Codex Review RPG Codex Review: Disco Elysium

[Prime Junta]

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

It's not an RPG because it has neither roleplaying nor gameplay. It's entirely linear story where everything is fixed, your choices don't matter and the sad excuse for roleplaying amounts to reading slightly different flavor text to progress through the same events in the same order as the last time.

This is like saying Planescape: Torment has no roleplaying because it's an entirely linear story where you progress through the same events in the same order as last time. Good, evil? Just slightly different flavor text.

The difference being that my description of Disco Elysium is a factual statement, while your description of Planescape Torment is nonsensical because 1) it actually has gameplay and 2) mortuary alone is more open-ended than the entirety of Disco Elysium.

But hey, inaccurate descriptions of other games to make Disco Elysium look better is at least a step up from people saying it's an RPG because it made them cry in the corner.

I don't care whether or not it's an RPG, I care that it's great. If PS:T is an RPG because it has combat and its combat is by far the worst part of the game, that's not much of an argument for this definition of RPG-ness as a barometer of quality.

Every single narrative critique you make applies equally to both games. There are three ways out of the Mortuary, there are three ways to skip out on your hotel bill in Disco. There are at least two ways to get the body down from the tree.

 

[Lithium Flower]

Here is my review of DE:

Trite, contrived, mediocre, milquetoast, amateurish, infantile, cliche-and-gonorrhea-ridden paean to conformism, eye-fucked me, affront to humanity, war crime, should *literally* be tried for war crimes, resolutely shit, lacking in imagination, uninformed reimagining of, limp-wristed, premature, ill-informed attempt at, talentless fuckfest, recidivistic shitpeddler, pedantic, listless, savagely boring, just one repulsive laugh after another.

EDIT: For those who didn't get the MEME

 

[Tom Baker's Arse]

The best part about DE is the butthurt it induces in certain people.

Correction - the vomit it induces in certain people.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Hot take: ever since Microsoft bought Obsidian, every review coming out seems like an advertisement for Microsoft Word thesaurus.

I'm not saying it's necessarily a conspiracy, all I'm saying is look into it.

u wot

 

[Tigranes]

Hot take: ever since Microsoft bought Obsidian, every review coming out seems like an advertisement for Microsoft Word thesaurus.

I'm not saying it's necessarily a conspiracy, all I'm saying is look into it.

u wot

Dude just broke the thesaurus

 

[Prime Junta]

Dude just broke the thesaurus

Quite a feat. The saurus doesn't break easily.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Look, I'm not saying that materialistic conceptual synchronicity of dialectical photosynthetic metaphysics is necessarily aliens, but it's probably aliens.

 

[Prime Junta]

Good, good, only four more comments and we're past the Sengoku Rance review thread.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Look, I'm not saying that materialistic conceptual synchronicity of dialectical photosynthetic metaphysics is necessarily aliens, but it's probably aliens.

All I know is that everyday sourstuff has eight neitherbits with its eight firstbits, but there are also kinds with five, six, seven, nine, ten, and eleven neitherbits. A samestead is known by the tale of both kernel motes, so that we have sourstuff-13, sourstuff-14, and so on, with sourstuff-16 being by far the most found. Having the same number of bernstonebits, the samesteads of a firststuff behave almost alike minglingly. They do show some unlikenesses, outstandingly among the heavier ones, and these can be worked to sunder samesteads from each other.

 

[Trashos]

C'mon now...

Wisely, the grotesque pomo abominations are kept in a pen and only let out to serve the goals of New Sincerity. A metafictional subplot is a curious divergence from the ethos, not the norm.

The review was a bit hard to read, because it felt like dating my ex wife all over again. +10 points for the GY!BE reference though.

Not all is bad, but it would have been helpful if the writer had tried to communicate a bit harder.

 

[AwesomeButton]

This was a good review, it motivated me to write my own review.

 

[Prime Junta]

Bring on the review wars.

It's interesting to see how much ego defence this game (and this review) triggers. That's a thick and many-layered shell of irony and wit a lot of you have erected to protect the vulnerable thing within.

 

[Zanzoken]

Interesting review, but I would've liked for it to cover more than just the character system and story / themes.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Interesting review, but I would've liked for it to cover more than just the character system and story / themes.

Spoiler

There's nothing else.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Bring on the review wars.

It's interesting to see how much ego defence this game (and this review) triggers. That's a thick and many-layered shell of irony and wit a lot of you have erected to protect the vulnerable thing within.

Cuno doesn't defend, Cuno offends, fucko!

But seriously, I wanted to say things about this game which this review misses and concentrates on others, which I didn't find that central.

 

[Alpan]

Bring on the review wars.

It's interesting to see how much ego defence this game (and this review) triggers. That's a thick and many-layered shell of irony and wit a lot of you have erected to protect the vulnerable thing within.

I'm on my third playthrough, and I think you are familiar with the general trend of my posts in the various DE threads, and you know how I feel about the game.

That said, this is a very easy game to drill holes in, and I'm currently considering doing so as an intellectual exercise. Unthinking submission to a position of praise (or derision) is something idiots do. I wouldn't accuse naysayers of ego defense.

 

[Prime Junta]

But seriously

This game does deserve more than one Codex review. The Pillars record is a hard one to beat though, I think we have five now if we count Grunker's retrospective.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

But seriously

This game does deserve more than one Codex review. The Pillars record is a hard one to beat though, I think we have five now if we count Grunker's retrospective.

Quantitative accumulations for a qualitative leap, comrade.

 

[Prime Junta]

That said, this is a very easy game to drill holes in, and I'm currently considering doing so as an intellectual exercise.

If it's very easy, it's not much of an intellectual exercise though, is it?

 

[Alpan]

That said, this is a very easy game to drill holes in, and I'm currently considering doing so as an intellectual exercise.

If it's very easy, it's not much of an intellectual exercise though, is it?

Yes, but it is an intellectual exercise in how to eviscerate the game such that it causes discomfort in the intended audience.

 

[Tigranes]

I submit that the Codex publishes every Disco review anyone writes - as long as they write a Pillars review first as an Ideology Tax

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I submit that the Codex publishes every Disco review anyone writes - as long as they write a Pillars review first as an Ideology Tax

By the end of it, we'll end up just like Harry.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I submit that the Codex publishes every Disco review anyone writes - as long as they write a Pillars review first as an Ideology Tax

I have a review of The White March, which I never offered for publishing. It's in its own thread.

 

[Prime Junta]

Yes, but it is an intellectual exercise in how to eviscerate the game such that it causes discomfort in the intended audience.

That sounds interesting. If I'm the intended audience, I look forward to your efforts.