Disco Elysium - AKA - No Truce With the Furies. I had been following this game under its previous title for quite some time, and was pretty excited about it. A dialogue driven RPG focusing on replayability and ROLE PLAYING above all else, set in a bizarre anachronistic world sounded pretty cool to me. Now that I've actually played it, it's quite a bit better than cool...
There's a lot to talk about with Disco, and I'm not entirely sure where to start, so I'll just start listing stuff. This game is hysterical, I can't remember a game that has made me laugh more than this one. This game has a fascinating talent/perk tree where your thoughts talk to you. It has an emphasis on dialogue, but is generally quite pithy. It encourages you to talk, but not just say anything because you might piss everyone off. There are 'cop' archetypes, and they're great - Sorry Cop, Apocalypse Cop, Supercop, etc. Your partner Kitsuragi is a fucking bro. The main story is pretty good, but the side stuff and characters and just HEART make this game shine.
You're an amnesiac cop in a part of town that is 99% union controlled - and your authority doesn't quite reach alllll the way here, due to some background politics stuff you find out more and more about as the game goes on. This is a very lived in world, and it becomes clearer the longer you go the devs worked their asses off on making this feel like a real place. As you move through the story, time passes by either investigating things or talking to folks, and the mood of the day changes significantly as time passes. Normally I'm not a huge fan of 'timed' elements, but Disco Elysium makes them work well by rarely having anything be actually timed, you can try again tomorrow if you miss something specific.
As you move through this world and progress, you get skill points to invest in your 'thought cabinet'. This shows all of your different personality aspects (24 in total) who as you rank them up, get more and more to say in dialogue to let you know what is going on underneath the surface. High Empathy? You know when others are suffering and what to say. High Logic? Easily point out others mistakes to trap them in lies. High Espirit De Corps? Read your fellow police officers (including your partner) like a map and play off of them easily. High Physical Instrument? Kick ass and take names!! I had terrible physical stats and almost died fetching my tie from ceiling fan.... as you level up you put points into these and they can do more for you. My main stat was Volition and he was a total bro. He's essentially my will-power, and moral guideline. My very high volition also was able to spot when my other stats were compromised by being Into a certain young lady. He always looked out for me :'(
This game is filled to the brim with beautiful and wonderful moments. The art style is incredibly expressive, and the music is somber with a touch of upbeat and inquisitive. There are tons of great moments of humanity in this game, ugly and brutal, sensitive and kind. Sitting with Kitsuragi on the swings awaiting a thawed ice sheet, investigating a Bear refrigerator, hunting a definitely-not-real cryptid for an aged married couple (AMAZING ENDING TO THIS), tracking down the killer, going over your first day back on the job on a balcony with a cigarette... Great great shit. There's a whole other entry for Disco Elysium just for all my favorite moments!
On the downsides, it is ALL talking, and I do think there needed to be SOME other gameplay hook to balance things out a bit. I've no idea what, and it could have easily backfired if done wrong, but it got to be a little much at times. Also there's a couple of things where, if I hadn't just save-scummed, I'm not sure I could have finished the quest. There needed to be some other way to redo checks, or just make sure I passed a certain check when I needed to. All in all, this is a superb RPG and I'm a bit worried it is hurting my feelings for other RPGs I am currently playing because of it hahaha.. it has heart, it has creativity, it has beauty and I love it.
There's a lot to talk about with Disco, and I'm not entirely sure where to start, so I'll just start listing stuff. This game is hysterical, I can't remember a game that has made me laugh more than this one. This game has a fascinating talent/perk tree where your thoughts talk to you. It has an emphasis on dialogue, but is generally quite pithy. It encourages you to talk, but not just say anything because you might piss everyone off. There are 'cop' archetypes, and they're great - Sorry Cop, Apocalypse Cop, Supercop, etc. Your partner Kitsuragi is a fucking bro. The main story is pretty good, but the side stuff and characters and just HEART make this game shine.
You're an amnesiac cop in a part of town that is 99% union controlled - and your authority doesn't quite reach alllll the way here, due to some background politics stuff you find out more and more about as the game goes on. This is a very lived in world, and it becomes clearer the longer you go the devs worked their asses off on making this feel like a real place. As you move through the story, time passes by either investigating things or talking to folks, and the mood of the day changes significantly as time passes. Normally I'm not a huge fan of 'timed' elements, but Disco Elysium makes them work well by rarely having anything be actually timed, you can try again tomorrow if you miss something specific.
As you move through this world and progress, you get skill points to invest in your 'thought cabinet'. This shows all of your different personality aspects (24 in total) who as you rank them up, get more and more to say in dialogue to let you know what is going on underneath the surface. High Empathy? You know when others are suffering and what to say. High Logic? Easily point out others mistakes to trap them in lies. High Espirit De Corps? Read your fellow police officers (including your partner) like a map and play off of them easily. High Physical Instrument? Kick ass and take names!! I had terrible physical stats and almost died fetching my tie from ceiling fan.... as you level up you put points into these and they can do more for you. My main stat was Volition and he was a total bro. He's essentially my will-power, and moral guideline. My very high volition also was able to spot when my other stats were compromised by being Into a certain young lady. He always looked out for me :'(
This game is filled to the brim with beautiful and wonderful moments. The art style is incredibly expressive, and the music is somber with a touch of upbeat and inquisitive. There are tons of great moments of humanity in this game, ugly and brutal, sensitive and kind. Sitting with Kitsuragi on the swings awaiting a thawed ice sheet, investigating a Bear refrigerator, hunting a definitely-not-real cryptid for an aged married couple (AMAZING ENDING TO THIS), tracking down the killer, going over your first day back on the job on a balcony with a cigarette... Great great shit. There's a whole other entry for Disco Elysium just for all my favorite moments!
On the downsides, it is ALL talking, and I do think there needed to be SOME other gameplay hook to balance things out a bit. I've no idea what, and it could have easily backfired if done wrong, but it got to be a little much at times. Also there's a couple of things where, if I hadn't just save-scummed, I'm not sure I could have finished the quest. There needed to be some other way to redo checks, or just make sure I passed a certain check when I needed to. All in all, this is a superb RPG and I'm a bit worried it is hurting my feelings for other RPGs I am currently playing because of it hahaha.. it has heart, it has creativity, it has beauty and I love it.