Disco Elysium

Overview

Disco Elysium is an RPG developed and published by ZA/UM, released on PC on 15 October 2019, with Robert Kurvitz as lead designer and writer, Aleksander Rostov as art director and the band British Sea Power on music. You play a detective who wakes up in a trashed hostel room unable to remember his own name, just as he must investigate a hanged body in the impoverished Martinaise district of the city of Revachol, alongside his calm partner Kim Kitsuragi.

OtaHub's take

There is no conventional combat. Everything happens through dialogue and dice-roll skill checks. Twenty-four skills are split across four attribute groups, and each skill is a voice in the character's head that chimes in with advice, argues, or leads him astray. The Thought Cabinet lets you mull over ideas to gain lasting effects. Failure often opens situations as interesting as success.

The Final Cut arrived on 30 March 2021 on PC, PS4 and PS5, then on Xbox and Nintendo Switch on 12 October 2021. It adds full voice acting for every character, new quests built around the protagonist's political views and some new music, and was a free update for existing PC owners. At The Game Awards 2019, Disco Elysium won all four categories it was nominated in, including Best Narrative and Best RPG.

Verdict

Disco Elysium is for players who like reading, political and philosophical stories and layered characters, where every dialogue choice shapes who the detective becomes. The sheer volume of text will test anyone looking only for action or tactics. If you play, The Final Cut with its full voice acting is the version to buy.