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Disco Elysium

  • jamesyfx
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jamesyfx

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This is a game I'm quite passionate about - just wondering if anyone else here has heard of it? And if they haven't.. I'll describe it for you the best way I can.

So, it's a traditional RPG set up with an isometric camera (think old Fallout), and the goal of the game is to interact with objects, speak with characters, solve problems and most important of all, develop your character. You are a (apparently) police detective, sent to an area to solve a crime. However, you wake up having forgotten everything about yourself and what your role is. You can go in any direction you choose to develop your character. Even the choices that may seem minor will have an impact on the rest of the playthrough. In really basic terms you can choose to be a good detective, or a complete moron, or really mean. Or a mixture of all of the above.. or none.

It's extremely deep, the dialogue is rather intense and verbose. It's got loads of humour in there, but it can also get quite dark.

There are 24 skills, governed by 4 attributes.

The skills are:

Logic, Encyclopedia, Rhetoric, Drama, Conceptualisation, Visual Calculus, Volition, Inland Empire, Empathy, Authority, Esprit de Corps, Suggestion, Endurance, Pain Threshold, Physical Instrument, Electro-Chemistry, Shivers, Half Light, Hand-Eye Coordination, Perception, Reaction Speed, Savoir Faire, Interfacing and Composure.

You can level up each skill, by gaining experience.

The attributes that govern the skills are:

Intellect, Psyche, Physique and Motorics

The way you use these skills and attributes is through speech checks and interaction checks. These are all carried out through dice rolls (literally, you see your odds of pass and fail as well as which skills are involved) - and the beauty of this game is that a failed check doesn't necessarily make it inaccessible. Sometimes you can always try again once your skills have improved. Plus failing has funny consequences - e.g. something really basic - trying to talk smooth to a lady.. fail the check.. it comes out wrong.

There's also health, clothing etc which affect everything. Your stats are also affected by your characters mental state, and there are also about 50 or so 'Thoughts' your character can spontaneously have while completing certain tasks or doing things a certain way which you can then decide to think on more and develop special stat changes with them.

This game is kinda hard to explain. It's all about discovery and exploration. It's mostly dialogue, and a large portion of the game is menu driven. It's a game that you shouldn't just burn through - you should play it at a relaxed pace, and try to absorb as much of the dialogue as possible.. it's more fun that way. So it's probably not for you if a good gaming time is all about action.. This is a bit more of a role playing experience. And it's so much better than I could have hoped when I first heard about it.

So yeah.. I'd give it a try if I were you. It's on every modern platform pretty much.
 
I've heard nothing short of unanimous praise for this game, and despite seeing it go on sale a fair bit I still haven't gotten around to playing it. Really have to make it a priority, it even seems to work rather well on Linux which is always a big plus for me.
 
I think with any game that has a Linux release, you kinda get that impression that care was taken when making it... I hope that one day there will be no need to use emulation/virtualisation tools to play the majority of PC games.

But yes this game is brilliant. And it is super replayable - you find yourself going completely different routes and going to entirely different places depending on how you've built your character and the relationships with all the other characters in the game.
 

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