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.
