Disco Elysium

Been in a rabbit hole of DE video essays and critiques these past couple months and a constant of all these videos was the universal praise and recommendation of Planescape Torment. I've only played an hour of it so far, but I can definitely tell that DE wears its main inspiration on its sleeve.

Have any of you played the game and how did you like it?

I've been obsessed with the game for the past few weeks - including the OST which I've been listening to basically everyday now. Not sure which track is my favourite but probably "Burn, Baby, Burn". It just encapsulates the entire vibe of the game, its themes, the tragedy, sadness, melancholy but also hope unlike any other.

"Live With Me" hits me in the feels after I've (spoilers) took on the case of the dead man on the boardwalk and talked to his wife. Man, that was just so sad but powerful.

What's your favourite and why?

Quite a long video by People Make Games where numerous parties involved in the controversy surrounding the game and company are interviewed as an attempt to shed light into the whole story. I've watched the entire thing and I'm not sure what to think, really.

It sucks that Kurvitz got his IP and world pulled away from his grasp, but it also sucks that he doesn't take any responsibility for his past actions and mistreatment of (former) colleagues.

Overall, it's probably still safe to assume that the higher-ups fucked the three over overall, but I guess at least Kurvitz is not innocent either. Not in the same league, of course, but just kinda sucky that he shies away from taking a stance in the face of all these allegations of misconduct.

Amazing blog post on the key takeaways from the game and the underlying symbolism inherent to the very hopeful messages spread throughout the game.

Major spoilers for the game, its ending, and many characters and events. Be warned.

“Un jour je serai de retour près de toi,” French for “one day I will return to your side.” These words are painted in the streets of Martinaise, outside of a local hotel. A few days prior a shootout occurred on the site between members of a local dockers’ union and mercenaries hired by their employer to break the ongoing strike. As the artist painted her graffiti, the paint mixed with the blood spilled onto the street that day. How many died depends on the choices and abilities of the detective, who those playing the recently released Disco Elysium control. While the graffiti is only a moment in the wider story of a game filled with many threads, it acts as a rare glimpse of hope in an otherwise depressing and exhausted world. Disco Elysium is a game haunted by possibility, of both what is to come, and what could have come, from the lost futures embedded in its past. [...]

The game's got me in an iron grip as of recently and all I think about is the game: the concepts, the gameplay, the narration. I literally dream of the game every other night and I've caught myself on numerous occasion explaining certain things I say with checks I've rolled and passed or failed. It's kinda nuts.

Unfortunately, I don't have too much time to play because I've got school for way too long and have to commute around 2h a day. Getting the game for Switch would be an option, but it's not really worth it to whip out the Switch for that short a commute. A mobile port would be amazing for me because I've always got my phone on me and the gameplay lends itself to short play sessions, I imagine. It's absolutely also a game you can sink several hours at a time into, but half hour bursts of gameplay also would work well, I imagine.

I've seen that the reception to the announcement was rather negative, however. How come? What do you guys think of it?

Probably partly inspired by Kim telling me that I'm not Krav Mazov

Our last run was focused on intellect mainly with some psyche mixed in. I'm partial to trying a physical instrument or motorics build with half light as my special skill (or whatever it's called).

Any other recommendations?

We've recently finished our first playthrough, and I must say: I'm a little disappointed. Heavy spoilers for the ending of the game, so be aware of that when reading here.

I found the reveal of the true killer kind of annoying. It's a completely random person we've not seen throughout the game yet, so there was no way of us putting pieces of information together to form a theory - it's a completely unrelated person. In addition, I didn't like the motivation he had for killing the mercenary. Sure, he's a veteran of the former revolution, he despises everything that's not communist and took a problem with a mercenary having a sexual relation with a woman he spied on for months. But that whole parasocial sexual relation, the peeping, the ultimate motivation for the killing... I don't know, kinda yucks me out and didn't feel compelling at all.

Imagine if, after the tribunal, Klaasje's disappearance was related to her actually being the killer. That would have made sense. But she was likely just afraid of how he leads would make her look like the prime suspect, so she fled. Still, I probably would have preferred her to be the killer somehow. Some kind of spy/agent working for some corrupt people who want smash the union or something.

