A phrase nobody has ever heard before: "Disco Elysium is well-written." Bah! How well-written could a video game be?
...very, it turns out.
Disco Elysium, as a piece of media, stands toe to toe with grandiose works of the magnitude of Bulgakov's Master and Margerita, or Musil's The Man Without Qualities. Disco Elysium not only takes, but bull's-eye nails shots that even a lot of political works outside of games don't even take. It goes places; it is desperately, meticulously nuanced - often in ways close to total discomfort - without being scared to take a stance.
The point of the above is (apart from heaping praise, seriously this is a once-in-a-decade game) to prepare you for a lot of reading. The voice acting is good throughout (not perfect, but good), but it's still a game that requires you follow its text closely. It drains one's focus pretty heavily.
Also, the two book comparisons above were not innocent. If you know what I mean, then sorry for the slight spoilers - but this is not only a very funny, but a heavy game, too. With decent knowledge of world history (especially the first two world wars, in Europe or elsewhere), it is abyssal in its implications about the past and the now. If you don't have that knowledge, you will likely miss a lot of what this game is doing! Which would be a shame.
This being said: The games writer in me is has nothing but praise. Disco Elysium is a game that is aspirational to anyone seeking to create stories, characters, worlds, and change. If you are a CRPG fan, check it out. If you ever enjoyed a book, read this next. If you like video games at all, then play it, too.
...very, it turns out.
Disco Elysium, as a piece of media, stands toe to toe with grandiose works of the magnitude of Bulgakov's Master and Margerita, or Musil's The Man Without Qualities. Disco Elysium not only takes, but bull's-eye nails shots that even a lot of political works outside of games don't even take. It goes places; it is desperately, meticulously nuanced - often in ways close to total discomfort - without being scared to take a stance.
The point of the above is (apart from heaping praise, seriously this is a once-in-a-decade game) to prepare you for a lot of reading. The voice acting is good throughout (not perfect, but good), but it's still a game that requires you follow its text closely. It drains one's focus pretty heavily.
Also, the two book comparisons above were not innocent. If you know what I mean, then sorry for the slight spoilers - but this is not only a very funny, but a heavy game, too. With decent knowledge of world history (especially the first two world wars, in Europe or elsewhere), it is abyssal in its implications about the past and the now. If you don't have that knowledge, you will likely miss a lot of what this game is doing! Which would be a shame.
This being said: The games writer in me is has nothing but praise. Disco Elysium is a game that is aspirational to anyone seeking to create stories, characters, worlds, and change. If you are a CRPG fan, check it out. If you ever enjoyed a book, read this next. If you like video games at all, then play it, too.