Disco Elysium Review
To view my video based analysis, visit-
Disco Elysium Video Review
A rugged voice emanates from the darkness. Engaged in a heated argument, it quickly becomes apparent the very voices belong to none other than your internal thoughts. With an air of callous disregard, they will you to awaken from the remnants of an alcohol-induced sleep. From there, your character stumbles upright, half naked and feebly massaging his temple. The nature of your surroundings in a quaint hotel room shows a night of drinking and self-loathing destruction, before you are handed the reigns.
Developed by ZA/UM utilising the Unity engine, this scene relays the overall tone of Disco Elysium and what lies in store for the player. You are a detective tasked with leading the investigation into a grizzly lynching. Alongside your colleague Kim Kirusagi, your journey in discovering the culprit is one of many twists and turns. In this review, I will share my overall experience and thoughts regarding the main components that make Disco Elysium, such as the narrative, presentation, and gameplay.
Gameplay/Genre/Presentation
Before your story begins, you must first build a character archetype. One can choose from three-character builds already available, or simply craft one from scratch.
Four main groups require investment - Intellect, Psyche, Physical, and Motoric, each of which supply varied skills that help to shape and impact what kind of detective you want to be.
There's the quintessential intellectual cop, analysing crime scenes and creating logical conclusions, to the more empathetic detective, tapping into the emotions and behaviours of others to gather clues.
Still not ideal? Then perhaps a more hands-on approach in dexterity or physical strength is the way to go! Such a vast array of choices at your disposal hints at the depth and intricacy Disco Elysium's central design wields.
At first, you only have 12 skill points available to invest in each primary group. A 'secondary' skill slot will then become available. Secondary skills possess unique abilities that heavily influence how your game will unfold. For example, I started with 4 points invested into Motorics, allowing me the option to level up my secondary skills four times. I invested a few points into the skill 'Hand/Eye Coordination,' allowing for faster reflexes during certain scenes.
Ultimately, secondary skills allow the player to turn the tide of gameplay, opening alternate paths that otherwise could be missed entirely.
Fortunately, the player is not punished for how they choose to invest in their starting build.
Wearing certain items of clothing or engaging with narcotics allows the opportunity to try alternate skills. Disco Elysium does not punish the player but actively encourages a flexible meandering of characterisation.
Your first moments in a hotel room help to familiarise the player with the controls and inner workings of the game. Points of interest are highlighted for you to investigate, relaying thoughts and information back to you via voiced dialogue on the right-hand side of the screen. Following a point-and-click movement-control system (with the option of governing control directly), there were some issues in how this was utilised. Sometimes, I was fixed in a spot due to surrounding objects or lost in a circling loop. Such awkward instances meant realigning yourself upon a specific path to cross obstacles.
Many of your alternate thoughts will accompany the screen depending on how you invest your skill points. For example, the higher your intellect, the more opportunities arise for a self-aware and helpful internal monologue. These thoughts are a central game component in helping to inform the player of the best course of action and familiarise you with plot movement. However, be warned that the nature of your thoughts is only sometimes helpful and requires the player to lean on their own observations.
Depending on where your skills lie, the endless options presented feel dynamic and rewarding. For example, I approached a shattered window; due to my fairly high 'visual calculus,' I could unearth the 'crime scene' and deduce what possibly happened. This shows the unique and engaging skill system at play. Points of interest and explanations can be missed entirely, encouraging the player to seek out new paths.
When analysing your surroundings, a 'skill check' will signify how high your skill must be to pass. Following a dice-like chance component, there is the possibility of failing the check completely. When such a case happens, you must wait to try again until you have deposited more points into the specific skill. However, certain 'red' checks allow only one attempt until it is blocked completely for the remainder of the game, forcing
the player to approach alternate avenues.
In an interview with Robert Kurvitz, lead designer and writer of Disco Elysium, Conard PC questions the importance of making mistakes in RPGS. ' A mistake should affect how you react in future, by responding to what just happened. It should make you feel embarrassed, afraid, regretful. Most of all, it has to be a genuine experience, written in such a way that the player sees the value of it as they build their character and doesn’t just want to restart the game straight after. We’ve worked really hard to make these mistakes some of the game’s best moments in terms of role-play, and I think people feel closer to their character when he gets something wrong than when he gets it right.'
Part of what makes this system so lively and engaging is the possibility of failure and its repercussions, evidenced in the underlying depth of dialogue. In some cases, scenes of absolute hilarity ensue as you fail. I attempted to skip out on a bill by running away. Sadly, my lack of dexterity meant I fell over a woman in a wheelchair, to the horror of everyone else in the vicinity.
Disco Elysium encompasses a unique blend of many different genres. From the overhead view and movement controls reminiscent of a point-and-click adventure to the more intricate levelling system and dice roll mechanics known in tabletop RPGS. However, Disco Elysium never feels convoluted in this approach; instead, it presents a certain level of genius in its ability to borrow from these alternate concepts while retaining a solid, formidable identity. From then on, Disco Elysium steadily opens its world to you in a digestible manner without overwhelming the player. The backstory and lore feel seamless and natural,
Narrative + Design
Disco Elysium provides an art style reminiscent of an oil painting, with its conceptual design borrowing a dystopian influence.
The steady emphasis on certain colours helps to portray specific emotions, painting a profound picture as you walk the sombre and cold streets of Martinaise, whilst the setting captures a poignant feeling of despair and ruin. Bullet-riddled walls frame your pathways, and old factories haunt the encompassing landscape. This loss of hope is further elaborated in the isolation of Revachol's setting, alone upon the insula. Such a setting proves integral in its design and concept, as the overarching narrative accompanies a town plagued by a bloodied history of conflict and class upheaval. Its harsh exterior mirrors that of the residents and your inner psyche, an often despairing and cynical landscape, offering glimmers of remarkably witty and lovable character dialogue amid such strife.
