Even though I wish there were more games like "Disco Elysium", I thought that its execution failed to live up to the compelling premise. Like "Kentucky Route Zero", it's one of those overrated indie games people praise to feel more intelligent than the average videogame nerd.
There's a misconception that fine writing has to be lengthy and convoluted at all costs, while it's quite the opposite. The best storytellers are the ones who can paint vivid sceneries and portray complex characters just with a few carefully chosen words. Instead, the writers behind "Disco Elysium" preferred to distract their readers with endless digressions, shoving an overwhelming amount of information down their throat and flirting with pompous and obsolete vocabulary. The overlong dialogues are not even functional to the plot, as the murder mystery requires no investigation or guessing on the player's end. You just walk along the only path available and talk to people till you bump into the random guy that did it. Your actions hardly have consequences, and your character build can only influence minor dialogue choices.
One might argue that it's not about the case; that's all about the journey and the characters. To me, it just felt like shallow philosophy and old-fashioned political commentary. I'm all in for depressive and self-destructive protagonists, but it hardly felt like the inner monologues were actual streams of consciousness, or the stats I assigned at the beginning actually helped shape his character. You can always be both the smartest and the dumbest guy person around, and even when you mess up, there's hardly any real consequence.
The Dungeons and Dragons-style skill checks are a fascinating addition to the gameplay, even though you can easily get around most of them by using drugs or wearing the outfit that buffs the correct stats. You are also allowed to save at any time and retry skill checks if you fail.
The presentation also needs improvement: even though I liked the oil painting graphics, there are no animations during most dialogues, with most actions only described with text. It's really like going through an interactive book with sound effects and music. The voice acting is also atrocious and way too slow, to the point that it made the dialogues feel even more overwhelming than they originally were.
Despite all the flaws, I still think it was worth the experience. The concept and main dynamics are definitely interesting, and hopefully the developers will work on improving the formula with their next projects.
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Second playthrough really soured the game for me unfortunately. First time through, the game felt magical and the writing quality is definitely very high. On the subsequent run, it really broke the illusion. The roleplaying is pretty much nonexistent. You pretty much just use the skill points to reroll checks. Anything else is suboptimal. And I love the idea of failing checks leading to funny things or a just as compelling scene. Running away from Garte is probably the best example. Succeeding the check is very boring compared to crashing into Lena. Oftentimes, though it just leads to locked off content. Also it feels like a very long demo. Wish there was more here. The game doesn’t feel complete at all once the credits role.
I dont think a game necessarily needs to have replay value to be considered exceptional. If it sustained an illusion the first time through, that may be exactly what it was going for. Although, thats different from retrospective criticsm of the game you may have. I agree the realization of the illusion of choice among other things soured me on the game somewhat.
I think the game is one of the best examples why roleplaying and branching story can be completely different things. Sure, the game is not like The Witcher 2, in which more than a third of the game is completely different depending on your choices... But to say that the roleplaying is nonexistent? Sure, upon replaying, most of the time you're talking to the same people about the same problems in the same places. But depending on your skills, responses and actions, these conversations will feel very different, and the problems will be solved in different ways. It doesn't matter that often (although far from always) the conclusions will be the same.
I find it interesting how the highest rated albums and movies on RYM are only 4.3x, whereas on here we have 3 games > 4.5x. I wonder if this says anything about our perception of interactive media vs. consumable media.
albums definitely have way more ratings than games, but this game and other highly rated games are about on par with the amount of ratings as some of the highest rated movies. (the #2 and #3 films on rym only have 6k and 4k ratings).
i think you're right but i do wonder if there is more to it than that
This being #1 is the best indication of how disconnected this site is from the popular opinion, even if we're talking "hardcore" hobbyists I think most would just skip this or be bored by it.
I loved this game and I'm not hating on it at all but its kinda funny
I get where you're coming from with this, I have certainly experienced a similar dissonance in many games. I also agree that branching dialogue trees can sometimes be the laziest way to do roleplaying/choice and at least the mainstream could use less of it. Still, like always in art, anything can be good if you make it good. A good branching dialogue focused game will (besides making every available choice awesome to experience) quickly establish a convention regarding the types of things you can choose from, so that even when faced with an admittedly limited choice, you will not feel limited at the time you make it. For me DE is a great example of such a game, but it's of course subjective, and I am surely biased having spent half my life playing classic RPGs.
Yeah you’re right, the best dialogue tree systems won’t feel limiting in the moment you make the decision. Ultimately I guess it’s subjective for each player whether the game is successful at disguising the limits of the dialogue system, and I’m willing to admit I’m in the minority on this one.
If it sustained an illusion the first time through, that may be exactly what it was going for.
Although, thats different from retrospective criticsm of the game you may have. I agree the realization of the illusion of choice among other things soured me on the game somewhat.
i think you're right but i do wonder if there is more to it than that
I loved this game and I'm not hating on it at all but its kinda funny