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

Egosphere

Arcane
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Jan 25, 2018
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how many patches are out?
are there gamebreaking bugs?
can I purchase it now or still have to wait?

If you're playing on pretty much minimum requirements, there may be instances where you might run into trouble, bug wise. But that's not the game's fault.
 

Van-d-all

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Standin' pretty. In this dust that was a city.
First bad review? https://www.godisageek.com/reviews/disco-elysium-review/

Disco Elysium feels like a game that would have been better suited to a point and click adventure, rather than a sprawling RPG

How could this be a better game without the amazing system abilities? Fuck this idiot.

It could have been a better game with a better stat system, or at least one that didn't leave you dependent on a stochastic process when making important checks (especially when you have spent a lot of points buttressing the required skill)
I somewhat understand your sentiment here, because that was my fist impression as well. But as I wrote some time ago, I've came to understand it as one of the game mechanics. This game is like a bouquet of artificial wilted flowers - everlasting misery and neglect. You are meant to fail at random, no mater how hard you try, just like real life.

Like the Estonian flag
0ae40bbc302b2315a75440628fd5d792.jpg
 

IHaveHugeNick

Arcane
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Yeah that review is dumb, characters are best part of the game. Mr. Kurvitz has a knack for creating NPCs that have unique, distinct personalities and who become instantly memorable after just a few lines of text. And he somehow does it while avoiding worn out tropes of "weird and quirky" or "strong and silent" or whatever. I have never seen anything quite like it in any video game before. You rarely see it in books, let alone in video games.

Political writing on the other hand is cringeworthy teenage drivel full of trite banalities, but I'll drop that guillotine in my final review.
 

Egosphere

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First bad review? https://www.godisageek.com/reviews/disco-elysium-review/

Disco Elysium feels like a game that would have been better suited to a point and click adventure, rather than a sprawling RPG

How could this be a better game without the amazing system abilities? Fuck this idiot.

It could have been a better game with a better stat system, or at least one that didn't leave you dependent on a stochastic process when making important checks (especially when you have spent a lot of points buttressing the required skill)
I somewhat understand your sentiment here, because that was my fist impression as well. But as I wrote some time ago, I've came to understand it as one of the game mechanics. This game is like a bouquet of artificial wilted flowers - everlasting misery and neglect. You are meant to fail at random, no mater how hard you try, just like real life.

Like the Estonian flag
0ae40bbc302b2315a75440628fd5d792.jpg

I didn't mind white checks failing. I didn't even mind the red checks failing, as long as the outcomes aren't a big deal. It was the tribunal that snuffed out all of my enthusiasm and optimism. At that moment I longed for the draconian, cut-and-dry checks of AoD.
 

Prime Junta

Guest
I didn't mind white checks failing. I didn't even mind the red checks failing, as long as the outcomes aren't a big deal. It was the tribunal that snuffed out all of my enthusiasm and optimism. At that moment I longed for the draconian, cut-and-dry checks of AoD.

Ain't nuttin' wrong with savescumming the tribunal. It's like reloading a boss fight, no big deal.
 

Egosphere

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I didn't mind white checks failing. I didn't even mind the red checks failing, as long as the outcomes aren't a big deal. It was the tribunal that snuffed out all of my enthusiasm and optimism. At that moment I longed for the draconian, cut-and-dry checks of AoD.

Ain't nuttin' wrong with savescumming the tribunal. It's like reloading a boss fight, no big deal.

I did. I couldn't prevent the 2nd shot hitting me, even with something like a 48% chance to dodge. Reloaded 4 times. I did save Kim, but the damage was done. Endless possibilities had coalesced into a singleton, and even though I was probably playing a character that was best equipped for the encounter out of many here, I couldn't prevent casualties :(
 

Prime Junta

Guest
I did. I couldn't prevent the 2nd shot hitting me, even with something like a 48% chance to dodge. Reloaded 4 times. I did save Kim, but the damage was done. Endless possibilities had coalesced into a singleton, and even though I was probably playing a character that was best equipped for the encounter out of many here, I couldn't prevent casualties :(

Ah yeah. Sometimes bad shit happens no matter how hard you try and how good and lucky you are. That's just life man.
 

Daedalos

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All right so here's a mini-review for you coppos. I'm going to be dividing the review into two parts - Part I: Story, Writing, C&C and Worldbuilding and Part II: Mechanics and Visuals & Audio

I clocked in about 35-40 hours consisting of two playthroughs, rougly. One brainiac cop, one more should we say "hands on" ;)

PART I:
The story:
Detective stories aren't exactly a novel idea in games, but Disco Elysium does manage to make it feel special, mostly because it *isn't* just a detective story.
Overall, I liked the story. I'm a sucker for a good detective noir narrative, that lets you explore stuff and clue little pieces together to find out what happened.
I liked Harry as our protag, with all his troubles, the amnesia arch, and just all his self-torments and inner-demons that is incredibly relateable to most of us, which is why our Harry is very likeable, regardless of what choices you put him up to.
His co-partner Kim, I also enjoyed, and the banter and conversation were incredibly well made and mixed into the various interactions.

