Since I installed Disco Elysium: The Final Cut by ZA/UM a week ago, I practically inhaled it, playing it every chance I got, for as long as I physically could, until I finished it yesterday night in about 30 hours.

I knew I wanted to write about it because I have Opinions™ but when I opened a new blog post about it, I couldn't come up with any structured text. I still feel the need to write about my experience, and as a result the following may be a little discombobulated.

First of all, Disco Elysium is a full-on artistic experience. The graphic style, the music, the writing all are outstanding in their own right. The gameplay is also pleasing. The role-playing mechanics are clear and satisfying, with meaningful choices and a welcome tinge of randomness for tension.

As with most other RPGs with multiple choices within a linear story, I won't play it ever again. I enjoyed my playthrough that I made mine, and I don't want to learn the limitations of the choices, I don't want to find out about the narrative funnels I would be forced through.

Still, the game is pretty forgiving, and through the excellent inner monologue interjections, the game is able to regularly hint as negative dialogue outcomes to avoid them. It also affords to go meta and comment on some the player's actions rather than the actual character, which got some well-deserved laughs out of me.

The political content added in the Final Cut has been mostly disappointing. The game's nihilistic message doesn't leave a lot of room to develop any political ideology, and it results in a shallow criticism of all the presented ideologies that eventually amounts to absolutely nothing. Additionally, using some real-world political ideologies (communism, fascism) was confusing as the historical context, important to define these terms, wasn't the same at all. I developed this point earlier: https://friendica.mrpetovan.com/display/735a2029-1761-576b-54bd-625220881901

I also noticed in the credits the mention of the hosts of the Chapo Trap House podcast as voice actors, and combined with the aforementioned lack of political substance of the game, it confirms my belief that this podcast and the larger "dirtbag left" culture it represents has less to do with politics than entertainment.

#videogame #videogames #DiscoElysium #review