Review for Elysium disk. PC game, the video game came out on 15/10/2019
Describing Disco Elysium is by no means easy. It's like describing ourselves: we think we know each other well but in reality, as we speak, we discover some of our hidden sides that sometimes surprise us, for better or for worse. More or less the same thing happens with Disco Elysium. Don't expect the classic RPG or the classic Point and Click Adventure. It won't even be a clever mix of these two genres. It will be much more.
You will be at the same time writers, screenwriters and protagonists of a surprising and fascinating journey set not only in the alleys of an infamous city district, but also - and above all - within yourself and your mind.
In Disco Elysium, you take on the role of a police detective who, after abusing alcohol and drugs the night before, wakes up the next morning half naked on the floor of a squalid hotel room. The powerful mix from the previous night completely erased your memory to the point that you won't even remember your name anymore. With difficulty, after having recovered your clothes scattered here and there around the room, you will find yourself having to deal with the image of yourself reflected on a mirror. The shock of realizing the embarrassing and depressing state you have ended up in will slowly restart your mind and, consequently, your twisted thoughts.
Like in any other RPG you can initially choose between three pre-set characters or create one of your own. The choice of your character's abilities is based on awarding points for each of the four main characteristics present: Intelligence, Psyche, Strength and Motor Ability. Each of them can be increased during the game based on the choices you make or on external modifiers present in the game such as objects or drugs of various kinds. In addition to the main skills you will have to select others as well secondary skills among the 24 available divided into 4 groups directly dependent on the main skills. For example: betting everything on the mental abilities of the character will radically change the game experience compared to the use of purely physical abilities.
These differences will be noticed especially during the dialogue phases. Yes why Disco Elysium is almost entirely based on dialogue. The objective of the game, as already mentioned, will be to discover the motive and the culprit of a heinous crime and as a detective you will have to start interrogating the various characters in the game. This part of the game will be detected surprising as each NPC will have their own story to tell, their own feedback and their own thoughts. Interacting with each of them involves reading a considerable amount of texts, strictly in English, expertly and brilliantly written by the Estonian developers of ZA / UM. You can, for example, ask direct questions or inquire about their life, their political orientations, their dreams and their expectations.
It will be a continuous question and answer with the possibility, according to your character, to select multiple answers or change the tones of the questions and the topics to be treated. But it will not end there. Your mind will accompany you during conversations with other characters by intervening in the speeches as a kind of internal voice capable of suggesting, for better or for worse, the attitude to follow. Your brain will learn from your actions, your ways and your way of speaking. Based on the skills chosen at the beginning of the game, our brain will develop skills that will change the game experience over time. Always based on the choices made during the creation of your alter-ego you will be able to understand whether or not your interlocutor is lying to you or you will notice changes in tone, facial expressions, imperceptible movements of the body and much more.
Unlike classic RPGs, in Disco Elysium, there will be no real combat system. It will be your mind, through the dialogues and the consequent choices that will make the difference between overcoming or not an obstacle. From time to time then, and not only during the dialogue phases, you will also have to face some mini-quest which will consist in the virtual roll of a pair of dice. The result obtained will be added to the mental skill needed at that time and, if it is greater than a certain predetermined score, it will earn you experience points, which can be used to increase the mental skills in your possession.
To all this it must also be added that your thoughts, as you continue in the game, will be stored in an area of your mind called tought cabinet - or chamber of thoughts - and activating them will make you focus on a specific way of thinking and continuing. This will obviously involve both bonuses and penalties to your skills. It will be up to you to make the right choice at the right time. Also thanks to this system, Disco Elysium will exponentially increase its replayability. Starting your adventure again by trying to mix all the various traits of your personality will make each run unique.
It should also be noted that, during the conduct of your investigations, you will be joined by Kim Katsuragi, a detective colleague who will prove to be a valid shoulder not only as regards the purely investigative part but also, and above all, to clarify your intricate mental ruminations at times. It will be a kind of more rational counterpart to yourself and will often prove to be fundamental in the continuation of the story. He will offer you advice, behaviors to follow, questions to ask suspects and much more.
The passage of time occurs as a consequence of the dialogues and the alternation of the day-night cycle is rendered in a masterly way.
Disco Elysium is in fact a small masterpiece also from an artistic point of view. The game is set, through an isometric view, in a hypothetical city called Revachol and more precisely in the infamous district of Martinaise. It will be surprising to note how the setting has truly remarkable levels of involvement. The city gives back the feeling of being alive, of having its own charisma and all this only makes the gaming experience even more engaging. Revachol hides a vibrant soul, a past that tells of revolutions and wounds that are still open but also of trust in the future and in its inhabitants.
The game map, although not immense, is full of details and, from a purely graphic point of view, the various settings recreated by the developers will sometimes leave you speechless. Very often you will have the feeling of being in front of a beautiful painting painted with watercolors. Even from an emotional point of view, the city transmits its own charisma that is emphasized by its inhabitants and you will often be surprised by the care with which the game environment has been designed and brilliantly recreated.
The navigation system on the map will be the classic point and click. With the TAB key it will be possible to highlight the various points of interest with which to interact: small details, objects or characters to interact with, hidden passages and so on. At times we have found this system not exactly clear as some points, although marked, will not be directly accessible and it will be necessary to take secondary routes to reach them. However, we are talking about almost irrelevant details in the face of the enormous work and considerable care placed by the guys at ZA / UM in Disco Elysium.
Even the game plot, although apparently quite obvious, actually hides an infinity of surprises, variations and facets and helps make the game almost one of a kind. The set of characters who will be part of this adventure wisely inserted in this context - created ad hoc - is a wise and fascinating mix. Even the audio sector does not disappoint by offering dubbing of some parts of the numerous dialogues present and background music that change style based on the location in which you are or the action you are performing at that moment. Nothing transcendental but for a title that makes dialectics one of its strong points, you couldn't ask for more.
Disco Elysium is a small masterpiece from all points of view. Simply calling it a role-playing game would be somewhat simplistic. It is a compelling journey in parallel between the protagonist's mind and the real events that surround him. It is a continuous confrontation of personalities, lifestyles and thoughts. It is an adventure based almost exclusively on dialogue, expertly orchestrated to make the gaming experience unique. To express its potential it needs to be played with calm and patience. It is necessary to grasp the innumerable nuances present in language and beyond. According to the developers, it will take from 30 to 60 hours of gameplay to complete it but, if the thoughtful gameplay and tons of English-language texts don't scare you, you will surely be surprised by its depth and the emotions it will be able to give you. The Spanish localization would certainly make it a must-have for everyone but, in our opinion, Disco Elysium still remains one of the best games of its kind at least for 2019.
► Disco Elysium is an RPG-Adventure game developed and published by ZA / UM for PC, the video game was released on 15/10/2019
