Disco Elysium (2019)

4.5/5

Disco Elysium is an isometric tabletop game with a detective mystery overlay. You play as a formerly great police detective who arrives at the scene of his next murder but hits the bottle so hard he can't remember anything about himself. You have a partner from another agency who is there to assist you along the way. While initially arriving for a murder, there are a whole slew of additional side cases you can take on. Some may be just finding where a drunk lost his coat, to helping a couple try and find an alien like species of animals they believe to be watching everyone.

Gameplay can consist of what you want from it. At the beginning you are given a few stat points to put into a wide variety of characteristics or skills which will decide how you approach most of the game. Most conversations or actions then will be up to a dice roll if you pass or fail based on your stats, clothes you are wearing, or even how earlier parts of the conversation went. While this leads to a wide variety in how actions or conversations can play out, I don't believe there would be too many different endings you can get though I could be wrong.

There is a LOT of reading in this game, but thankfully with a later update to the game they added voice overs for most of the conversations. Otherwise gameplay consists of walking around the town trying to piece together whatever your current objective is. There is an in game clock that advances based on what you are doing, and some tasks may not be available depending on what day or time of day it is.

The writing here is top notch and whatever the next game is by this developer, I'll be picking up on day 1 just based on how much time and effort they put into this game.

Poucos jogos conseguem capturar tão bem o que é tentar consertar algo ou alguém quando tudo já parece perdido. Nenhum, até este, conseguiu fazer isso de forma tão orgânica e coerente. O jogo não tenta te orientar ou guiar; estar perdido é parte do processo, permitindo que o próprio mundo apresente suas peças, fragmentos e histórias. Ele te lança em um universo tão quebrado quanto o protagonista, onde talvez as respostas nem importem tanto assim.

O gameplay está nos diálogos, nos momentos em que as escolhas parecem valer menos pelo impacto direto e mais pelo que revelam sobre quem você está se tornando. A outra parte está no mundo: como ele respira, se desdobra, e vive à sua volta. É sempre bem-humorado, mas nunca de um jeito fácil, sempre cutucando temas que o instinto de autopreservação diria para evitar.

É um jogo que exige atenção e tempo, mas a recompensa é uma experiência autêntica e irreverente. O maior mistério, no fim, talvez seja entender por que continuar tentando, mesmo quando tudo parece estar em ruínas.

Played on my Steam Deck, "The Final Cut" version.

Really cool atmosphere, music, dialogue, voice acting and lore.

The pace of the game unfortunately is just not for me at this stage of my life. It felt like reading an interesting book, but it just dragged on too long and I ended up putting it down and not picking it back up. Got about three "days" into the game and just couldn't keep going. Ultimately I ended up just reading the plot summary and watching a few videos on Youtube to see what happened, and I don't feel like I missed out on anything.

Maybe in a few years I'll try again, but I got this on a Steam sale for like $5, and I feel like I more than got my money's worth. Might just leave it at that.

In Short I played the game and it was definitely one of the worst and boring games I've ever seen and I uninstalled it. It's not a game, it's more like an e-book.

First of all, this is not an open world game. I have no idea how it can be marketed like this, have the developers ever seen an open world game? The NPCs do nothing but sleep at night and the world is a small and frankly empty map. It's static and dead and never changes. It's not even a world, let alone an open world.

It's not a real RPG either. Yes, you have stats and inventory and dice rolls, but that's it. Also, these are just game mechanics, there's a skill tree and inventory like in a lot of games, but they don't make a game an RPG game, and there's no real choice, because the whole difference is tied to dialog options, which you'll click on anyway, further destroying the role-playing part, and for a lot of things, choosing to do something will actually be a dice roll, and the mechanics of retrying the roll are overly complicated and too overwhelming to take the time.

No matter what you do, you'll be dragged towards a single ending, which makes sense since it's a murder mystery, but as a player you have no choice, the only real choice is at the character creation screen, and from that point on it's pretty much set how you're going to play the next 30-40 hours of the game, which is filled with dialog just to drag it out.

Yes, you can click on options in dialog windows, but the game will decide for you whether that happens or not, and it will mostly depend on your character's stats and some modifiers. Yes, again, it's an RPG mechanic, but as a player, you don't really get to choose anything or do anything.

