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Game review 21 November 2019, 18:58

Meet 2019's Most Amazing Game – Disco Elysium, a Quirky RPG from Estonia

[Review updated] A depraved cop investigates a degenerate industrial world, where racism is ubiquitous, the specter of communism fuels class struggles, and the good and evil are meaningless constructs. Disco Elysium, this year's most ambitious RPG

...or does the city has a detective to burn?

Someone maay ask, "Can't we just ignore parts of the text?" Fair point. Disco Elysium, in some respects, resembles a point-and-click adventure game. The game world is limited to one of the districts of the city Revachol. The locations are rather cramped, and practically everything there – from characters, to items, to decor – has been placed with purpose. The plot is a very compact, too. It revolves around the murder case, which, expectedly, has ever wider implications, but it basically brings the entire game to a single "main quest."

The game world is not big, but very, very condense. And we don't get a map just like that – we have to fix it up ourselves.

You won't even be doing traditional side quests; all the cases that have the seeming of side activities can introduce new threads to the investigation. On top of that, there are elements of non-linearity. The creators gave us some freedom in formulating conclusions based on the collected evidence, in search of subsequent next clues, and numerous problems have more than one solution. Simply put, ignoring any information is impractical, because everything may be relevant. More – it's even advisable to be rather meticulous with reading all the descriptions.

Unless you don't care about a successful conclusion. Disco Elysium offers a lot of room to maneuver for the character's personality; nothings prevents us from sealing the fall of the protagonist, leaving him in the same mess as we find him in – if not worse. And then, if you really don't feel like reading a lot, you can simply create a dumb brute – playing such a character, you will only see the basic descriptions of things, and there will be little pondering over serious matters. You'll miss one of the most important aspects of the game, but...

Exploring the nooks and crannies of Revachol can reveal some really bizarre things.

No truce with the furies

When I'm trying to come up with creations that I could compare Disco Elysium to, I see three games. The first two I already mentioned: Planescape: Torment and Torment: Tides of Numenera. ZA/UM, like the Black Isle studio, following in the footsteps of inXile Entertainment, used the formula of an isometric RPG to create something completely different than most representatives of the genre. The authors almost completely eliminated combat, and subordinated the character development system to the story telling, which is the absolute foundation of the game. Moreover, the story involves themes and ideas straight from serious literature, rather than electronic entertainment. By extension, they've elevated their work to nearly high culture – hence contributing to ennobling the entire medium of video games. And they deserve high praise for that.

And the third creation I'd compare Disco Elysium to is The Infinite Jest from late David Foster Wallace. The book is considered an outstanding piece of literature, belong to the gems of American prose, a mandatory reading for anyone claiming to be a man of words. At the same time, it's definitely not an easy read. Even if you're not afraid of lush sentences and vocabulary that could be challenging for the most literate person, it wouldn't be difficult to feel intimidated by the sheer volume of the thing And it's similar with Disco Elysium. It's a wonderful game that every fan of the RPG genre – even every player looking for something more than empty entertainment – should get to know themselves. Remember, however, that reaching the finale may be mentally exhausting.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Completing Disco Elysium took me slightly more 60 hours. I could do it in 30-40 if I read faster and/or would spare myself the painstaking clicking through everything that offered any interaction (including dialogue options)... but why should I deny myself this bliss?

This game has been on my radar ever since it was still known as a project called No Truce with the Furies. And this is one of the rare cases, where all the hopes I had for the game were realized, and all my concerns – dispelled. Which is nice, because I had a few of them – after all, an obscure game from an even more obscure Estonian studio without a strong portfolio could easily go wrong.

DISCLAIMER

We've received a PC review copy of the game from Dead Good PR, who cooperate with the developers of Disco Elysium – kudos!

Christopher Mysiak | Gamepressure.com

Christopher Mysiak

Christopher Mysiak

Associated with GRYOnline.pl since 2013, first as a co-worker, and since 2017 - a member of the Editorial team. Currently the head of the Game Encyclopedia. His older brother - a game collector and player - sparked his interest in electronic entertainment. He got an education as a librarian/infobroker - but he did not follow in the footsteps of Deckard Cain or the Shadow Broker. Before he moved from Krakow to Poznan in 2020, he was remembered for attending Tolkien conventions, owning a Subaru Impreza, and swinging a sword in the company's parking lot.

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