There's ALOT of quests/side-quests, some which are really great, and give you that cop/detective vibe, and others that felt abit filler bordering on boring/useless.

Of course, it's not all sunshines and drugs, because I thought some things was relatively left unexplored and not branched out enough, like Harry's overarching ex-wife/-ex-girlfriend plot, which seemed to be central to the story from the get-go, but really wasn't?
The biggest problem I have with the story however, is that the game seems like it wants to be alot of things - A social and political commentary, a detective noir story, religious undertones , and even a big existential piece at heart with the Pale and the Plasmid insect and the references to the godness.
In all, and depending on the eye of the beholder, this could either been as something unique and truly what makes the game great, or seen by others as somewhat messy, chaotic and well, jumbled. I'm not sure which category I fall into yet, if at all.

And then there's the ending, well.. I'm not gonna lie, I was initially abit disappointed, but has since come around to it.
The stuff with the Plasmid insect seemed abit off to me, but I liked the stuff with the Deserter, but thought it was kind of a weird mix.
Harry meeting his team at the end felt abit anti-climatic, and I found out that most of the threads I've been persuing didn't really go much further. It felt abit abrupt to an otherwise amazing journey.

Worldbuilding:
The Worldbuilding is crazy expansive and at times it does seem like the devs wanted to write a book about this universe, and/but decided to put a detective noir game inside it just to spruce it up. Obviously that's incredible redundantly put, because the world building absolutely ties in with the detective story and vice versa, but there's just so much stuff going on and wanted to be explained, that I feel never really goes anywhere other than be exposition and stuff to think about, and that's kind of a shame. Obviously the scope and ressources of the game doens't lend itself to encompass all that worldbuilding and all that exposition.

I don't really mind all the political stuff, as the story unravels further, but it does seem a bit heavyhanded at times, more than I would have liked. But milage may vary.

Writing:
The writing is great, simply put. From each skillcheck and voices/thoughts checking in and reminding you about stuff, to the dialogue and descriptions. I loved it. Most of all the NPC's in the game are very well written, and feel like actual persons that exist in the world.

C&C:
Unfortunately not that prevelant as to what I saw. Some of the bigger choices in the game, didn't really seem to pay off all that much, which was kind of disappointing.

PART II:
Visuals & Audio:

Let me just say straight up, I love the graphics, I love the music, the sounds, the ambience and all that, the overall presentation of the game. Top notch, and I hope to see more in this vein of artstyle.
The icons from the skills are beautiful. The visuals lends itself incredibly well to the type of detective thriller noir vibe, and more somber themes and worn out world.
What more is there to say? It simply felt GOOD to play through the game, my eyes and ears were happy.

Mechanics:
I love the skill system. It was quite fun trying out different builds, I tried a intellect/psyche cop first, which was great (but alot of reading lol) and then a more FYS oriented cop, which also was great from the skillchecks and new stuff that was revealed.
The skills themselves were beautifully mixed into the dialogue and flow of the game, which just felt great. There's alot of skillchecks, but without feeling overcrowded, so you do start to think about passing those early on.
The random thoughts that pop up in dialogues gave me a good chuckle more than once, and it's something I quite haven't seen in any RPG as of late.

I also liked the idea behind the Thought Cabinet, because there were both some cool concept and lore bhind them, and they give random cool bonuses (and you never know what they are until you make a list).. Damn you for making me forget half of them, because they gave me the wrong - and + ;)

Everything else, to the UI and the interaction with the items, I thought was well done. Only complaint possibly has to be about items, specifically the clothing.
I do think they fuck with the balance of the game abit in terms of checks, and it becomes sort of mini-game to equip the right stuff for the occasion, IF you wanna pass the checks of course, and care about that.
Alcohol and drugs also seem to be pretty overpowered for the small cost they bear.

Conclusion:
Disco Elysium is a fine game, definitely worthy of a possible GOTY award. It's unique, refreshing, funny and it got some big themes to tell you about the world and its characters.
This game has alot of what I love about RPGs and adventure games mixed together. Interesting exploration, unique and fresh character building, skillbuilding, skillchecks, great worldbuilding, great writing, exploration and a setting with cool/funny/crazy characters.

I would advice any RPG fan to at least try the game out, because it's so unique in terms of what else has been offered in the past years, in my humble opinion. I do hope to see more from the developers of Disco Elysium, and I expect so given the apparant positivity surrounding the game.
 
Last edited:

Haba

Harbinger of Decline
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I did. I couldn't prevent the 2nd shot hitting me, even with something like a 48% chance to dodge. Reloaded 4 times. I did save Kim, but the damage was done. Endless possibilities had coalesced into a singleton, and even though I was probably playing a character that was best equipped for the encounter out of many here, I couldn't prevent casualties :(

Look at this way. Those guys are fucking professionals at killing shit. You are washed-out drunk and a druggie. Your partner is a 7/10 shooter with glasses. Yet you managed to survive that shit. That by itself is a small miracle.
 

