Disco Elysium
A text-heavy RPG with a strong sense of the bizarre
A TOP-DOWN RPG/adventure game! In 2019! Well, sort of. DiscoElysium might be viewed from above, and its police detective plot might sound like something Sierra On-Line could have produced, but this is a postmodern game for postmodern times, and it isn’t afraid to let things get weird.
Your tie is talking to you, for one thing. Waking, naked apart from your socks, on the floor of a squalid hotel room in some ghastly 1970s alternate reality, the world’s worst hangover has pummeled your memory into a blank slate, perfect for character creation. There’s a murder to solve—somebody, probably you, has allowed the corpse of a hanged man to remain in a tree at the back of the hotel for several days; it stinks, and you feel so tender you barf—if you manage to get dressed, that is. Getting your tie from its resting place on the ceiling fan is tricky if you don’t have enough points in Physical.
While you can roll your own character from the off, there are some ready-made ones waiting for you. It doesn’t matter which you choose, as it won’t stay that way for long. Every piece of clothing you acquire boosts some skill in some way. There’s often a sting in the tail, though, as a stat that protects your character from the effects of drugs may lead to you abusing them, or one that detects lies may lead to paranoia. You’ve been in the hotel for a few days, misbehaving, and the guests give you clues as to what sort of person you are. Don’t like what they say? Deny it and bounce in another direction.
With 24 skills, if you tally up the subskills, everything is a test of one or another. Even combat, when it occurs, is more a test of dice rolls than of pixelaccuracy or weapon level. Equipping the right clothing can give you enough of a stat boost to pull success from the jaws of defeat, and failed tasks can be re-rolled under the right circumstances.
The game has a rather beautiful handpainted aesthetic, the character portraits a particular highlight, but even in 4K on a huge screen, you’re never going to get away from the text. There’s reams of the stuff, constantly scrolling up the right-hand side with every thought your character has and every microdecision you make. Choose the Sensitive character archetype, or otherwise boost the Inland Empire skill, and you’re treated to the thoughts of inanimate objects, too. The Thinker, with his Encyclopedia skill, constantly uncovers new facts about his environment. It’s a good thing there are no tests of player skill—you’d fail every one because you were still reading about the environment. You have a partner, too, who fills in the blanks with yet more text.
Luckily, the reams of text just allow the quality of the writing to shine through. However you develop your character, there’s a line that will make you smile. As a police procedural, even one starring such a complete human disaster as the protagonist, the game could be dry and feel too bound up in rules. Thankfully, you never feel this, as intelligent choices in setting and the characterization of those around you make every choice seem valid.
If this is the start of a new golden age of top-down detective adventures, we’re here for that. And even if it’s a one-off, we’re happy to have seen it take flight so successfully. Unforgettable.