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Disco Elysium


one-armed dwarf
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Wow, no thread for this? I'm surprised.

 

Been dipping and diving into lots of different PC games and struggling to find something that really grabs me. This is it, I think. 

 

I'm only about 90 minutes in, so far it's an adventure set in a dilapidated world that feels marked by communism, or on the verge of some sort of ugly class upheaval. You're a very hungover detective who doesn't really know what's happening but there's a case you got to investigate. But maybe the real thing you got to investigate is who you are and what has happened to you. Sound familiar?

 

I really like it so far. It's basically just a game about reading lots of text so far and passing/failing speech checks. I don't really get all the systems yet, but it's like PS:T through the lens of Jack Kerouac or William S Burroughs. Absolutely fucked up and manky but very beautifully written heaps of text everywhere. The screen where they show you all your perks/specialities is so aggressively wordy.

 

I don't know if there is actually any combat in the game because every perk seems to be based around some personality trait

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There's a word I was looking for yesterday to describe the writing, but it's very 'earthy'. Like a big part of the narrative-gameplay design (ludonarrative is a word that makes me ?) are these mental and physical urges which unlock certain decisions for you. 

 

Like 'electrochemstry' is your horniness and propensity for drugs stat. Which I guess will unlock the more hedonistic choices in the game. There's another called 'dark light' which I think is the feeling in the pit of your stomach when your ego is under attack and you need to defend it or something.


It's so weird, I really like it. My highest stat is 'inland empire', which makes me more empathetic/emotionally intelligent but also mentally unstable. 

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Day 1 down. I've got a good grasp of the systems now I think.

 

So you got 4 sort of major groupings of stats. Intelligence, psyche, physical and motor skills. Tbh, I don't really know what the motor one is for yet. But withing those groupings the substats govern your dice roll success for various checks. 

 

You've also got these 'thoughts' which you 'internalise' (spend XP on) which unlock new dialogue options as well as affect your substats. Right now I have 'hobo cop' which makes me really good at fishing out shite from bins.

 

Like to progress the story I was trying to use my endurance to best a 8 foot nazi in a contest so I could open a gate and talk to a union leader. But I messed up, so now I have to receive lectures on eugenics and come back later and satisfy him with my knowledge of racism, then I can pass. So I'm a nazi now.

 

But in the interest of balance I've subscribed to communist theory. So I'm a commie nazi and I get more XP for saying shite like eat the rich and sodomize capitalism and stuff.

 

Mass Effect this ain't.

 

It's very funny sometimes but I kind of hate picking the commie choices. But all my other 'thoughts' are fascism orientated. I wonder what path I've set myself on. Tbh some of it makes me uncomfortable

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It's not just pure numbers though. Like the fact that my character just wants to do drugs all the time unlocked some really interesting backstory from someone with a dependency on anti-radiation medicine. 

 

Need to mention the soundtrack. I don't know who does the music but it sounds very post rock, Godspeed you Black Emperor sort of thing. I don't know that it always fits but it sets a nice mood sometimes.

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So while this sounds repetitive I wanted to say something again about these systems, cause I still don't feel like I've done justice to the way the conversation system is built. Mild spoilers.

 

The thing which is pretty amazing is that all your substats aren't just things which unlock dialogue, they can also argue with each other like they are your party members. It depends on how high level they are if they will pip in with something. The reason that this is important is because if you have one trait over developed it can actually mislead you and the other traits will act as a tempering influence helping guide your decision making. You can pass a skill check and still make terrible decisions, but if you pass multiple skill checks at once maybe you will see the right way ahead.

 

So because my character is an emotionally intelligent (but intellectually vapid) junkie I get interruptions from my 'volition' stat recommending I don't do drugs, or watch our when and where I do them. Which causes a back and forth between it and 'electrochemistry'. Even tho I'm going with a pre-defined build there's no way that you can get funneled into an 'optimal' cop by the way these systems work. It's much more dialectical than that. 

 

Another example. You have your partner who is much more straight faced and professional than you are. But you can get extra insight into what he really thinks of your actions with 'esprit de corps', which is like cop empathy, or something. So that is another thing that is constantly popping off in your dialogue choices if he is with you (he did not approve of my rum licking let me tell you).

