Norco is everything I had hoped Kentucky Route Zero would be. I cannot get over how well written this game is. Every glittering moment of this script feels so honest and evocative, and there is such wonderful restraint in the pacing, in the humor, in the “minigames,” and in the weirdness. Weirdness, when wielded by incapable hands, can drain meaning from its narrative surroundings. When tastefully applied as it is here, however, weirdness has a capacity to deepen and give nuance to the people and emotions anchoring a story, in seemingly inexplicable ways. This work is a triumph for writing in games