Posted on: February 10, 2021

wyrdhunter

Games: 245 Reviews: 1

An unusual murder mystery

Combine Twin Peaks, Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, Al Amarja from the Over the Edge RPG, and Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency with a post-mod Britain feel and you are in the right ballpark. The gameplay is an isometric view game along the same lines as Baldur's Gate or Kingmaker or Pillars of Eternity but on a much smaller scale and area. In brief, you awaken with no memory of yourself or your world. The character generation system is deceptively simple but has a huge impact on how you interact with the setting (I can confirm this from 3 different replays with different builds). There is no "right build" but allows you to play according to your preferred style. The world is a fascinating place and there is a lot of backstory to digest but a lot of interesting metaphysical discussion to be had. Caveats: there is a lot of dialogue and a lot of reading, you cannot customize your character's physical nature (though you can change outfits almost at will), and no real combat. Your skills reflect different aspects of your personality and will give their opinions as their skill level increases. Delving into the personality vault is also fascinating but the game doesn't allow you to go too deep as opening slots uses the same currency as the skill upgrades and requires in-game time. And this ties into the final caveat, the game can feel rushed once you get past the seagate. Overall, the game is different enough to be worth your time if you like mysteries and puzzle games and unusual settings with a mundane veneer. Additionally, an upcoming DLC update will be adding complete voice acting to all of the dialogue which currently lacks it.

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Posted on: January 11, 2022

3DMan

Games: 433 Reviews: 22

Fresh, dark, and mesmerizing

This is one of the most unique games I've ever played. At a glance it looks like an old school isometric RPG like Fallout 1/2, and it does mostly function that way, but the beauty is in the writing. There are normal stats, but there are a lot of stats that are internal/mental. You'll frequently argue with yourself mentally(and sometimes out loud to appropriate NPC effect) which can also make for interesting alternate solutions to problems.(or failures) WARNING: the subject matter can get dark, including thoughts of suicide, depression, racism, drug use, etc. It can get very political too, so you can explore having communist, liberal, facist, sexist viewpoints. While there is a LITTLE action, do not get this game if that's all you're looking for. This was one of the first games where right after I finished it, I restarted to try different options/stats. The story itself is nothing extraordinary, but it's the journey and internal exploration that makes it unique.

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Posted on: November 23, 2022

pazroman

Verified owner

Games: 214 Reviews: 2

One thing about the voiceovers

Without being redundant, my 2 cents: keep in mind that the og version had you mostly reading without voiceover. You'd mostly speed-read, skim, and slow down to focus on whatever you deem important or particularly interesting. With it being fully dubbed, there's a bit of trouble trying to read quickly with the voiceover conflicting with you trying to read. So you can end u skipping a ton. There's over one million words. The actors speak at 150 wpm on average. That would be over 100 hours just for in-game dialogue (in total, so a playthrough would be only a third). Add to that actual gameplay, and that's a ton of time to spend in little old Revachol. So not sure how to consolidate those differences in versions. The quality of writing and acting are totally worth it though, if my humble opinion counts. Other than that, really great game. Only 4/5 because with all due respect 5/5 is a very particular league of either perfection or simply a much higher level of production. Also, the game isn't as perfect as some players who, fell in love with the game (such as myself), would have you believe. However, all the gameplay aspects that could've or should've been done differently are justified when you consider this game wasn't made by game designers, but by an art collective who just wanted to put a dent in this medium. And man, did they hit a home run.

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Posted on: March 23, 2023

Clusterwound

Verified owner

Games: 45 Reviews: 2

Allons-y!

("Rig": 15" MBP late 2013, Big Sur 11.7.4, 16GB RAM) If you want to know everything about the human condition and the interactions with the institutions man created (family, religion, politics etc.) then you should read Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. I can't recall who said it. Friedrich Nietzsche called Dostoevsky the greatest psychologist to ever exist. Disco Elysium is the The Brothers Karamazov of gaming/interactive media. It should be shot into space in case aliens exist and want to know what it's like to be human. Performance wise the game runs perfectly well on a soon to be ten year old Macbook Pro. If using a separate display (like a TV) you might want to increase the text size for better legibility. It also briefly lagged every now and then, but it wasn't an issue for me. The auto-run feature works whenever it feels like it. I've never been able to reliably switch between running and walking when I wanted to. Other than that GOG Galaxy can't sync to cloud your saves and progress except in few and far between occasions. After finishing the game I had zero achievements and GOG Galaxy told me I played it for 9 (!) hours.

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Posted on: June 9, 2023

ronwmabil

Verified owner

Games: 329 Reviews: 41

Instant classic

Here you have a work that may at some level threaten to be a serious police procedural, but to even a casual observer, it will quickly become apparent that this game is fraught with wry wit and sarcasm. Prepare to have every decision simultaneously affirmed, questioned, and outright mocked by both the elegantly written characters and the protagonist's own fractured inner world. In the tradition of Greek theater, this game contains a story that may be as instructive as it is entertaining. Or in the words of George Bernard Shaw, "when a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth." As for the gameplay itself, "Disco Elysium" will either bore, overwhelm, or delight the player. It all depends on whether you like building a detailed character in ways that seem oblique. Waking up as an alcoholic amnesiac who is apparently also a brilliant and accomplished police detective with a very tame kill record for such a long career, you have to make numerous choices about how to move this character forward when there's nowhere to go but up. The game combines an engrossing story, brilliant dialogue (and exhaustive, top-notch voice acting for nearly every word of text), excellent artwork, and easy and relaxed play for a thinker's adventure that allows for multiple solutions to every problem--whether you prefer a rational path forward or moon logic.

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