DECEMBER 2020 PCWorld 95graced the medium.
And it’s inspired so many other
developers to do their best work as well. You
can draw a line between Kentucky Route Zero
and so many other games this generation. As I
said in our review (go.pcworld.com/kzrv), it’s
gaming’s Velvet Underground. Not that many
people played it, but all the ones who did? A
decent chunk decided maybe they’d like to
make video games as well.
- D I S C O E LYS I U M
Disco Elysium (go.pcworld.com/dcel) is one
of the games that drew inspiration from
Kentucky Route Zero—and plenty of other
places, as well. If there were a reward for most
text in a game, Disco Elysium (our 2019 game
of the year [go.pcworld.com/19gm]) would
probably win it. Over the course of 15 to 20
hours, its story covers everything from
Communist theory to cryptozoology to disco,
religion and music, detective’s intuition, the
perils (and wonders) of drug use, and more.
You might see all of that or none of it,
because Disco Elysium is less about quantity-
of-text and more about how all that writing is
used. It’s a role-playing game, superficially
resembling the Infinity Engine CRPGs of old,
but your stats also play a part in your
conversations. Invest heavily in Shivers, you
might become more in-tune with the city’s
mysteries. Dump points into Encyclopedia,
and your inner monologue will interject with
information that may or may not be relevant to
the task at hand, filling you in on not just the
make and model of a nearby car, but who4.