An example of a game where your choices really matter would be Detroit Become Human. Or even Witcher 3. Disco Elysium is nowhere near that level, Detroit is already not an RPG game, Witcher 3 is not a pure RPG, but supposedly Disco Elysium was marketed as open world and a pure RPG, but it's not even half as successful as those games.

Disco Elysium is not a game to be played even if it's free. I never understood what they liked about this game. It is one of the most overrated games of recent years.

It didn't surprise me at all when I read up on the origin of DE after completing it. The development team adapted it from a custom TTRPG campaign and it shows... never have I have played a game that was so literally an ACTUAL RPG instead of just being something with a HP bar, MP bar, experience bar and levels and calling itself an RPG. The fact they landed the execution on this single aspect makes the game all by itself. It feels like a real world with a real history and real people living in it, and not just in a passing sort of way. More like in a "I went to middle school in this world and actually paid attention" sort of way.

That being said, it's not all good. DE has plenty of technical jank, gameplay jank, no tutorial for its mechanics. The controller support is decent but you will certainly find yourself struggling at times with selecting things on screen. You will have to be able to deal with and overlook these shortcomings if you want to enjoy the rest.

Lastly, the game has some really dark shit. It deals with suicide, sexuality, death, depression and so much more. It doesn't just allude to it but describes situations and people in gory detail. There was one scene where I step-by-step went through pulling a mans bloated week-old corpse apart and it was full of VERY detailed descriptions. Much of the game is like this but it's also funny and touching and unique. Really glad I played it and I'm sad we may not see a sequel.

Have you ever wanted to roleplay as a Marxist-Fascist-Feminist who solves murder mysteries in their underwear while on speed? Look no further.

Disco Elysium is one of those weird and singular Indy games that not only re-invents but also progresses the medium of video games both in terms of game play and narrative, delivering an experience that is unique to the medium.

Disco Elysium is a CRPG similar to Baldur's gate and weirder than Planescape: Torment. If you have played any of those games, you should be familiar with the basic mechanics. Yet, while some form of DND is typically under the hood for those games, Disco Elysium creates its own unique RPG system. The greatest decision made by the devs was to remove combat entirely. There are still 'fighting' moments, but they stay consistent with the other 'skill' checks. Let's face it, combat in the traditional CRPG is terrible. Larian Studios did a great job creating a similar feel while adding depth and modern sensibilities to antiquated systems, but the lack of traditional combat in Disco Elysium feels appropriate and supports the world building and themes of the narrative.

The skill system is what makes Disco Elysium unique and great. Traditional skills such as 'lockpicking' or 'history' are replaced with 24 unique skills that are an odd combination of psychology, motor skills, intellectual arts and physical capabilities. While there is some overlap, such as shivers or inland empire and authority or half light, they add enough flavor to each to make them welcomed additions. There's also the added benefit of focusing on physical over psychological and not missing out on types of skill checks. I will say, as a quibble, that they could have simplified the skill system but it still works as is. A brilliant decision is the conversation system where these different skills will talk to you, sometimes having it's own voice. These skills will guide, misguide and inform you about characters and the world around you. In addition, it helps elevate the roleplaying since you can choose which impulses or intuition you want to listen to. My biggest criticism of the skills system would be that the story seems to play out largely the same no matter your play style. My first play through I focused on Intellectual and psychological, then for my most recent playthrough I focused on physical and motorics. It's still enjoyable and the game gives you ample opportunity to add your own flavor. It would have just been great if the major story beats could radically change based on your play style. As is, the replayability is diminished.

The greatest strength of Disco Elysium is in the writing. It's impressive how this game can juggle complex and contradictory philosophy and ideology so seamlessly while presenting both the pros and cons. One minute your grilling a suspect about the recent hanging, then on a whim you switch to discussing "what is reality?" The characters are all interesting and I found myself draining all dialogue options because of how enjoyable the characters were to interact with. Kim Kitsuragi is a fantastic character who acts as both a grounding point for your character and develops along with you as the story progressives. Even the villains are well written with nuance making for some of the best realized villains in recent memory. Evrart is a repugnant yet a cunning and charming force.

Before ending my review, the last thing that bothered me about the game is the clothing system. Each article of clothing will add stats to your skill checks. In principal this is fine, but it results in you talking to someone, leaving the conversation, putting on your persuasive underpants and then talking to the person to make your skill check. It's cumbersome and can detract from the game play, but this is more of a quibble than a critical flaw. What the game does right more than makes up for this minor headache.