Robert Kurvitz has accomplished a huge feat in how brilliant his storytelling capability is, bridging the gap of interactive storytelling via a unique, refreshing format. Within the many twists and turns of the main plot are interwoven essential layers of narrative with impactful themes and character development. As a result, your experience is anything but linear.
As your investigation commences, you must question the many residents that inhabit Martinaise; their pronounced outlook feeds the player with information, from the old war veteran with a particular vitriolic disdain of the present, to the huddled group of dockworkers lamenting their communist ideals and past revolutions. Such varying layers of narrative depth tie into the main plot exquisitely. With the addition of side quests, more answers are steadily revealed, answers that otherwise could have been missed entirely.
Much of your time with Disco Elysium will require reading text and listening to dialogue. The prose style of storytelling is descriptive, presenting information to the player in a natural and fluid manner. For this reason, it never feels indulgent; coupled with excellent voice acting, it emboldens the central themes and tone. With the definitive edition fully voiced, Disco Elysium makes great work of this new implementation. With such a wide array of accents, certain character aspects are emphasised, highlighting the stark divide of class that is a central proponent in Disco Elysium's narrative. Such examples include the more rugged northern English accent juxtaposed with the southern inflexions of the bourgeois. In addition to French and American voice acting, this diversity helps to play upon the pre-conceived stereotypes and prejudices. Dialogue and descriptive narration, therefore, epitomise the multi-layered societal structure that plays a hefty role in Disco Elysium and its organic manner of storytelling.
Disco Elysium presents authentic and poignant themes, addressing them with a certain refinement while displaying a rich and complex tone. Moments can be raw and uncomfortable, as well as cynical and cutting, accomplishing this is no mean feat, yet Disco Elysium does not lose its way in creating emotionally diverse scenes. For example, the theme of addiction is all consuming and a reoccurring in your character's development, one of which you can actively influence by quitting altogether or partaking in such vices. In addition, there is a prevalent theme of despair, failure, and the ever-lamenting expression of loss. The genuine repercussions of how one chooses to alleviate these emotions are a central conflict in your character's life. Your colleague Kim also faces blunt racial tensions due to his ethnicity and sexuality. You come to realise that everyone is escaping something in Martinaise; it is up to you as the player to fully embrace your character's past to shape his future or embroil yourself into the sinking wastes of oblivion.
The duality of such characteristics establishes how dynamic every character feels. Disco Elysium doesn't just present these struggles to you but actively engages the player in choosing how you wish to approach these hurdles, cultivating your character through his various ideological interpretations. The freedom of choice allows for replay value and the unique opportunity to immerse yourself within the world of Disco Elysium and, in doing so, mould the type of detective you wish to be.
According to 'Narrative Reformulated: Storytelling in Video Games' the importance of player agency is emphasised. 'Of particular importance are the agency a gamer is afforded through the gameplay logic and by any avatar she might deploy, the perspective she has with respect to the ergodic space, and the dialectic nature of the relationship these two components extend between the gamer and the game'
Suppose one partakes in drug-taking and drinking. In that case, it may hold very real implications and stark reactions from your colleagues, impacting your internal thoughts as the struggle progressively increases. The Thought Cabinet is an in-game mechanic that helps to expand upon this. A' thought' is triggered depending on certain dialogue choices or actions. A specific stat enhancement, or penalty, is applied by allocating a skill point to this.
Will you align yourself with the communist doctrine of the working class? Or are you more of a moralist or neo-liberal? Despite your character's history, he is ultimately a blank canvas for you to nurture. Therefore, the complex and enticing ideologies accompanying Revachol play a big role in it's development.
Sound Design
Another component that works to evoke emotion is sound design. Much of the music composed by British Sea Power is integral in helping the steady exposition of certain scenes, curating a tone that culminates into a climactic feel of awe and wonder. There were many instances where I found myself enamoured by the atmospheric sounds that accompanied my journey, such as the soft whistling breeze on the seafront, the undulating waves crashing to and fro, or the more sombre ambient music as you
spend your time exploring Revashol. Sound design's intrinsic role in crafting emotional and impactful scenes alongside the narrative is achieved expertly.
Optimisation
I played Disco Elysium Definitive Edition on the Ps4 Pro. My experience was smooth, with some issues propping up here and there.
Despite a fully voiced cast, spoken dialogue may sometimes be cut out entirely before the text is finished. During transition scenes in which the camera pans, there may be instances of lag for a moment or two. However, this only happened 2-3 times max during my playthrough. Additionally, some items require repeated clicks before being analysed. For the most part, instances were few and far between, though some noted bugs that included missing items from the inventory menu.
Conclusion
In all, it is difficult to articulate fully the impact Disco Elysium has on me as a reviewer. My experience elicited awe and gratitude as the swirling labyrinth of emotions overcame me during my final moments. I had fallen in love with the ever-charming and astoundingly written characters and residents of Revachol, enamoured by the ever-articulate design and feel of Martinaise and its artful use of imagery. The conjunctive nature of Disco Elysium's tone and themes remains prevalent throughout its duration, working in tandem with sound to evoke an enchanting experience. It is rare for such an art form to tug on my heartstrings, to play on my emotions and critical thinking. Furthermore, it allows players to choose how they wish to utilise their role. Ultimately, Disco Elysium presents a detective story, yet what it entails leaves an experience worthy of a masterpiece.
All images and videos are the property of Sarah West, shared from the PS4 PRO.
Sources:
Conard Pc Interview-Disco Elysium - The Final Cut - Choose your own misadventure - Part 2 - Interview with Robert Kurvitz - Steam News (steampowered.com)
Comments
Post a Comment