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.

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.

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.

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.

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.