I’ve been meaning to play Disco Elysium for a while now. Pretty much everything about it sounded appealing to me. A dialogue-heavy RPG inspired by my all time favorite game and the writings of Marx and Engels? Count me in! Even knowing all of that, Disco Elysium subverted a lot of my expectations, and as a result, I’ve experienced one of the most well written, engaging, heartfelt, intelligent, and overall best games ever made.

As I’ve said before, the main strength of Disco Elysium lies in its writing, and it’s almost overwhelming how good this game’s writing is. The macabre and fascinating world of Revachol is brought to life thanks to its detailed descriptions and lively characters, as well as the beautiful and unique oil painting artstyle. While I still do think that Planescape: Torment has the best writing in any video game, Disco Elysium is a very, very close second. I also loved how Disco Elysium’s version of perks and traits played into the way that Revachol was perceived by both the protagonist and the player. Rather than using traditional traits like a conventional RPG, the player has to manage 24 different aspects of their brain that are constantly fighting over each other, and that is an unbelievably creative and interesting way of giving the player an understanding of how the protagonist thinks and functions.

There is so much intelligence and beauty present in Disco Elysium, and while I could go on and on about it, I just want to end the review by saying that this is one of the best games I have ever played, and I’m not only incredibly excited to see what else Robert Kurvitz and ZA/UM have to offer, but I’m also excited to read The Sacred and Terrible Air, Kurvitz’s original Revachol-set novel, when it eventually gets translated into English.