Disco Elysium

[Klapaucius]

I first heard of this when @Brikoleur mentioned having just completed it in another thread.  My free time is limited and it seems like a pretty big game. But I am intrigued.  Thoughts from those who have played it?

[Guest]

Have you ever played Planescape: Torment? If you liked it, you're going to love Disco Elysium.

For the most part people playing it seem to really really love it. The ones that don't appear to fall into more or less these categories:

• People who don't like to read. The meat and potatoes of the game are in the text, which is a contender for the best game writing in any game ever. If you don't like reading and just click through dialogue, forget it, you won't get much out of this.
• People who insist on combat in their games. There is violence in Disco Elysium, but there isn't conventional video game combat. This is not your usual power fantasy, it's about being a complete failure and trying to claw your way back into the human race.
• People who can't get over the politics (of the creators, or the game). ZA/UM are self-described Communists, and the game has pretty strong political themes -- among other things, it lets you play as a violent, alcoholic, drug-addicted misogynist, racist, and fascist. (Also a conciliatory, straight-edge feminist and Communist fighting for racial and social justice, and everything in between.) Whichever politics you pick, it'll poke occasionally-merciless fun at you. (And if you try to avoid the politics, you'll probably get the "World's Most Laughable Centrist" achievement.)

Pretty much everybody else seems to be loving it though, it has a crazy high metascore and very positive player reviews too. 

As for me personally? I don't know if it's the best computer role-playing game I've ever played or even if it makes sense to attempt that ranking, but it is way, way up there. It made me laugh a quite a lot and cry at the end and gave me tons of thrills of discovery on the way. My personal recommendation is that if you're the least bit interested in computer role-playing games, adventure games, or even reading noir cop stories, then this is a must-play.

Time wise, a reasonably thorough play-through will probably take you 20-40 hours. It's a substantial game but not quite as huge as Robert Kurvitz likes to portray it in some interviews.

Edited November 8, 2019 by Guest