Disco Elysium - The Final Cut

These were my thoughts after completing this game last year:

Disco Elysium is an RPG with 'dialogue gameplay' similar to old school rpgs like planescape torment, finished it in about 40 hours. It's very well written (arguably the best writing ever in a video game). Every single facet of the game, the characters, the fictional world, the buildings, the factions etc have an immense and in-depth back story to unravel or optionally learn about. It's extremely impressive the amount of depth packed into such a small slice of a fictional city.

There is no combat, the entire game is experienced through dialogue, exploration, solving tasks, and learning/reading new information. Information is your weapon here, as it will help you navigate through the ocean of dialogue being thrown at you, with its twists and turns (and hundreds of dialogue skill checks). Unlike other games, failing a dialogue skill check is not necessarily a bad outcome, as it might open up completely new dialogue and gameplay paths. It's intended.

I'm quite glad I picked this game up and went in completely blind. Only criticisms I have is the lack of fast travel (coming down to the end, some of the backtracking was tedious) and somewhat clunky movement (they should patch in a 'hold down mouse button to move' option). It's not a game for everyone, especially not for those who don't like reading dialogue or need combat in their games.
 
Drexion said:
These were my thoughts after completing this game last year:

Disco Elysium is an RPG with 'dialogue gameplay' similar to old school rpgs like planescape torment, finished it in about 40 hours. It's very well written (arguably the best writing ever in a video game). Every single facet of the game, the characters, the fictional world, the buildings, the factions etc have an immense and in-depth back story to unravel or optionally learn about. It's extremely impressive the amount of depth packed into such a small slice of a fictional city.

There is no combat, the entire game is experienced through dialogue, exploration, solving tasks, and learning/reading new information. Information is your weapon here, as it will help you navigate through the ocean of dialogue being thrown at you, with its twists and turns (and hundreds of dialogue skill checks). Unlike other games, failing a dialogue skill check is not necessarily a bad outcome, as it might open up completely new dialogue and gameplay paths. It's intended.

I'm quite glad I picked this game up and went in completely blind. Only criticisms I have is the lack of fast travel (coming down to the end, some of the backtracking was tedious) and somewhat clunky movement (they should patch in a 'hold down mouse button to move' option). It's not a game for everyone, especially not for those who don't like reading dialogue or need combat in their games.
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Good review. I think the new voice-overs for every NPC will make it easier for people who don’t like to read that much. I’m finally going to play it now. :)
 
So will this TRULY be the final update for this game?

Voice overs is a pretty big deal.

Makes me wonder what they'll add 4 months from now in The Complete Slice.
 
I was really interested in this game and found a lot I liked in it but after about 20 hours I've given up. It's been a long time since I found a game that was so punishing if you didn't do what the designers intended.


Without being too spoilerish I was unable to locate my suspect because I was able to pay my room bills. Having had to resort to a walkthrough (not for the first time) I got softlocked out of the plot, unable to climb a fire escape I could see because my character was unable to contemplete an old advert with only 28% maxed out stats. I could have just kept reloading but by that point my patience was worn out.
 
John C Flett said:
I was really interested in this game and found a lot I liked in it but after about 20 hours I've given up. It's been a long time since I found a game that was so punishing if you didn't do what the designers intended.
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They generally provided several ways to do things that you have to do., depending on stats etc.

A given walk through is based on a particular setup.

And not all characters are intended to do all things. I did a very thinky cop. Could find all sorts of clues, but other things I couldn't handle at all.
 
Not all things, there are a number of bottlenecks and softlocks in the game and maybe I was just unlucky. It doesn't help that some of the ways to do things are so obscure; Investigation led me to an approximate location but the check to examine the building doesn't unlock unless I have been to a specific room but you only need to go there if you run out of money.


The final check which has no alternative path (I checked) can't easily be redone if the stat is maxed out when you fail as mine was.


It adds insult to injury that I wanted to investigate a building that was right there with a visible fire escape, not some abstract puzzle or challenge. As I say, I liked a lot of the game, but in the end I just lost patience with what felt like willfully obtuse design choices.
 
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