TwinkieGorilla

does a good job.
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Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pathfinder: Wrath
First bad review? https://www.godisageek.com/reviews/disco-elysium-review/

Disco Elysium feels like a game that would have been better suited to a point and click adventure, rather than a sprawling RPG. It’s a game that has a lot to say (quite literally, given that it’s made up of around one million words) but doesn’t always know what tone to use while saying it, which leads to an experience that just didn’t captivate me as much as it might others. Its characters are almost universally disgusting excuses for human beings, which also didn’t help as I found nobody to relate to or latch onto.

Positives
Genuinely funny at times
Well-written


Negatives
Its tone shifts way too much
Dice rolls are almost as bad as XCOM’s accuracy percentages
Progression issues

7.5/10

Oh fucking boo hoo, dice rolls are unfair. Welcome to fucking role playing, bitch.
 

vota DC

Augur
Joined
Aug 23, 2016
Messages
2,259
I didn't mind white checks failing. I didn't even mind the red checks failing, as long as the outcomes aren't a big deal. It was the tribunal that snuffed out all of my enthusiasm and optimism. At that moment I longed for the draconian, cut-and-dry checks of AoD.

Ain't nuttin' wrong with savescumming the tribunal. It's like reloading a boss fight, no big deal.
Ruby was harder: I had 2 endurance and I didn't knew that I could heal while in dialogue. It was impossible taking less than 2 health damage. Tribunal was easier to do with zero damage: I can soft them with dialogue and armor help me even if I fail to Dodge.
 

Egosphere

Arcane
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Messages
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I did. I couldn't prevent the 2nd shot hitting me, even with something like a 48% chance to dodge. Reloaded 4 times. I did save Kim, but the damage was done. Endless possibilities had coalesced into a singleton, and even though I was probably playing a character that was best equipped for the encounter out of many here, I couldn't prevent casualties :(

Look at this way. Those guys are fucking professionals at killing shit. You are washed-out drunk and a druggie. Your partner is a 7/10 shooter with glasses. Yet you managed to survive that shit. That by itself is a small miracle.

It refuted the 'countless roleplaying options' by squeezing the outcome into a predetermined path. It also nullified my build, which had been progressing with 1 eye firmly fixed on that very encounter, having seen it a few times in the trailers. I had H/E, Reaction and Perception all above 11, + the boost from speed. I think my reaction by then was on 14. I also had 2 bullets, not just 1, which felt like an achievement and something that would sway the outcome my way. Yet when the shooting started, I couldn't shoot back, couldn't dodge, couldn't react in any other way etc. It felt cheap. I had missed out on Empathy, Visual Calc and Inland Emp. but there was no pay off for my Neo style character. It also felt wrong that

some of the Hardie boys died. By that time, I had shot Korty in the face, Kim had shot the mosquito-mask guy in the neck and there was just the woman left standing. She shot Angus, then Korty shoots me. But the Hardie boys had guns of their own, I know that for a fact since I passed the perception check (and also got shot by them in our first meeting). So by that point it's 1.5 people vs 6-7 guys including Kim. When I went downstairs the next day to talk to them, I was told that 3 people got shot. How? Even if I couldn't dodge the bullet, at least the option to limit death to Angus should have been included

Comparing that to my tank assassin in AoD, even when I failed all of my checks having killed Darista and Gaelius in Maadoran and found myself facing 15 people in a giant hallway with nothing but my trusty hammer, I still had the option to escape. Sure, it was about 5% chance, but it was there.
 

Inehresa

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
So uh do we know who's the artist behind portraits in disco incline? Can't find credits anywhere and I'm awfully curious if it's Hardziej (those strawberrymilk reds, sodium oranges and overall glow of lights look like his work http://hardziej.com/projects/illustrations/ ), wonder if it's confidential or what.
 

Egosphere

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Kyl Von Kull

The Night Tripper
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Egosphere the mercs
have high-tech ceramic armor that lets them shrug off bullets (if you fail to dodge the first shot but you’re wearing the cuirass, you’re fine). They have semi-automatic breachloading guns, while you and the Hardies are using muzzle loading pistols. And they’re trained—they are the tanky assassins. Only losing three people—the best outcome we’ve been able to find so far—is pretty damn good.

I still wish they’d written more ways this scene could play out, and teasing us with an impossible check is cruel, but the best outcome isn’t unreasonable.
 

Quillon

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IHaveHugeNick

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Please don't degrade point&click adventures with comparisons to Disco Elysium. Point&click adventures actually have gameplay. Disco Elysium is a linear novel where you use dice roll to turn the pages.

Thankfully it's a wonderfully written novel, but ultimately it just means ZA/UM are scam artists who found themselves a good writer.
 

TwinkieGorilla

does a good job.
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Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pathfinder: Wrath
I didn't have this encounter myself, just saw it on reddit and I can't stop laughing...

icecophatfuckshow.jpg
 

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