In terms of design, this feels like the next big thing every other game in the genre will try to recreate or to build from, not just in the deliberate absence of direct violence as the default way to interact with the world, but in the way that world is presented, and how your RPG abilities are handled. It's pretty ingenious and contributes tremendously to the overall experience. In terms of writing, it's hard to deny its merits, as it is a very ambitious game in both scope, variety, extravagance and complexity, and in a way, it achieves a lot by being profound in its conversations and chilling in its crucial moments, BUT, and here's my biggest gripe with the game; Disco Elysium feels like it desperately wants to be the coolest kid in school, with this pessimisstic vibe and this unbearable edginess that really messes with what is otherwise a masterpiece. Is like that scene in Good Will Hunting when Matt Damon faces another man in a bar and asks him which authors has he read. Very pathetic, really. And the sad part is that unlike that awful movie, Disco Elysium HAS very cool shit to tell and show, and that tenderness, that genius character writing (your main companion in particular may be the best videogame character ever), that attention to detail, and those big poignant moments get kind of ruined by the sheer degree of cynicism present throughout the game. From the "capital subsumes all its critiques into itself" bullshit, to the world ending nightmarish-political vibes of a devastated city that can't and won't improve its conditions because it tried once and didn't succeed so what's the point of doing it again and why even bother, to the atrocious western marxism-trotskyism ode of an ending, at some point, this is a misery parade, despite all of the ways it may seem it isn't. At its core, this game has a messiah complex, and an overwhelming negative view of everything, and that spoils everything else. Take that out, and this is the best game of all time.

Incredibly stylish and cool hack and slash that exudes extravaganza in every component of its design. Pretty much every graphic designer likes this game, and that's for a reason, as everything looks and feels outlandish and over the top in the best possible way. I also really like the core game design of a typical Hideki Kamiya game where you have a short, conclusive and enjoyable main campaign where the extra juice is replaying the levels and doing it better, faster, taking more risks and knowing where to look for the extra levels. I even liked the gimmicky boss fights, as they're a spectacle, which is the objective, but the gimmicky levels are a chore at best and an absolute disgrace at worse. Sadly, the first playthrough is potentially the worst one, because that's when you're more likely to call bullshit on the timing of some enemies (a few are trial and error) and watch the nearly THREE HOURS of cinematics that depict an extremely convoluted and uninteresting plot, with mediocre action sequences that don't hold a candle to the bonkers fights you can actually do while playing the game.

I liked the game design in this, even if it does wear its influences a bit much. It manages to become unique through its worldbuilding, which is arguably not that original either considering the horror landscape as a whole, but it does feel like it's trying and at least partially succeeding in creating a concrete atmosphere, thanks in part to its impressive visual component. The writing I could honestly take it or leave it, as it is too obtuse to get anywhere and seems to be okay with merely appearing interesting and deep without actually saying much. What it is there is a rather disappointing "totalitarian dystopia" that you've probably seen hundreds of times before, with a chinese/german/russian theme that is just vulgar in my opinion. As other people have said before, the combat is mediocre, but I don't think it detracts that much from the experience. Sadly, at around 10 hours it overstays its welcome, and that may be this game's biggest sin.

Some people say this has great writing, which is a little funny to me because the story is all over the place, trying extremely hard to be serious and imitating a particular type of plot that is clearly not equiped to do, not to mention a lore that I cannot imagine someone liking. The idea of having different routes is fine and makes sense from a mechanics perspective, but the pacing is atrocius as basically half the game is an introduction, and all the systems with which you interact with the characters aren’t as enjoyable to do them twice, let alone three or even four times. Any additional playthrough will have you spending at least five hours of repetitive chores and that is a crime for a game that basically begs you to replay it. The other part of the writing has no right being as good as it is; the characters. At the beginning I honestly thougth they were written by the programing department, a messy cast you can give cool perks in combat that sort of relate to their personalities, but as you advance they reveal all their personal trauma and funny querks, which I found extremely endeering. It is probably the best part of the game. The combat is good, but not excellent; I’m missing the regular rock-paper-scisors dynamic of weapons of other games in the series, or something similar. The maps are mediocre and lack some variety, and the unit specialization system is complex but in my opinion not tremendously well implemented. The graphics are merely acceptable and the performance is poor to say the least.

