Disco Elysium

Some people are slow readers, that is not a charge that could be laid at my doorstep. Admittedly, I am slow when it comes to many things (such as updating this blog, to name one example),  but reading is not one of them. 

I am, however, a slow gamer. It can take me weeks, even months to finish a game that take other people mere days, if that. Part of that is due to the fact that I'm not a terribly good at videogames, the other reason is because of laziness and procrastination. I have several games on GOG and Steam that I installed, played for a bit and then uninstalled thinking: Eh, I'll finish it some other time. It was not that I thought the games in questions were bad, I just wasn't in the mood, at the time. 

However, I recently finished a game and it wasn't one I had played before and that game was Disco Elysium and so, here are my thoughts about this game.

Now, you might be wondering what kind of game Disco Elysium is? Disco Elysium is a RPG created by the Estonian developer ZA/UM. It was originally released in 2019, followed by an updated version called The Final Cut in 2021. It's this version that I played.

Art, featuring the game's main characters: Kim Kitsuragi and Harry Dubois. The Woman in the background is Dolores Dei, one of the world of Elysium's most influential historical figures.

Disco Elysium takes place in the city of Revachol. Once the capital of Elysium, the world of the game, Revachol is now under the control of the Coalition of Nations. You play a man who has just woken up in a hotel room, with a massive hangover and no recollection of who he is. You soon learn that you're Harry Dubois and that you're a member of the Revachol Citizens Militia (that is, you're a cop). A man has been found hanged in a tree and it is up to you to find out whether or not it was suicide or murder. You are not really feeling up to the task, but fortunately you've been assigned a partner from another department: Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi. Will you pull yourself together, solve the case and maybe redeem yourself in the eyes of the world? Or will you continue on the downwards spiral you're currently on? Or will you do something else entirely? Its all up to you, what kind of cop you're going to be. 

Disco Elysium is unique among the RPG that I've played in that it dispenses with traditional combat. I'm sure that this reveal just caused some of the more conservative-minded RPG fans among you to run for the hills (or to the nearest forum/social media platform), but personally I'm all for it. Don't get me wrong; I have nothing against combat in an RPG. I expect (and accept) it, just as I expect inventory-based puzzles in a point & click adventure game. However, I see no reason why something should be mandatory, simply because its ubiquitous. 

However, if you assume that the absence of combat mean that you can not die in this game, you'd be mistaken. There are plenty of ways to get a 'game over'  in Disco Elysium, including dying of a heart-attack or 

As is common for the genre, Disco Elysium, gives the player a set of skills, which they can then level up by talking to people and solving quests.This is, of course nothing new; what makes Disco Elysium stand out is that each skill also make up different aspects of Harry's character and is, therefore, equipped with a personality of its own. As such, your skills will frequently interject to comment on something, bicker with each other and so on. 

Throughout the game, the player will come across skill-checks, the outcome of which depends on the points assigned to the skill necessary. Most of these are white skill-checks and can be retried once you've leveled up sufficiently. Red skill-checks, however, does not offer that opinion, so you may want to be absolutely certain before you try to tackle one. 

Disco Elysium does not provide the player with a huge, sprawling world to play around in. This does not mean that the game is small, however. My first play-through took me a total of 40 hours and afterwards I felt as if I hadn't uncovered half of the game's secrets. 

If there's one area where Disco Elysium truly shines, its in the player's interaction with the people of Revachol. Some of the people like aging cryptozoologists Lena and Morell are friendly and open, others, like Klaasje are secretive or downright hostile. Regardless, Disco Elysium presents the player with some of the most fully-realized, well-written characters in all of gaming. 

If there's one character that deserves to be singled out its your partner, Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi. A strong contender for best sidekick in a game, Kim serves as the straight-man your often weird or eccentric behavior. During my play-through, earning the trust and respect of this fictional character became one of my top priorities.

I came into Disco Elysium with high expectations and those expectations were more than met. This is a game that has earned its place among my personal favorites. Revachol is a place I will definitely revisit and I'm interested to see what else ZA/UM has in store for the gaming world.