Disco Elysium - The Final Cut

Some might have forgotten, but RPG means role-playing game. And in that view, Disco Elysium is probably the best game in a long time where you get to play a role in a game. The core strenght of this game is that, at the same time that you are taking the role of a very defined character (the character has a pre-existing identity), you are offered a lot of freedom to be whoever you want to be. This is what link it to great predecessors such as Planescape Torment or The Witcher 2 (as well as amnesia). And to make you want to incarnate that character, the game provide a very sound game world, some complex policital & philosophical questions and a contextualization of the game mechanics to keep the immersion as strong as possible. That being said, the game mechanics could have been slighlty more fleshed out,as it is now giving the player a very low level of control on the success/failure of their action. It works in the game universe and in the narrative, but a game system such as the Cypher System (used in Torment: Numenera) could also have worked out and would have helped people who resent the fame for beeing too much of an interactive novel. Nevertheless, there are not so many game that have managed to bring me to a place where I don't try to "beat" the game (optimize my character, find the "best" solution) and allowed myself to wander, lost in a world as I would be if I was the protagonist. This is what RPG is about. The rest (classes/races, crafting, competences trees, combat, party management,...) should only serve this purpose, and in modern game, become way too often the only focus. Disco Elysium shows that there are better ways.

commie propaganda, thank god for Karl Marx

A stunning game. Melancholic, hillarious, depressing, and at moments quite surreal. Striking watercolor visuals, haunting soundtrack, great writing. Several times it touched me quite deeply, and I saw pieces of myself reflected in it. Mixes levity with some heavy topics seamlessly. Has, for me personally, one of the best endings I have ever seen in any game. Has minor issues, but overall a truly unique experience that I know I will be returning to many times.

The game makes me feel like an explorer. It is weird. But it is not weird for weirdness sake. It does not feel fake weird. It just feels like people trying to survive best they can in the world imposed upon them. It feels real ( as in, I actually hesitated really hard over my options in, what i thought was, end of the game ). I will straight up say that I would not have recommended this game to my 16 year old self ( then again, who knows..the writing is good; not Terry Pratchett good, but maybe Douglas Adams? ). The heavy dose of politics, whodunits, weird meta jokes and other teen unfriendly themes is what makes the game attractive to me now. But the story. The story sucks you in. And each time I think I had it figured out, it threw me off with a new piece of conflicting information. The game is now without its flaws. The autosave could be implemented better. There seem to be minor bugs ( re-loaded save may contain results of last event ). Nothing game breaking. Other: At the time I am playing it, achievements don't work, but.. in this game it worked. Maybe there should be an option to just turn them off altogether? The game is by far the nicest game surprise of 2019.

I am not a hardcore RPG fan. Actually, I've never finished any, expect Fallout Series. Planescape Torment, great, but I lost interest. Icewind Dale ... ok ... but lost interest. Fallout 1 and 2 ... These I love and finished. Even multiple times. And now I'm hooked on Disco Elysium. Why is that? Because the *WRITING* is incredible. Dialogs are holarious, deep, interesting, well written. The characters are full of *character* :D Imagine that! That is what makes it related to Fallout 1&2, although of course they are very different in the end. But what connects them is the brilliant writing, the hugely interesting world and the obvious passion everyone put in. With Disco Elysium you are entering a deeply interesting world, wonderfully written. Deep, beautiful, controversial. There's no combat, just exploration, decision, situations and ... dialog! The character system is wonderful and will give you multiple playthroughs with whole different parts of the universe opening up. And the Art Direction ... man ... wonderful. Grat Illustrations, fitting music. Just beautiful. This game is a piece of art. And a contender for games of the decade. As soon as it came out on Mac I grabbed it. Grab it. Enjoy it. Dive into this deep story-verse. What a beautiful game.