DISCO ELYSIUM
- THE FINAL CUT
RELEASED 2019 | LAST POSITION No change
Evan: A richly detailed roleplaying game
about a deeply human shared experience:
losing your wallet.
Encyclopedia: The creation of an
Estonian studio who’d never made a
videogame before, Disco Elysium is a
revolutionary detective RPG set in the
imaginary city of Revachol, and in
particular its impoverished dockside
district of Martinaise, whose politics serve
as a mirror of our own.
Drama: Good sire, you neglect what’s
most important. Disco Elysium gives your
skills a voice, and the more points you put
in them the more likely they are to interject
with their own observations, whether
helpful (like when I point out a character
who may be lying to you), or unhelpful (like
whatever nonsense Electro-Chemistry is
about to inflict upon us).
Electro-Chemistry: You both forgot
what really matters. Disco Elysium
open-palm slams you right into the poetic
streaming consciousness of a shambling
maniac who broke his brain with a whole
lot of drugs. Yummy, yummy drugs.
Wes: It’s a marvel that Disco Elysium
manages to make the warring voices of
your brain funnier, more compelling
companions than typical RPG followers.
The way your skill points affect how active
they are in conversations and how their
dialogue helps you understand your
character and the world around you – it’s
just brilliant. I can’t think of another RPG
that makes bad dice rolls so much fun,
either. I never felt the urge to savescum in
Disco Elysium
because there was
always a clever bit of
dialogue waiting for
me, even when I
literally fell on my ass.
Evan: Exactly: the
way that those
different brain voices
passively interject
based on how much you’ve developed
them – and the fact that they can still
betray you and offer bad advice! – is
genius and reflective of what it feels like
to be human. A person with ‘Level 10
Empathy’ can still make a bad decision by
listening to that empathy at the wrong
moment. In this, I love how much Disco
cares about what I don’t say. A numbered
list of dialogue options shouldn’t be a
series of cabinets you rummage throughto get the stuff inside. What you say affects
the world and reflects who you are.
Fraser: Disco Elysium was close to the
perfect RPG when it first launched, but
miraculously ZA/UM has managed to
make it even better. In a huge free update,
the studio added full voice acting,
something I didn’t feel that was missing
until I heard it. Even your internal
monologue gets the treatment, with a
superb performance from Lenval Brown
giving your skills and inner thoughts even
more personality. As a bonus, there are
a bunch of political vision quests, too,
which serve to create a climax for your
journey of self-discovery. As challenging
as some of the subject matter is, it’s an
unmissable game.
Andy K: Still unbeatable. Every RPG I’ve
played since, I’ve thought to myself: “I
wish this was more like Disco Elysium.”
The sheer variety of ways to shape your
character – and how people in the world
react so specifically to what you’ve
moulded this grotesque lump of cop-
shaped clay into – makes it a role-playing
experience like
no other. I can’t
remember the
last time I was
so completely
consumed by a
game’s setting and
atmosphere either.
I’m listening to the
music from the
Whirling-in-Rags (the extra dreamy
12pm version) as I type this, and I want
to be back there, interrogating burly
dockworkers, singing heartbreaking
karaoke, and slowly piecing together
what I did on my apocalyptic bender a
few nights before. Disco Elysium is a
truly singular game. There’s never
been anything like it, and there probably
won’t be ever again, even if ZA/UM
makes a sequel.1
I CAN’T THINK OF
ANOTHER RPG THAT
MAKES BAD DICE
ROLLS SO MUCH FUNThe Top 100
FE ATURE
The Top 100
FE ATURE