Nothing brings family together like (groovily) kicking a bomb into a group of enemies that your sister is trying to dance away from (her sacrifice will not be forgotten).
The music of the gameplay flows beautifully, harmonised by the vibrant art style and animations bursting with personality. Duets with friends go equally well as solo performances, as the game lends itself very well to synchroneous play, and the AI is (actually) intelligent and quick. Only the occasional cacophony of clumsy city and battle interfaces interrupt the smoothness of the experience. Until one gets to the story elements, that is. The opening verse is particularly egregious in that regard, since the characters are often extremely one dimensional, and the dialogue linnes of our heroine frequently fall below standard even for the genre. The literal songs themselves, while a promising vehicle for storytelling, do not present much either in melodic variation or lyrical cleverness, making them a chore to get through. They are fortunately skippable, but it is a shame that the namesakes of the game are its weakest parts. Not to end on a negative note, story had never been the hook of these kinds of games. The gameplay has enough clever twists to the formula to differentiate it from other titles in the genre, and at the same time enough similarity to satisfy the same cravings.
There's many games that I enjoyed, some quite a lot. But there's few that I could describe to people who don't play videogames at all that would pique their interest without fail. The conceptual building blocks of this game, from thoughts that you ponder to alter your characteristics, to your skills being aspects of your persona that speak to you and interact with each other, create an incredible promise - and Disco Elysium delivers. It does away with the problem most games have with their narrative pacing - clunky or distracting combat or crafting elements, by just removing them entirely - thus giving the full spotlight to the excellent writing, the quality and intimacy of which has yet to be surpassed in the videogame world.
Now, I know this is a controversial opinion, but I think HoMM 5 surpassed all of its predecessors, including HoMM 3, in every way. The storyline is well thought through, rich in narrative and full of plot twists. The heroes are likable and unique, they're not just stats and a profile pic anymore. The creatures are more diverse and all posess some particular abilities, many unique. The towns are lovingly crafted, the 3d and the possibility to move your camera around them makes you feel like you actually enter a city, not a store with buildings lined up on the shelves. You can pick one of 4 skills while levelling, instead of two. To reach some abilities you first have to unlock some very specific skills in the intricate skill tree. Even after years of playing i still find new ones. The entire world is fully 3d, so you can move your camera freely in all angles and directions. The combat system is greatly enhanced, since more unit stacks are allowed onto the battlefield, which also increased in size. You'll notice that the queue of turns is now visible, which makes it possible to create more complex strategies. Each faction plays COMPLETELY differently, and using the same strategy for different ones will result in failure. Overall, the game introduced improvements to all aspects of previous games and brought in some new things, making both the campaign and the multiplayer incredibly fun.
