Incline Disco Elysium - The Final Cut - a hardboiled cop show isometric RPG

[Bruma Hobo]

I endorse this game. It's a lot of fun and the racist characters in the game are not merely portrayed as caricatures. Of course, the overall understanding of right-wing talking points is somewhat shallow (you often get typical basic bitch right wing opinions to express, like "foreigners be taking muh jobs), but there's also some genuinely good stuff like discussing race theory with Measurehead. Communism is also not portrayed as the super best thing that will solve all problems, but actually receives some criticism too, so it's overall balanced as far as politics go. The leader of the workers' union, for example, is a slimy blob of fat who tries to coerce you into working for him, and there's a sympathetic traditionalist right-wing old man who wants the good old days back, so it's not like the game associates having a certain ideology with being a good or a bad person.

And this is how a national socialist ends up spreading red propaganda.

Sorry if I doubted you guys, I'm getting this right now.

 

[Prime Junta]

I have to point out again that Marxist talking points are similarly shallow. The discussion of the theory of value, especially the distinction between use value and trade value, is HIGHLY deficient

 

[HoboForEternity]

Channeling Infinitron

https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/1...s-dragons-experience-for-your-inner-detective

Thanks to its wonderful writing and deeply political takes on almost any subject it presents you, Disco Elysium will most likely be famed for being the true successor to Planescape: Torment. But I actually think its closest companion is Divinity: Original Sin 2.

!?

 

[Heroic Liberator]

^ Heresy.

 

[Prime Junta]

Channeling Infinitron

https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/1...s-dragons-experience-for-your-inner-detective

Thanks to its wonderful writing and deeply political takes on almost any subject it presents you, Disco Elysium will most likely be famed for being the true successor to Planescape: Torment. But I actually think its closest companion is Divinity: Original Sin 2.

!?

Yeah as hot takes go that one is pretty hot.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

If there's one game that wouldn't entice people to cheat, I would've thought it'd be this.

You learn something new about people every day, don't you?

 

[Daidre]

I think cheated 6-6-6-6 character would be hilarious. Normally created one usually gets 1-2 skill-interjections in every dialogue, but this perfect being would be attacked by an army of imaginary friends on every step of the journey.

 

[Curratum]

The more I look at screenshots showing dialogue, the more I become convinced that the game is not actually a game, much less one that attempts any sort of immersion, but rather a giant meme constructed around "clever", completely unrealistic dialogue.

 

[Prime Junta]

The more I look at screenshots showing dialogue, the more I become convinced that the game is not actually a game, much less one that attempts any sort of immersion, but rather a giant meme constructed around "clever", completely unrealistic dialogue.

People tend to post the meme-y bits.

 

[Life of the Party]

Joyce is a dame.

 

[vota DC]

I think cheated 6-6-6-6 character would be hilarious. Normally created one usually gets 1-2 skill-interjections in every dialogue, but this perfect being would be attacked by an army of imaginary friends on every step of the journey.

If you time cheat and save scum maybe you can grind enough xp to have the same effect.

 

[Prime Junta]

If you time cheat and save scum maybe you can grind enough xp to have the same effect.

Can't, the learning caps are set by your initial stats & Thoughts.

 

[Van-d-all]

I think cheated 6-6-6-6 character would be hilarious. Normally created one usually gets 1-2 skill-interjections in every dialogue, but this perfect being would be attacked by an army of imaginary friends on every step of the journey.

Exactly the plan for my next playthrough. I just want to see them go all at once, especially as some of them directly contradict each other.

 

[GewuerzKahn]

The more I look at screenshots showing dialogue, the more I become convinced that the game is not actually a game, much less one that attempts any sort of immersion, but rather a giant meme constructed around "clever", completely unrealistic dialogue.

Disco Elysium is just text heavy. It's just easy to post the fun stuff. The serious stuff would be a wall of text.

 

[fantadomat]

How the eff do people manage these sub-20-hour runs? I'm 2 days in with about 11 hours playtime, and I feel like I rushed through day 1 because I had already seen most of it.

And I'm also a fast reader.

Most likely he is lying or did the journo shit and just blined the main story ignoring everything else. The game have a lot of content.

 

[Junmarko]

Every game made for the last 20 years has been varying degrees of Commie or Marxist filth.

Lol. Whut.

