Disco Elysium

Disco Elysium, an isometric text RPG with a point-and-click interface, earned worldwide acclaim for its story and unusual role-playing. Players can expect a complex detective mystery with half-hour-long conversations, unexpected plot twists, and choices that can change how every scene plays out. There is no combat system like in modern RPGs. All gameplay actions and fights happen through dialogue and skill checks, and one of Disco Elysium’s signature features is the arguments between the hero’s skills inside his head.

The game is set in Elysium, a fictional world created by Robert Kurvitz . Life exists only on the Isolas (islands and archipelagos), separated by the Pale, an all-consuming Nothingness that can still be crossed, though doing so is dangerous. The Isolas are densely populated by people whose appearance and cultures are inspired by the English, Germans, French, Chinese, Koreans, and other peoples.

Humanity in Elysium went through stages of development similar to those on Earth, but the process took a different path. As a result, old-fashioned pistols, primitive motor carriages, and airships exist alongside atomic energy, radio communications, electronics, and computers. After centuries of feudalism, society is now stirred by new political movements: anarchism, democracy, communism, libertarianism, and fascism.

The player arrives in Revachol, once a powerful city-state that influenced all of Elysium, but destroyed in a civil war and the long foreign occupation that followed. After decades of mass repression, silencing dissent, and strict police control, the once-prosperous metropolis has become a ruin.

Martinaise, the port district where Disco Elysium takes place, is no exception. Criminal gangs, private corporate armies, crowds of drug addicts, packs of wild animals, rotting factory shells, and crumbling ghettos with millions of residents are all part of the familiar scene here. The local police force, which the main character belongs to, solves barely 10% of its crimes.

There is no open world as such. Martinaise is made up of many small locations that serve as a static backdrop for the story (even if everything looks like a watercolor painting). The player’s task is to look around each location, click on every point of interest, and catch all the details. Exploring the world carefully will help a lot, as new locations open up as you progress, and things may change in places you have already explored.

Disco Elysium borrows a lot from old-school RPGs. Its role-playing mechanics are based on matching the hero’s skills to the dialogue or situation. Active and passive checks happen all the time. If a stat is low, extra dialogue options simply won’t appear, or the hero may fail to notice important details.

But even with high stats, you can still fail a check —a die is rolled each time, adding an element of uncertainty. Also, the higher your skills, the easier it is to pick up a negative effect, such as paranoia. However, thanks to the writers’ efforts, failing a check simply opens up a different course of events, so it doesn’t feel like a punishment.

The character has an inventory for notes, evidence, and various items that give skill bonuses or penalties, such as drugs and clothing. Clothing is a kind of gear: you can use it to adjust your stats to suit your current needs, or simply to look stylish.

From beginning to end, you constantly have to make decisions, which affect both what happens next and the ending. There are 15 endings in total, but only 1 is beautiful and right; all the others are premature. The player decides how to complete tasks: talk their way through conversations, pick a fight, or quietly gather evidence.

Detective Harry Du Bois arrives in Martinaise to investigate a strange murder. Just as he’s about to solve the case, he suddenly has a life crisis and goes on a long drinking binge. When he comes out of it, he remembers nothing except how to talk to people. This is where the game begins.

Du Bois must not only solve the case again (main quest), but also regain his memory and figure out what’s really going on in Martinaise. There are plenty of side quests, covering a wide range of topics: Harry’s unhappy life, the political struggle in Revachol, and paranormal mischief. They’re just as well-developed as the main quest.

The Metric development system offers 24 skills, covering most of the actions a detective would commonly take, from piecing together collected evidence to a simple interrogation. They’re all based on 4 core attributes (strength, motorics, intellect, and psyche), with 6 skills in each. That’s why every skill point you invest can make a big difference.

Raw numbers aren’t everything, because each skill is like an adviser inside Du Bois’s head, able to interrupt a conversation or situation. “Empathy” may suggest not pressuring the person you’re talking to, “Drama” may spot a lie, and “Logic” may ask you to clarify the details. Skills often come up in the most unexpected situations, because the game is constantly making checks.

Disco Elysium’s innovation is a whole system for handling thoughts. Thoughts are always swirling around in Du Bois’s head. They appear after conversations and visual analysis, or as his skills argue among themselves. You can ponder a thought by placing it in a special slot in the “thought cabinet”.

While a thought is being processed, the hero gets one perk. When the thought is fully developed, it changes to another. You don’t know in advance what a thought contains, so Harry might start with a bonus but end up with a penalty and severe depression. The latter, in turn, unlocks a separate quest. You can either accept or reject thoughts, spending skill points to do so.

The foundation of Disco Elysium’s story is a world full of problems (caused by life in poverty and ruin) and the political, economic, ethnic, linguistic, and other contradictions of a society stuck in the 1970s. The role-playing system forms the story’s superstructure.

Together, they create an engaging, richly developed “living story” whose every side can only be seen on a third playthrough. And there’s none of that tiresome “saving the world” business—it’s a story on a strictly local scale. The writing is so carefully thought out that characters and situations adapt naturally to the main character’s build and decisions.

An idealist will find all the clues, punish everyone responsible, and solve the case to the applause of his colleagues, while also winning the support of many locals. An anarchist, on the other hand, will fall out with half the cast but make new friends among racists and alcoholics—and will also be kicked out of the police for working with criminals and taking bribes.

No matter how strange the character gets, he’ll always make it to the end, either on his own or pushed along by the game, because the main plot barely changes. But everything else will be unique on every playthrough. Just be prepared to read. A lot. The writing makes up for it with its remarkable power: even ordinary lines can bring you to tears with their depth and emotion.