Game Revue Club v. 67: Disco Elysium

[Chum Joely]

Our 67th Revue Club game probably needs no introduction here, given its already towering reputation as a deeply revolutionary and fundamentally weird CRPG that seeks to emulate the free-form experience of a tabletop RPG while also simulating the life of the protagonist's mind as much as the events that take place around him. I have a feeling that the discussion for this truly unique game will more or less take care of itself, but in keeping with tradition, here are a few questions to get things started:
- How does Disco Elysium compare to others in (or adjacent to) the classic CRPG genre, like Planescape: Torment or the original Fallout games? What aspects do you recognize as continuations or evolutions of common elements in that genre, and which did you find unique or even revolutionary?
- What kind of character build did you start with, and how do you feel it impacted your overall experience, especially early on? What factors went into your decisions about how to evolve the character's stats as you went along?
- What do you think of the way the game deals with various real-life issues like war, unions, communism, feminism and racism (to name just a few)? For example, what balance do you feel it strikes between realism, satire, and general video-gamey hand-waving?
- What were some of your most memorable moments in the game, and what made them so memorable?
- Who were your favorite characters? (Related question: Kim Kitsuragi: awesome companion, or awesomest companion?)

As always, [ spoiler ] please use the spoiler tags [ /spoiler ], minus the spaces, to make sure everyone gets a chance to discover the game's secrets for themselves. In this game, even small details can sometimes feel like hugely delightful surprises, shocking let-downs, etc., and no one playthrough can reveal all of the possibilities. So tread especially lightly with spoilers this time out!

[Chum Joely]

I've already played through this game once over Christmas break, and I'm thrilled to see it selected for the Revue Club. The first time through, I picked the more physical/emotional build, and overall I played a "sorry cop" character who was initially just appalled at having come to the point in his downward spiral where he woke up half-naked with near-total amnesia in the middle of a case, and was desperate to lay off the drugs and prove he could be a serious cop again. Only to discover as the story went along that the twisted character of his mind had some real value for police work, at least in the twisted world of Revachol, and that it was no good to try and be completely normal either... I had to embrace the weirdness without letting it take control of me. All told, Disco Elysium was absolutely amazing at making me question and think about everything my character did almost as much as I do in my own real life (which is a lot, I'm kind of neurotic).

I'll save most of my "memorable moments" and other comments for later in the discussion, but really the whole experience was unique and memorable from start to finish. I've never felt as fully connected and identified with a character (even though I didn't really like this guy!) as I did with this game.

Because the game is so free-form, I'm tempted to play again for this discussion and explore in a very different direction from my "sorry, sensitive, communist cop" of the first run. Might try an "intelligent fascist asshole" cop this time and see where that leads me. You know, for science! The only thing is that, given how intensely this game dives into everything it addresses, I'm worried I might end up with a character I deeply despise... which might be academically interesting but not very fun? Hmm. Still thinking this one over.

[Naked Snake]

Groovy

[Naked Snake]

I'm totally leaning into the art-insanity vibe for my character. I have Inland Empire as my signature trait and I absolutely love the things it comes up with. It's made me wonder whether I wouldn't benefit from a little extra madness in the way I engage with my daily life. *Maybe there are meanings underneath the surface?* I'm a complete mess of a human being, but deeply in touch with my intuition, which has lead me to discover many hidden things.

I want to give a shout out to detective Kim, who is just the perfect straight man for my insanity. Patient, professional, and courteous -- he's pretty much the only person who I can imagine tolerating my character for any length of time. Is it wrong that I want to repay him by unlocking his inner insanity?

[Naked Snake]

My character's approach to politics so far has been informed by my conviction that he's the easily influenceable type. So if anyone brings it up he just gets excited with whatever new ideas come along, and doesn't worry too much about whether it's all compatible in the mind. As I said, I'm a mess.

[Chum Joely]

I just started that new playthrough, and yeah, I am totally going to go for the hyper-intelligent fascist asshole cop. As expected. the game instantly responded to my asshole behavior by allowing me to bargain my outstanding fees with the hotel down to less than half of their original level. But seconds later, I freaked out and retired from cophood when challenged on my general assholery. Not quite as bad as my friend who was tickled to no end when her character fainted and/or died when he failed to turn on the lights in the hotel room in the first 15 seconds of play, but still. What the hell is this game. Love it.

[Chum Joely]

(Choose character name:) "What is gold and orange like a forest fire, but smells like liquor?"

[Naked Snake]

I feel like the light killing you in the first room is a mario-esque tutorial effort to show you how the game really works. They set up an immediate consequence for you so you don't blunder later.

