oceannova, and the guy’s voice reminds me very much of Tom Hanks’ own voice. The dialog is brief, but well-written, and these spoken moments come up at good intervals to remind the player they’re on the right path. The graphics are also very good and the game is comfortable to play. Ultimately, Narcosis provides players with a compelling experience that’s easy to recommend.
  3. CD-Action
    Jun 30, 2017
    80
    The game makes up for its shortness (ca. 4 hours) with an intelligent, well-delivered story, overwhelming atmosphere of solitude, fantastic audio (including voice acting worthy of a AAA game) and overall high level of polish. [07/2017, p.77]
    All this publication's reviews
  4. Digitally Downloaded
    Mar 31, 2017
    70
    Fans of survival horror should give this title a go, and this is especially true if you have the opportunity to experience it in virtual reality. It may not have ghosts and goblins, but Narcosis still provides a suitably haunting experience worth undertaking.
  5. IGN Spain
    Apr 27, 2017
    70
    Narcosis is a suffocating experience in the bottom of the ocean. An interesting game, but it feels a little incomplete in some ways, including its length.
  6. COGconnected
    Apr 5, 2017
    70
    The price is a little high in my opinion, but if you’ve got a VR setup then it’s definitely worth it. Even without, if you enjoy other horror games where resources are limited and your mind is playing tricks on you, then there’s a good chance Narcosis is worth the money. Just make sure to grab your best headset, and turn out all the lights before you start.
  7. Game Informer
    Mar 29, 2017
    58
    Although Narcosis’ runtime is fairly short (about four hours), it’s padded by frustrating stealth segments and banal puzzle-solving that get in the way of some great storytelling and voice-acting. While captivating, those aren’t enough to make this experience worth wading through.

See all 15 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 8
  3. Negative: 2 out of 8
  1. Nienh
    Jun 15, 2019
    9
    This game is for people looking for mature story telling.
    Narcosis is about fate and existentialism (and parents-children relationships?) and    This game is for people looking for mature story telling.
    Narcosis is about fate and existentialism (and parents-children relationships?) and the end is just... :o
    A part of me died with this this game.

    You can finish it in around 2.5hs.    … Expand
  2. CarrieNotHere
    Apr 7, 2017
    8
    Narcosis is not really a survival horror game, more like an improved walking simulator... and a great one. Gloomy, creepy, mind f*cking...Narcosis is not really a survival horror game, more like an improved walking simulator... and a great one. Gloomy, creepy, mind f*cking...
    One of the best video game experience I had in the last year.    … Expand
  4. LaBouleMagique
    Apr 25, 2017
    8
    If horror-survival games in VR are your thing, Narcosis delivers a linear, weird story that is overlaid with top-notch voice acting. TheIf horror-survival games in VR are your thing, Narcosis delivers a linear, weird story that is overlaid with top-notch voice acting. The claustrophobia, the environments, and the hallucinations — if that's what they really are — come together to create an experience that left this diver a bit different than he was before he started.… Expand
  5. PublicNuisance
    May 11, 2020
    5
    I looked forward to finally playing Narcosis. It seemed like I would love the setting and story. It turns out I was right. Sadly that’s aboutI looked forward to finally playing Narcosis. It seemed like I would love the setting and story. It turns out I was right. Sadly that’s about all I liked. I figured out in the first 30 minutes that I wasn’t going to have a good time. I tried to go forward and find some enjoyment but you can only bang your head against the wall so many times before you have to throw in the towel. The things that I loathed were the timed nature of the game; the one hit kill enemies and the lack of manual saves combined with the previous two. The game forces you to continuously find oxygen, and while realistic, it hampers my ability to go at my own pace and enjoy the atmosphere and scenery. My next issue was one hit kill enemies you encounter. These giant crab like spiders that can kill you in one hit to anywhere on your body. The idea is to sneak around them, hide and go past them. Well I dislike stealth aspects of games so that wasn’t enjoyable. What I did enjoy was the story and atmosphere as I mentioned. It was top notch. The audio was fantastic as well. I may not have liked those spiders but the sound of them scurrying around on my headphones at 2AM put me on edge like few other games have. The graphics were pretty good. The aquatic life was great; people and objects were decent but not awesome. The platforming parts of the game I encountered were enjoyable.

    I played Narcosis on Linux using Proton. It never crashed on me and I didn’t notice any bugs. The game uses the Unity engine. There is 1 setting for AA; 1 setting for AO; and 2 other graphics options to go with Vsync. As mentioned there is no manual save system. The checkpoints weren’t the worst spacing I have seen but far from the best. Alt-Tab didn’t work. Performance was great. One time the game dipped to 93 FPS but other than that it was above 100 FPS the whole time and was smooth.

    Disk Usage: 8100 MB
    GPU Usage: 23-96 %
    VRAM Usage: 1959-4028 MB
    CPU Usage: 38-51%
    RAM Usage: 3.9-4.8 GB
    Frame Rate: 93-144 FPS
    Game Settings: Highest, AA and AO turned on, 1920x1080

    I feel like this is simply not a game for me rather than a bad game overall. It just happened to employ many of my pet peeves as game play mechanics. If the things I mentioned as not liking are things you enjoy then there is probably a good chance you’ll like Narcosis. I paid $4.37 CAD for Narcosis and feel that was a fine price for the content. Even $10 would have been alright. The full price of $17.49 CAD is a bit steep for me even if I had of enjoyed it. I played it for 90 minutes before tapping out.

    My Score: 5/10

    My System:

    AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 5700 XT 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 20.0.6 | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB | Manjaro 20.0 | Mate 1.24 | Kernel 5.6.8-1-MANJARO | Proton 5.0-7    … Expand
  6. JasonR98
    Mar 2, 2021
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. For the most part I thought the game was decent apart from the annoying bugs I encountered, terrible jumpscares and lacklustre enemy’s. The twist ending however of the narrator through the full game not be the character you play but rather the character that accidentally gets you killed is pretty genius.… Expand
  7. SABlister
    Apr 3, 2017
    4
    The game lacks the ability to produce the atmosphere a horror adventure stuck in the oppressive atmosphere of being stuck at the bottom of theThe game lacks the ability to produce the atmosphere a horror adventure stuck in the oppressive atmosphere of being stuck at the bottom of the ocean, alone, with dwindling oxygen should produce. Instead, the game throws in jump scares, occasionally plays with the players perspective, and clunky sea creature encounters. In VR, I'm sure the suit provides a more oppressive atmosphere, but not enough to get past the slow plodding pace and lack luster scares with no impressive technical aspects in either sound or graphics.… Expand
  8. dr_zoidberg590
    Apr 24, 2017
    3
    In a post-SOMA world, this game is unforgivably bad. Dirty tricks played constantly on the player, naff jump-scares, interminable walkingIn a post-SOMA world, this game is unforgivably bad. Dirty tricks played constantly on the player, naff jump-scares, interminable walking speed, a story that practically doesn't exist, buggy, completely punishing nonsensical experience that thinks it's so profound, when it just isn't. Also the graphics are like something from 10 years ago. The corpses just look ridiculous. No way to navigate so you're walking blind at a snail's pace. The game basically suggests that all will be eventually explained if you just plow on, but it never is. Disappointing.… Expand

See all 8 User Reviews

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