I could keep going, but I don't want to risk spoiling anything this game has to offer. If you like surreal stream of consciousness narratives that dive into philosophy look no further. This game won't be for everyone, but it's certainly for me.

liked: kim kitsuragi, FANTASTIC world building (i love reading about fictional political systems/ideologies/worlds in general and you get to learn a lot about the lore of this ~mysterious~ place), good detective story, beautiful art style. the way the game functions by having multiple facets of your mind/personality have opinions is very immersive and helps cater to the roleplay aspect of the game more. multiple playstyles but i can only ever do a few because i refuse to disappoint kim.... i know some people didn't like the ending but, without spoiling, i think it was very fitting and made a lot of sense, very in line with some of the themes throughout the game. the voice acting is phenomenal and there is great attention to details and care displayed throughout.

disliked: isometric style makes it clunky to access objects/people in the environment at times, sometimes the game is a lil full of itself but honestly it's allowed

bottom line: if u can tolerate reading (there is a lot of it and i don't mind but i know some people would) then buy this game.

PROS

• Astonishingly good writing brings the decaying city of Revachol to dirty, vibrant life
• Realistic characters are a joy to converse with
• Affords an unprecedented level of choice and agency to its players
• Robust stat management and inventory systems are just the right level of complexity to stay engaging across the game's runtime
• Your protagonist's inner monologue is a brilliant way to guide the player based off of their previous choices and hopefully proves influential to other designers, ton of potential there
• Art style and illustrations perfectly balance beauty with ugliness
• Functions as a fantastic proof-of-concept for Warren Spector's "one city block" idea

CONS

• Isometric perspective and confusing geometry makes navigation a bit cumbersome
• Lackluster animations negatively impact the narrative weight of some moments
• Maybe a bit too verbose for its own good, but ymmv based on personal taste
• Plot denouement is awkward and anti-climactic compared to the rest of the game

Once more I feel like writing a review mostly so I can gather my thoughts on this game. It was one of those games where I had high expectations going in but nevertheless the game still managed to sweep me off my feet and I was instantly swallowed up by the people of Revachol and the self-loathing and misery of "The Cop". I simply couldn't put it down until I had seen the end; not because of the murder mystery but rather because I needed to see what happened to the main character and the consequences of my choices.

I played the game as myself, made the choices I would have made and ended up with a character that very much mirrors myself, someone that embraces communism and depression, logic and empathy. However, as with other games in the genre the real magic comes from seeing all the other possible ways one could approach this game. As the game proceeds and you progress (or regress) towards the character you have chosen to play it is easy to see how you could have played a completely different character and the world would respond accordingly. I think that's what made this game so magical to me, it always shows you how everything could be oh so different and that in turn reinforces your belief that your choices really matter, even the minor ones. From a gameplay perspective this is quite cleverly implemented with two systems: the skills system and the thought cabinet. The skills are "standard" RPG skills: endurance and strength, volition and empathy, logic and rhetoric, composure and hand-eye coordination, which are used to pass either passive or active skill checks. For me personally I prefer the secret (/passive) checks of the skill system because it better hides how the system works and secretly tailors the experience to the character you have built. You will generally not see failed passive skill checks which means that I am always questioning how different the experience would be if I had different skills. Dialogue options with an active skill check are less interesting to me because it opens up the system and lets you "game" it. Even if you choose not to, to me they broke some of my immersion. The second component is the Thought Cabinet which is sort of like a feat system. What is interesting about them is that they unlock through choices and dialogue so that for my character to be a communist I would have to choose leftist dialogue options and at some point my character would have a breakthrough and allow me to commit myself to that philosophy. There are lots of these thoughts as the game calls them and they help you flesh out your character.

This game is all about character development, and I think it does a phenomenal job. Obviously a lot of it comes through interacting with people, solving tasks, and discovering the world, but an equally large part comes through dialogue with yourself and your inner thoughts. Your inner thoughts are connected to the skills you choose, and it is almost as if each of the different skills are a different character, their voices stronger or weaker depending on how many points you have invested in them. A lot of the thoughts are also unlocked through inner dialogue which really enhance the finding yourself aspect of the narrative.

All in all I am very happy to have played this game. What separates a good game from a great game in my book is whether I am left with something at the end, be that something to think about or something to feel, and this game delivers on both. I really hope there are more experiences like this out there.