Disco Elysium - The Final Cut

A masterpiece. Amazing dialogue an a story with some great twists and turns. There is no wrong answer as such, and each path will lead to it's own story. I really enjoyed the voice acting too. Thoroughly enjoyed the experience and will come back to it again no doubt.

There are many parallels drawn to Planescape: Torment. I can see where those are coming from, but I disagree. Expect nothing like P:T (which was a great game, too) except that it's text heavy as well. Even more text-heavy. The plot and the setting is innovative and but different from P:T, party interaction is not half as complex or deep, the way the text and the dialogs are presented is something completely new. Same goes for the attributes. Pros: - Innovative and for the most parts well executed skill and dialog mechanics, for example how you can influence a dialog's outcome - Deep lore and complex dialog trees, which – combined with the broad variety of attributes – encourages multiple playthroughs - Great writing - An interesting world you move in - Nice arts and moody soundtrack - A nice and unconventional story with some twists. Not as deep or as stunning as P:T I'ld say, but it keeps you going. Cons: - All the walking is a bit tiresome in the end - Sometimes you have to move through too many loading screens (especially a balcony which becomes important later in the game) - Encourages save scumming. I'ld have preferred fixed thresholds. If you're good with hand eye coordination, you're just pointlessly frustrated if screw up a shot. And if you just suck with that coordination, you'll just re-load until it finally works out, breaking the immersion. - Unforseeable dead-ends are possible. Not like "entering a dungeon without a sword" but more like "being out of money in the wrong moment".

Disco Elysium is a choose your own adventure novel disguised as a video game. This is a fantastic thing, because the writer is absolutely incredible at writing. Funny, depressing, poignant, and surprisingly fair-handed to a number of outsider philosophies and political beliefs, you're going to find a lot to love here. It's not just the writing that makes DE great though, the game play ideas they've implemented are excellent. To name a few: -Your stats are your party members, and upgrading them makes them pipe up during conversations more often. So, if you upgrade authority, your inner monologue starts urging you at every turn to assert your authority.... even when that would be cruel or ill-advised. Upgrading your trivia stat will give your amnesiac hero more basic information about the state of the world... at the expense of drowning out conversations with un-necessary minutae. -Your choices actually have impacts, with various plot threads weaving in and out of each other throughout the game, and almost all of them connecting in some way to the main mystery. -Characters are dynamic, believable, and best of all _human._ Racists, Union goons, friendly dock-workers, drug-peddling techno-blasting teenagers... no two characters are alike, and they all add unique ways for your troubled detective to bounce off them. Give this game a go, it's absolutely stellar.

Absolutely a joy to move through. The writing is emotional, creative, and is supported by beautiful graphics. A bunch of unique sidequests allow you to express the main character however you want, while slowly working towards solving the crime. The environments in this game leave me with a lot of feelings, and that's precisely what I wanted from this game. I *did* have some stability problems, but I chalk that up to using windows 8.1 more than anything else. Truly wonderful cRPG game that gives me hope for the future of the genre.

I feel like this is the kind of game I was waiting for. It clicked from the first dialogue. The game is deep, the universe is unique and vast. It felt exactly like reading a good novel. Also, there's something special about the narrative, I can't quite explain it. It is like a vortex that sucks you in. I was playing it almost non stop, as if hypnotized by a mystical creature that is hiding among the reeds.