 

Conversations in this are almost like the game's battle system sometimes. (very mild spoiler)

Spoiler

I had a particularly intense one with a union leader where he brought up my... uh... knowledge of eugenics (trying to blackmail me). My character started freaking out and took hits to morale (which can cause a game over) and it was difficult to get the conversation back on track in a way that benefited me. But then my 'half light' check kicks in, which is my fight or flight response that helps guide you to making split decisions when you are panicking.

So even failed checks can lead to some really exciting situations. I don't know how dynamic it really is but it seems I could play this again with an intellectual cop with no people skills and have a really different experience.

 

This will be my old goty for 2020 at this rate I reckon

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I don't usually cite Pat for his expert game advise but I think he describes the game pretty well in this video. Skip ahead past the first couple minutes.

 

 

Also Jim Sterling does a good job.

 

 

 

It's just a strongly written narrative adventure where your choice making feels extremely flexible and dynamic. It's not purely binary like a ME game.

 

I hope that makes some sense. Like when I play this I feel like I am a part of the story in which I never got from Mass Effect. It is so dedicated to gamified narrative. I don't know what else to call it. Dialogue options as a game mechanic. It leverages the unique strengths of the medium for its own style of storytelling.

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  • 2 months later...

I started this today, played for 50 minutes. Seems like it’s going to be a wild ride. There’s been a considerable amount of voice acting which is nice. It hearkens back to classic rpgs and point and click adventure games but it seems like it’s going to very much be its own thing. I guess Torment: Tides of Numenera is a game that did something similar. I’m looking forward to spending more time in this crazy world.

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6 hours played now and it’s fantastic. There’s kind of two elements to the game - the main story, which is a crime you need to solve, and also the identity and back story of the main character, which is also a mystery.

 

Talking to people and interacting with the environment is the core of the gameplay. Included in this are numerous skill checks which are affected by your points in the various skills (chosen at character creation and then added to when you level up) and by things like the clothing you wear. Of course, you can always save before each skill check and reload and try again until you pass - not too dissimilar to saving before and after every battle in Baldur’s Gate.

 

The music is stunning and is instantly one of the best video game soundtracks i’ve heard in recent years.

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Yeah I've been meaning to return to this, to be honest I hit a part in the game where I'd got a bit nonplussed by where the story was going. But one thing I really like is how this game also makes certain failure states interesting and it's fun to try and salvage a dialogue sequence after making some really shit choices.

 

It does a good job I think of noting when you mess up but not punishing you in a 'gamey' way. Unless you mess up so that you take a fatal blow to your morale and 

Spoiler

you kill yourself

 

eg, mild spoilers

Spoiler

If you're late to take the body down Kim mildly chastises you in a way that tells you a lot about the type of character he is. Also Kim is just a great character in general

 

Although the 'white' checks are a bit video gamey. I think maybe they put that in to stop save scumming but it's still weird and a bit weak

 

I think what caught me off about it tho was the pace of it, where maybe I'd been delving too much into the side stuff. Which is still extremely well written. It's also an extremely funny game if you're into real cynical dark humour

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I’m very engrossed in this now, there’s a lot of depth and detail to the game. I’ve encountered some fantastic scenes on Day 2 and the game has reminded me of why I loved Kentucky Route Zero. 
 

I unlocked achievements for being a centralist and a good cop which i guess is some kind of reflection of me...

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I also unlocked achievements for being boring, for apologising too much and for being an art cop...

 

Over 20 hours into this now and i’ve moved the story on a fair bit. Game has crashed occasionally (seems to be a problem with Unity), sometimes twice in a row in quick succession, but it hasn’t stopped me thoroughly enjoying it.

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Binged this hard to the end tonight. Took me about 28 hours in total. My only negative is the frequent crashing, other than that I really enjoyed it. It’s a totally engrossing story in a well written world, and i’d love to play a follow-up or another game like it. Excellent music by British Sea Power, one of the best game soundtracks I’ve heard. The game had some great moments. The more I played it the longer I was starting to spend at the computer each time. Pretty much an essential game for fans of point and click adventures and rpgs. 9/10

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  • 5 weeks later...

This is getting a TV series ?
 

 

Need to get back to this

 

Also apparently the game is based off the universe from some book? Very interested in seeing what that is...

 

Quote

Based on the universe introduced in Robert Kurvitz’s 2013 novel “Sacred and Terrible Air,” the game follows a veteran detective with a mysterious past who must solve a crime that threatens to set powerful political factions into civil war.

 

I guess it would probably be about the revolution.

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  • 5 months later...

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