What I really like about the game is that it starts from the assumption that you're a chaotic waste of a person (although what kind of waste is up to you). That dramatically lowers the stakes, since everyone's expectations are that I'm going to fuck things up. No chosen one who can't fail here. Under those circumstances, it's a lot easier to role play the game, rather than just trying to go for a total win.

I'll also admit that the game is influencing me on a person level. After simulating what it's like to just listen to your intuition at all times, I've started applying it in real life. I have decided to quiet my rational voice and just embrace my gut as fact when it speaks up. It's been serving me well so far. My gut knows more than I give it credit for. It sees beyond. It's time to start believing in magic.

[Chum Joely]

Very good point about lowering the stakes by not having you start out as The Chosen One. It's more like, the Unfortunately Imposed One That I Guess We'll Have To Deal With. So you set your own stakes, I guess. On my first playthrough, I was the "sorry cop" who wanted to prove that he could do this "cop" thing and still had some kind of value as a person.

As to your other point, I'm still trying to figure out what influence this game will have on me on a personal level. I am definitely wide open to having games influence my thought processes in all kinds of ways, like Life Is Strange making me think about how I would go through a situation differently vs. just accepting what already happened, or even XCOM becoming a metaphor for juggling all of the different things that I have to balance in my life, and taking an "Ironman" perspective about just working with what I've got no matter what happens along the way. Definitely the fact that Disco Elysium actively simulates the protagonist's inner life as having a dynamic personality of its own (or several of them, actually) is really intriguing. I guess I have noticed myself trying to identify the different "voices" or themes in my inner monologue according to something resembling the Disco Elysium schema. The "Thought Cabinet" thing where you lower certain stats for a while by sort of "investing" them in a challenging thought process, in hopes of getting a payoff in terms of other stats later, could also turn out to be an interesting metaphor for me in real life going forward. I guess I'll have to put that one in my real-life thought cabinet...

[Chum Joely]

So, on the one hand I want to point out that the Intelligence pre-fab build is great for exposing the world of the game in a different order and in other interesting ways. But on the other hand, I think I have now died 4 times by the exact same sequence of suddenly despairing over my whole existence as a cop in the middle of some other interaction which didn't even initially seem to be subject to a stat check at all. I have to figure out what low stat is making this happen, and come up with a custom build that will ward it off even if I choose to play as the high-INT type in the future... Why do geniuses have to be so fragile?!

[Naked Snake]

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been playing this game too assiduously, and began pulling back the veil on the world beyond. Truth and madness, madness and truth. Before I knew it, I began diving headlong into an endless bender. I drank my mind into oblivion and completely forgot we were doing this Game Revue Club.

[Chum Joely]

Thanks for posting again, though! I have been meaning to get back to this too, ever since I realized that I was being completely stupid and forgetting that every failed stat check lowers your morale, so I was just dying repeatedly from hitting zero morale. The problem was not the high INT build per se, it was that I was role-playing as an overconfident guy who tried every roll, failed most of them, and never cured his morale. Duh. Fortunately there are drugs for that, which my guy is also totally into because they are awesome and make him even more super intelligent!!!!

[Naked Snake]

I 100% agree with the interpretation the game takes for how cigarettes affect your stats.

[Chum Joely]

MASSIVE BONUSES

[Naked Snake]

What kinds of differences have you noticed with your second playthrough, Chum? When I started the game, it seemed like the differences in playthoughs would be huge, but I've come to realize that it's likely that all the same story beats and quests would be ultimately available regardless of your stats. Of course, that doesn't mean that it won't *feel* different, but I get the impression that it's more of a question of the Metal Gear approach to divergent paths. You know you're gonna need to kill a boss, it's just a question of whether you use stealth/trickery or a direct assault.

[Naked Snake]

As mentioned earlier, this game has got me thinking a lot about the idea of intuition. In attempting to be more intuitive in my personal life, it has occurred to me that "listening to your intuition" is just another way of saying "be more confident in your opinions". In this game, the main character (or at least, my super-intuitive one) is willing to trust and act on hunches that are based on totally flimsy evidence. He goes with his gut, and sometimes he's so right its uncanny, and sometimes he's spectacularly wrong. On the other hand, there's the skeptical foil in Lieutenant Kim, who is reluctant to come to any firm conclusion without clear and direct evidence. He's never wrong, but at the same time he's unwilling to commit himself to voicing an opinion until the matter is basically settled. At the end of the day, the extent to which you trust your intuition is directly tied to the extent to which you are willing to take a chance that your opinion is wrong.