 

[Jimmious]

Every game made for the last 20 years has been varying degrees of Commie or Marxist filth.

Lol. Whut.

They actually believe that stuff, that's the best part

 

[Luckmann]

Game has a big problem... too much fucking text. It gets boring and tyring to sit in front of a screen reading text dump after text dump for hours on end.

Don't try to vacuum all the options then. Just go for what you need to do.

You're also allowed to take breaks.

I'm trying to stick to one game day / one real-life day.

Look at you, all responsible and shit. You're clearly not the absolute disaster of a human being I am.

 

[vota DC]

If you time cheat and save scum maybe you can grind enough xp to have the same effect.

Can't, the learning caps are set by your initial stats & Thoughts.

But average cop with 3 means 3+3 in everything and you can even equip some thought that gives +1 to attribute, it should be enough to at least attempt everything.

 

[Kasparov]

Is this old already? Infinitron usually gets everywhere first.

Disco Elysium Is a Dungeons & Dragons Experience for Your Inner Detective
Rolling for success.
By Matt Purslow
Posted: 17 Oct 2019 12:58 pm

For decades, one of the major goals for many video game RPG studios has been to capture the freedom of tabletop role playing games. Without the walls of developer-created player spaces, pre-written dialogue, and inflexible rules, tabletop adventuring is so freeform that it’s practically expressive art. Within a tabletop RPG’s imaginary world, you can be whoever you want to be.


The latest milestone in this pursuit has been laid by the most unlikely of studios: a tiny team called ZA/UM. It has just released the critically acclaimed Disco Elysium, a murder mystery detective game that beautifully captures the freedom of roleplay by presenting a world that feels as if it has few rules.

That might well be down to the fact that, before it became a video game, Disco Elysium’s world was a custom Dungeons & Dragons setting that ZA/UM had been playing with for more than ten years. As such, it’s unsurprising that it feels so much like a tabletop RPG. But there’s more than just a feeling to all this. Disco Elysium is such a success because it rejects decades of video game RPG design in favour of adapting the essence of what makes tabletop RPGs so interesting: they are a series of complex and interconnected decisions, rather than modes made of binary rules. The majority of video game RPGs are broadly divided into two core components; the ‘role play’ elements in which you talk, explore, and discover, and the action-led combat sequences that come with equal frequency to conversation. But that split is not true for many tabletop games, and that’s where Disco Elysium works its magic.

For starters, violence in Disco Elysium is an oddity, not the norm. Part of this is due to the setting - real detectives are not known for getting into battles with gangs every ten minutes - but this approach also reflects the way in which many gamemasters run their tabletop campaigns. Video game design has traditionally leant into Dungeons & Dragons' epic fantasy, and so we associate RPGs with cutting down legions of orcs and hobgoblins. While D&D has a stronger combat slant than many other pen-and-paper games, a good GM will make violence a terrifying prospect; it’s a major decision for players to make, and one that could leave their characters’ reputation in tatters, their body mauled and irreparable, or even dead for good. On the occasions when a course of violence is presented to your detective, Disco Elysium captures the weight of these decisions.
Disco Elysium is a success because it rejects decades of video game RPG design in favour of adapting what makes tabletop RPGs so interesting: decisions.
“In addition, ZA/UM has opted for a consistent, flowing approach to conflict. Punching a person in the face is considered an equal option alongside verbally abusing or even consoling them, and so rather than combat being mode that you enter, it is a decision made through conversation dialogue trees. Selecting them plays beautiful animations that are bespoke to each situation, making violence feel like a shocking - or sometimes deeply hilarious - event rather than simply part of the day-to-day. Additionally, violence comes with a consequence; over in the Forgotten Realms no one is going to care if you’ve butched a dozen Kobolds, but in the city of Revachol a killing is a big deal (you’ve been brought here to solve one, after all), and you’ll have to answer for your actions.

