Norco is an unforgettable game about losing and finding religion

polygon.com:

I stopped going to church about two years after Katrina.

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For one reason, my mom had problems with the Catholic Church’s stance on divorce — my parents had divorced when I was six, civilly, respectfully, and to the benefit of all parties involved — and that slowly caused our habitual attendance at mass to wane. Then, in the midst of everything that goes into rebuilding a house after destruction, from fighting with insurance companies, to finding proper contractors, to making rent for a temporary residence that could house two children, Catechism classes no longer became a priority. The storm itself was not the only reason, but the reality of the aftermath contributed. So I stopped going.

For a long time, I didn’t miss religion. In fact, I became actively grateful for its absence from my life. I saw the pitfalls of its institutions, the misdeeds at the hands of its zealots, and, in my most cynical moments, the cringiness of its believers. How could anyone trust anything so blindly, despite the failures surrounding it? I didn’t understand that faith.

Norco, the point-and-click adventure game based on the New Orleans suburb of the same name, is a mystifying experience. Its writing is poetic and illuminating, the kind that sparks a generative flame inside you. You begin as Kay, returning home after the death of your mother Catherine. You left home for unremarkable reasons,