Posted on: April 4, 2020
TheMagicLemur
Verified ownerGames: 166 Reviews: 9
I Did What Now? I'm sorry...
This game is one of the most interesting, unique, thought-provoking, and darkly hilarious RPGs I've played in a long time. I held off because of the $39.99 price tag for a long time; I'm generally pretty broke and 40 bucks is a lot to drop on a game for me. Turns out it's worth every goddamn penny. You play a burnt-out alcoholic cop who went on a terrifying bender and drank so much he forgot everything -- as in, EVERYTHING. You are solving a case while piecing together who the hell you are (or were), what and understanding the (deep, richly thought-out) world around you. The game also explores lots of sociopolitical and economic themes, and actually approaches all of it in a thoughtful, philosophical manner. The developers seem far more interested in making -you- think than telling you what -to- think. Throughout Disco Elysium, you'll navigate the complex realities of things like communism, capitalism, racism, fascism, centrism, etc. and frequently be in a position to adopt a stance (or not). While the racism is (thankfully) portrayed as flimsy and laughable (I recommend listening to Measurehead's ridiculous racial theories), it doesn't really deify or villify anything. The main players on each side of a labor dispute, for example, both seem to genuinely believe their rhetoric and care about workers, even if they both have serious flaws. It's really up to you what your character wants to believe. Become a fascist racial theorist, a strident Communist, a reckless drug-addled poet, a filthy vagrant who asks almost everyone for money (much to your partner's irritation and embarrassment), or just a broken cop trying to be a better man. This game is amazing. Buy it. Play it. It's totally Disco, baby.
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