Not as insane as everybody says, there’s two segments that are clearly the star of the show when it comes to big set-pieces and the rest is… forgettable, really, it also feels extremely constrained by the limitations of an ancient hardware, the developer unable to reach the visual splendor they surely imagined. As a shooter merely one year before Halo, I’m sad to admit that this does not hold up, and as an art-piece, while not without its charm, is as juvenile as it gets, full of half-assed ideas and not much more, like they watched the end of evangelion and wanted to make something like that in game form but didn’t have the time nor the money so this is the result.

A decent game trapped within the confines of a sea of garbage side content that continuously messes with the pacing of the adventure and ruins the delicate balance a story about mortality, human fragility and defying systemic oppression required. Even the few instances of good plot bits (let’s say, a colony that has basically lost the will to live because they have taken such heavy losses they see no point in defending themselves anymore) are rushed because the game is eager to throw new fucking content every half an hour, so you don’t even get the benefits of the glacial pace of the main campaign to contemplate these problems, just the downsides. A well crafted world to explore won’t do nothing for you even if is as beautiful as this if there’s basically nothing of interest to find nor anybody cool to talk to, and the looting, a staple of this genre, gets tired fast when there’s SO MUCH of it and the best thing you could get are items of which you have such quantity the game sells them automatically, and which only get you like a small increase in your damage output or something like that. The combat, the thing you’ll spend the majority of your time doing, is as excessive as the rest, a cacophony of contradicting mechanics that are not interesting whatsoever nor are they cool to simply do; I know this sounds contentious, and I’ve heard and read a lot of people who actually loves this combat, but I just refuse to believe them.

There’s like 20 to 30 hours of decent, if a little dull and cliche, story elements and 10 to 20 of actually interesting side content stretched to be a 150 hours ridiculous monster of a game, and that’s a shame.

Every game could be like this and I wouldn’t mind; digital spaces to explore, stories waiting for us in there, with the details being not shown nor told but rather designed to be experienced through said exploration. And what spaces does Tacoma have! Every room and scenario filled with its characters’ personalities, the titles of the books they read, the way they set their beds, or simply how they arrange their own intimate places to look at the stars before they go to sleep. I felt like I was visiting Arnold’s room from Hey Arnold, only better AND in space!

And the writing is solid aswell. Granted a little naive and perhaps with a few too many tongue and cheek references, but good overall, with themes, and a purpose and just something to say. Is basically the first half of Alien, only instead of focusing on the horror of the whole ordeal, it has a very human look at the crew reaction and a more decidedly political tone.

Far from perfect, but while playing it I couldn’t avoid thinking that I could play this formula for eternity.

You go to face the monster.

The monster is too fast and strong for you and defeats you effortlessly.

You fight it a few more times and you start learning its patterns, getting familiar with its moves, anticipating to its attacks.

Suddenly, almost by mistake, you kill it at the last second, the mission, what brought you to its lair, is accomplished.

But you come back.

Now you kill its brothers and sisters, each time faster than the last.

You become so accustomed to its kind that they are not even nuisances in your path, your weapon designed specifically to hurt them, your clothing made from their corpses.

You are no longer the prey. You are the hunter.

So people complain (rightfully) that these games are formulaic and soulless, but when this one, the first in the series, actually establishes the main conventions that the other ones would eventually follow albeit in a more refined way, is picked as the worst of the bunch? I repeat, the first one? The one with actually decent writing and purposeful direction? The one whose design wasn’t “make the same game, only bigger and in another place, and make it prettier… and put an historical figure or two” but tried something kinda new and exciting? The one with this, like, menacing aura that despite its many flaws it succeeded in telling a compelling story both with Altair and Desmond?

I don’t believe you.

Yes, the aesthetics of Gears are extremely boring (or did they became boring after everything else started looking like it?) and edgy, but this is a honest to god great shooter with a FLAWLESS pacing. One of the best examples of a perfectly tight 7+ hours campaign that just works; from the introduction of the mechanics to new and exciting weapons to horror inducing hallways to cooperative set-pieces to blind minibosses to huge arenas to sniper galleries it’s just so, so good. The only complain I have, apart from the obvious silliness of the tone epic employed, is that an otherwise excellent multiplayer was impossible to play due to the lack of dedicated servers.