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.
I have played so many hours to this game back when it was released that it is difficult for me to stay objective, but I must say that I decided to complete it once again and enjoyed it, though the repetitiveness of the game has become irritating in an era where games are short and must always be "refreshing". On the pro's side: - Graphics are stil relevant, funny, dynamic. It's a pleasure to look at your hospital, even with the repetitive sprites - This game strikes a good balance between micro-managing and planning - The game is quite easy, which allows you to be "creative" in your way of solving issues, and have fun designing an hosital that you like instead of trying to maximize efficiency On the con's side: - If most of the game breaking bugs that were present in the original release have been fixed, I have encounter a few of them, whcih can be frustrating when you need to restart an hospital on which you've already spend some hours - Let's be honest, the few last missions where no new mechanism/illness are introduced are a bit boring. Also, some missions last for way too long. In short, the game gets repetitive at some point. If you would rather play this game in a modern game engine and with way larger possibility to personalize your hospital, Two Point Hospitals is a great spiritual successor to this game. But honestly, you get about the same pleasure with this 166MB gem from 1997!
I've played both Baldur's Gate, I've played Planescape Torment, I've played the good Fallouts, I've played the two other Witchers. I've also played Vampire: The Masquerade, Tyranny, and Pillars of Eternity. I've played Arcanum, Dragon Age, and both Kotor, as well as the 3 newer Elder Scrolls. I've played some of the Fire Emblem, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale, Shadowrun, Divinity, Diablo. I've even played to stuffs like Inquisitor, Always Sometimes Monsters or Jade Empire. And I've never had a story so interesting, entrailing than in Assassins of Kings. I probably wouldn't do another run-through today, for reasons you can read in details in other reviews. But I'd definitely suggest that you do one, without spoils, maybe with unofficial patches, in easy mode (if there is one) because the combats aren't that interesting. And let yourself immerse in story where you're a pawn to some powerful men and women and can't do much except avoiding the worst.
Let's be honest, I'm only half the game while writing this review. I'll probably finish it, because it is a nice reasonably challenging game. The interface and the game mechanism are well balanced, quite open (there are many ways to win fights and you have most of the time different ways to finish a quest), and have nice specific features (mind-reading, skills-centric character development,...). So if this soft is good at the G of RPG, it is really lazy on the RP part of it. The story line is really poor, full of cliché, very predictable and totally uninteresting. The dialogs are uninteresting at best. You don't play a role as your action have no influence on the behaviour of NPC, and there is absolutely no idea of moral, no way of knowing what would be profitable for your character. The whole game offers different possibilities, but you end-it not caring at all for which one you choose, because it doesn't change anything fundamental in the end. Good luck if you want to identify yourself to your character... This game suffers strongly from comparaison with games like Planescape of the Witcher. Oh yeah, it's a detail, but characters design is very different depending on gender. Again, women body in this game is overtly sexualized (it's even ridiculous if you play a women character and can't choose but have a F-size breast).