Success in many decisions - violent or otherwise - is dictated by skill check dice rolls. It’s another component of Disco Elysium that makes it feel like a tabletop experience rather than a video game. There’s a real anticipation as you wait for the dice to roll and the screen to either blink green or crack with red light as the result is revealed. So many video game RPGs have hidden these checks behind invisible rolls and seamless dialogue in order to better heighten a sense of realism, so it’s a real treat to have this important part of tabletop gaming make it into Disco Elysium intact.
Disco Elysium: 18 Screenshots
The stats that dictate your chances of passing a skill check also highlight the game’s link to the tabletop. Rather than the rote RPG staples of dexterity, vitality, and mana, Disco Elysium’s skills are exotic cocktail ingredients pulled from the shelves of an otherworldly pub. Among them are strange delights with names like Inland Empire, Shivers, Physical Instrument, and Conceptualisation. Each one helps you craft a very specific kind of detective - a mastermind investigator, an aggressive interrogator, or even an officer with the apparent ability to sense clues through touch. The vast amount of choice these skills offer reflect the importance of backstory and personality roleplaying in tabletop gaming, where you literally have to become a character, rather than inhabit the shell of one.

Skills are far more than just modifiers for performed actions, though; they’re actually characters within themselves. They literally speak to your character, as if his head is filled with two dozen Jiminy Crickets. Empathy, for example, will chime in mid-conversation and suggest taking it easy on a broken and bruised dock worker. Physical Instrument will coax you into dangerous actions, almost like the red cloak fluttered by a bull-fighting matador. Inland Empire, meanwhile, offers the strangest side of Disco Elysium’s world of personality; a Lynchian sixth sense that allows you to feel rather than think your way through the case. It brings inanimate objects to life, permitting corpses to retell their last moments and items of clothing to insult you.
Your skills literally speak to your character, as if his head is filled with two dozen Jiminy Crickets.
“It’s through these character-like skills that Disco Elysium augments the tabletop experience with something only a video game can provide. While a GM could take on the role of your multiple instincts, those voices would have to be heard by the rest of the group, therefore breaking the perfect illusion of a man stuck on the knife edge between functioning and insanity. And, as elegant as your GM may be, they’re likely not capable of spinning quite such fantastic prose on the spot. But by combining the tabletop pedigree of these skills with the unique qualities of a pre-scripted video game, ZA/UM has created something that truly stands out in Disco Elysium.
Disco Elysium: 19 Pieces of Concept Art
Thanks to its wonderful writing and deeply political takes on almost any subject it presents you, Disco Elysium will most likely be famed for being the true successor to Planescape: Torment. But I actually think its closest companion is Divinity: Original Sin 2. While the two games have wildly different directions - Divinity is often about finding and subverting the logic in flame-engulfed battles, while Disco Elysium chases a more sombre, twisted reality - they are both united in truly capturing the unpredictability and discovery present in tabletop gaming. And while I love the games that have been created thanks to decades of video game RPG evolution - your Witchers and Skyrims and Mass Effects - I’m incredibly happy that a little part of the development world has dedicated itself to replicating the most old-school method of role play. ZA/UM has set the new bar, but I can’t wait to see what comes next.

EDIT: Ah shit. Oh well...

 

[Prime Junta]

Sorry Comrade, this time I beat you to it.

 

[Kasparov]

Oh wow we're on page 37. I thought we were somewhere around 21...

 

[vota DC]

I get quest that I shouldn't get

Spoiler

For example from Manana I got "get the boots from hanged man" at day 2 but there isn't the corpse anymore.

 

[Inehresa]

As something of a sauce addict (six bottles of wine, two litres of spirits and god knows however much else varying 9% Russian beers being a typical weeks output if no other drugs are available) the game captured substance abuse perfectly (to the point I suspect the writer has some first hand experience).

This, as a fellow drunk I too felt eerily touched by the relatability of substance abuse portrayal, the first morning is like one-to-one port of real hungover experience after a few weeks of religious drinking, the never leaving anxiety and ruminations about past failures and let downs, all that rEaLlY mAkEs yOu ThiNk about writer's experiences.

Cheers.

 

[Luckmann]

As something of a sauce addict (six bottles of wine, two litres of spirits and god knows however much else varying 9% Russian beers being a typical weeks output if no other drugs are available) the game captured substance abuse perfectly (to the point I suspect the writer has some first hand experience).

This, as a fellow drunk I too felt eerily touched by the relatability of substance abuse portrayal, the first morning is like one-to-one port of real hungover experience after a few weeks of religious drinking, the never leaving anxiety and ruminations about past failures and let downs, all that rEaLlY mAkEs yOu ThiNk about writer's experiences.

Cheers.

On the other hand, the initial scene really struck home for me too, and I've never been an alcoholic or anything - I've just had some bad hangovers and woken up in some strange places.

It was a really baller scene, though.