Then the whole thing with Ruby. It was an intense encounter finding her under that ruined factory and the confrontation was quite dangerous - we almost died there. But her ultimately not being related to the killing at all apart from staging the lynching was also just kinda annoying. I get that we didn't have any other leads that made sense at the time so Ruby was the only logical suspect. But her just completely vanishing after our realising that she's not the killer felt anticlimactic.

Then the encounter with the phasmid. It was cool, I guess, but ultimately, it didn't really contribute a lot to the story, I feel like. It's insinuated that the Deserter was somehow aware of its presence on his solitary stay on the island, but you don't know for sure if he actually saw it. Who knows - maybe both Harry and Kim hallucinated. There is nothing scientifical that would explain the phasmid's existence. But even putting all of that aside, it was a little disappointing to me that you don't even see the reactions of the cryptozoologists. Felt a little robbed of that.

Then there was the ending itself. After finding out who the killer is, I was 100% sure that the game wasn't finished yet. The huge climax when you are confronted by your former colleagues felt similarly intense to the tribunal itself, and I was sure that this would lead to further development in the story. But nope. It's over, just like that. I feel like something was missing there, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

So yea, my unfiltered thoughts I had on this. It's still an amazing game and I'd really like to make another playthrough. But the ending did kinda suck to me. I've read a bit of discussion on the ending online and some points felt valid but didn't change my mind too much, overall.

Thoughts?

Spoilers ahead for some parts of the game, so be cautious reading.

We're currently on our first playthrough and are close to finding Ruby, I think - we went to the point of no return under that abandoned building near the fishing village and were told that quests relating to the cryptozoologists and the union might be blocked off if we proceed, so we decided to check out Evrart's request again to open that apartment door behind the Whirling-in-Rags.

Now, we had been putting off finishing that request since we didn't want to open some random door and essentially break in and thought, well, we still need some information plus seeing more of the game is cool despite the implications of helping Evrart. Given that we've progressed past Wednesday by now, that fascist cryptozoologist has already returned to his apartment, so we failed Evrart's quest. Why was he making us open the door in the first place, I'm wondering?

And then he wants us to, essentially, evict the residents of the fishing village for some youth centre he wants to build there? We ended up forging the two required signatures because we didn't want to be responsible for the eviction of residents who might not be in on the implications of 2 years of construction work.

Like, I'm pro worker's rights and unions are amazing, but Evrart just feels shady front to back, and I don't feel like helping him is the right call. Without spoiling anything, was that the right course of action?

Ultimately, there probably aren't any wrong decisions to make here since most characters are morally grey, except for the extremes like Measurehead, but Evrart just feels especially shady even though he makes you believe that he's on your side.

Did you do his quests? Can you progress the story fine without ever helping him?

credit goes out to my SO :)

Edit: All the Scooter references just made me realise why Egg Head has a seemingly German accent 🤦🏻‍♂️

This is the text of the "Thank You" email that I, and I'm assuming every other supporter, received:

"Two months ago I stood by a dead van in the middle of the night on a windy French highway after leaving behind the life I had lived in the United Kingdom for the past six years. Freezing, sleep deprived and dead-broke, a terrifying realization dawned on me as I looked at my partner and our three cats waiting in the van: I put us all in this horrible situation and I really don't know what to do next. Fiasko after fiasko that led to this moment crossed my mind and filled me with the kind of cold fear I thought only accessible to children. The fear of being helpless and small. This was the absolute low point of my life since I can remember. I came very close to regretting standing up to the mighty and the corrupt, since it was now my most beloved who were paying the price.

I will never forget that moment cause without it I would've never experienced the love and the support you wonderful people have shown me. We don't ask for help in the Wild Wild North. It's easier to just curl up and die than to admit that I am not enough. It's not strength, it's fear that isolates us from love.

This morning I woke up to a notification that the fundraiser had reached its goal. It feels surreal. Unbelievable. In less than two months?! Get outta here, it can't be...

Thank all of you generous, compassionate people who have not only saved me and my family from financial ruin but also given us the means to continue the fight I came close to abandoning on the side of that highway in France. I cannot even begin to tell you how moved I am seeing how people who themselves have almost nothing still find it in their hearts to help someone they've never even met. From the bottom of my heart, thank you all for your donations, both small and large! Thank you for the love and the support, your kind words and the time you have given me! Thank you for restoring my faith and resolve! I'm not scared anymore, I know what I have to do."