Secret Asshole
Expert in things that never, ever happened
Forum Staff
⚡ Thunderdomer ⚡
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2017
The art style is a combination of Steampunk, Retro and Oil Painting
Disco Elysium is a game I've been waiting for a long time. No, not the game itself. A game like it. An RPG where you play a detective. And its not a first person RPG or a RPG 'lite' where you're a detective and just gunning down thugs. This is a cRPG in the vein of Planescape Torment or Fallout, NOT Baldur's Gate. However, despite these comparisons, its a completely unique experience. It isn't Baldur's Gate. It isn't Planescape Torment. Its Disco Elysium. First, let me get down to the specs, because there's a little. I'd highly, highly recommend an SSD for this game. There's a lot of loading between areas because of the art style. Its also an isometric game, but don't worry, because hitting tab basically reveals anything you need to do. There's really little in the way of controls if you've played any basic CRPG. But this isn't a regular old CRPG.
So why am I writing up a thread on an obscure game? Because this is a game that deserves widespread attention and praise. You play as a detective. A detective who is so drunk, who is so on the edge of blowing his brains out, you’re suffering from alcohol abuse related memory loss. As in, you don’t remember your name, the world you live in, where you live or even if you're a real cop or not. You don't even know what the currency of the world is. You're dropped into this world, start off naked and one of your first quests is finding your shoe. Though it might seem ‘lol random’ its not. Basically everyone around you is off-put by how close to the fucking edge you are. The world’s not insane. Just you. Its also refreshing in the sense that your complete lack of knowledge isn’t just brushed off by the characters. Its an extreme worry that you're just going to lose it and kill yourself and a whole bunch of people.
Your tie is your friend....who constantly encourages you to get high, drunk and avoid your police work. Just try not to talk to it in front of people. You know, because that's fucking weird.
The setting itself is hard to describe. There's no journal and you'll have to put points into specific skills to remember and learn about the world itself. There's no 'encyclopedia' as far as I can tell, which to me is a weakness since the lore in this game is deep but finding it out is half the fun. Basically, you start out in a fictional world. Saying too much would ruin the surprise. But basically there was a failed socialist revolution and everything is gone to shit. The cops aren't exactly respected or official and spread extraordinarily thin and contend with different factions who have more power than them and are viewed as 'law enforcement'. This game has a LOT of reading and puzzles for interrogation. So if you don't like that readin', then this game isn't for you.
There is a sheer amount of choice here. Oh, and if you start with 1 Endurance, you get 1 Health. If you fail to grab your tie correctly at the beginning of the game, you lose a health point, have a heart attack and die. Its fucking awesome.
Mechanistically, it plays like a PnP RPG system. You’ve got 4 stats: Intellect, Psyche, Physique and Motorics. Intellect is how smart you are and basically is the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ portion. Psyche is basically Charisma and how you understand people. Physique is self-explanatory, Each stat leads to 6 skills for a total of 24. The skills are pretty much not your typical RPG skills. They represent your internal monologue, your psyche. And your own skills will give you suggestions to dialogue options, sometimes berate you when you fuck up or don't do what they want.
Fuck you brain, I do what I want
And when I say role-playing, this is role playing. This isn't min-maxing stats, its about who you are as a character. And who you are as a character is a black-out Drunk, fuck-up of a cop in a semi-fantasy, semi-Steampunk, LSD inspired world. It isn't about exhausting all dialogue options either. If you fuck up responding, you can fuck up quests. Your brain will give you hints as to what to do. If you can pass the checks of course. So DON'T exhaust all dialogue options unless you are ready for the consequences. Its not that type of game. The prose can be interesting and hilarious at the same time. Also, when I said this is PnP inspired, it basically is. There are a lot of dice rolls involved, many automatic based on your stats. Dice rolls can also be modified, depending if you've talked to certain characters or discovered certain things about the world. An impossible dice roll can become neutral if you do a little talking, exploration and investigation. There are two types of challenges: Red and White. Red are one time only deals that you better pass or you'll fuck up. White means you can try again if you meet certain requirements."Roll to Remember your name, you drunk motherfucker." God, the DM is such an asshole.
There's a ton more to go into, but this is a true RPG experience on the PC that is unique to anything I've played before. One of my first cases involved a man who was hanged. The first problem was getting him down. You could either go ask the suspects for help, ask a kid that keeps calling you a faggot over and over for help, or you can shoot it down. Since you're a drunk asshole, you lost your gun. But you can get your partner to do it...who turns out they can't shoot worth a shit. So you take that gun from him and shoot it down yourself...if you've got motorics to do so. I had just enough hand-eye coordination to do it. Then, since I had a high
I'd recommend just going through it blind, fucking everything up or doing the best you can, as the best mysteries are best done without any knowledge. It really is one interesting ride and clearly crafted with love for the genre.
