![]() ![]() They all get a ton of use as well, which, frankly, is one of the biggest selling points of Disco Elysium. Instead, you'll be dealing with skills like "Shivers," "Savoir Faire," "Inland Empire," "Volition," "Rhetoric," and "Visual Calculus." Don't expect something as mundane as "Strength" or "One-Handed Melee" here. Speaking of skills, they are all sufficiently weird and perfectly match the nuts setting. Remember how InXile's Torment: Tides Of Numenera sort of flirted with the idea of having failed checks become as meaningful and memorable as successful ones but didn't really nail the execution all the way through? Disco Elysium actually delivers on that idea. Cuno is a bit like nuclear war: the only way to win his game is to simply not play at all, but where is the fun in that? I've never had such a good time watching a main character just get his ass absolutely handed to him by a child while spectacularly failing at everything before. While some of the most memorable characters during these interactions are your actual skills - which exist as free-floating thoughts you can listen to or argue with - the game doesn't skimp on well-written NPCs, many of whom most decidedly do not want your "help" in any way.Ī personal favorite of mine is the foul-mouthed little kid Cuno, who may or may not be the incarnation of some sort of insane demigod. Unlike many other RPGs, Disco Elysium very pointedly remarks on your choices, often long after you'd forgotten about running around with only one shoe because you couldn't be arsed to find its companion. You can literally get in a fight with a mail delivery box, or try to give hard drugs to 12-year-old kids. Themes of existential absurdity are constantly front and center as you interact with people and objects. Let's just say that things don't always go as planned when getting a hanged, week-long rotting body down from a tree when you are wildly hungover, not wearing any pants and a genuinely terrible shot. Its humor pops up in wildly unexpected places, often arriving as a result of failing skill checks, which means less reason to engage in save scumming. In case it wasn't clear, Disco Elysium is extraordinarily dark and nihilistic, but often still laugh-out-loud funny. In my first playthrough, I died twice by giving into the pointless absurdity of existence and just flat out, killing myself in the middle of interrogations. turns out you shouldn't have stayed up all night drinking and snorting coke for the last 30 years straight. Yep, you can have a heart attack reaching up for a tie attached to a ceiling fan. In a nod to an old joke about unforgiving tabletop games from the '80s and '90s, where you could literally die during character creation, your down-on-his-luck detective can overexert himself and expire within a minute of starting the game. ![]() I won't spoil it but simply put: Disco Elysium is wonderfully weird. From that disorienting opening, the game's distinctive style immediately hits as you begin searching your fleabag hotel room. You have to learn about the game world as you go, rising from a mind-erasing bender that has you unclear of the particulars regarding absolutely everything.īefore long, people start insisting you are a cop investigating a murder, even though you don't have a badge or a gun (or even pants). Much like with that other lauded bizzaro and text-heavy RPG, Planescape: Torment, Disco Elysium kicks off with the main character waking up a total blank slate. I mean, who HASN'T woken up like this a time or two? Disco Elysium Review: Torment for a Nihilistic Generation How often does that ever happen? And more pointedly, when does that type of reception throw itself upon a game from a totally unknown developer? Skyrocketing from obscure indie gem to belle of the RPG ball, Disco Elysium deserves every ounce of hype - and then a little bit more. It has 94% positive reviews as of this writing. If you somehow haven't seen the deluge of glowing comments inundating social media and glut of stellar reviews cropping up on other industry pubs, just take a look at where avant-garde RPG Disco Elysium is currently sitting on Steam.
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