14 DAY TRIAL // 
Disco Elysium is one of the most remarkable RPGs that have been launched in a while. It is fresh, it is crazy, it is original and it sucks you in a psychedelic abyss that you don’t want to end. Finally, the console players can enjoy it as well, through an edition that promises full voice-over, improved graphics, and some additional content. There should have been bug fixes as well, but those are a bit late to the party, raising the question is Disco Elysium rises to the promises made by the developers?
Let’s start with the biggest and only real issue with The Final Cut: it was released too soon and with too many technical issues. Now, after a couple of patches, the situation is much better, but the early adopters, who picked up the game when it was released, probably felt like part of the QA Team. The full voice-over was actually partial, big chunks missing, the quest items often bugged out, the hotspots got no interact prompts, some of the interactions tended to go around in the same never-ending loop, and the game itself crashed quite often.
Despite the countless issues, the appeal of Disco Elysium did not get eroded one bit. It is a dream come true for every true RPG fan, who is looking for a rich story, deep character development and a world to get lost in. Disco Elysium is not a Diablo crowd-pleaser, it does not have quick action sequences and you will find no instant gratification in it. It is a modern love letter to the Planescape Torment era. It is original, it requires a lot of reading and thinking, and it is complex in scope and solutions.
Several decisions affect how the events unfold and you will have to replay the game a couple of times if you want to see everything. Especially, is you play The Final Cut, which adds several new secondary quest lines, each linked to a certain political or social ideology. Beyond the technical issues that are being fixed through patches, Disco Elysium has some issues in its DNA, somehow common for all the great RPGs, but it remains a brilliant game.
It all starts with the creation of your alter ego, who will represent you in the game. The four attribute categories have different abilities that will shape your gameplay experience. You can focus on the physical aspects and become an intimidating jock, you can choose to be a walking encyclopedia or even someone who plays other emotions like a fiddle, a master manipulator. You cannot personalize your looks or your background story, and this all makes sense when your character wakes up hardly remembering anything about himself, about where he is or why is he there.
After getting a grip on your colossal hangover you will find yourself in a fantasy version of the 20th century in a strange land, where fascism, communism, and capitalism wage a never-ending battle, even after the revolution that brought a regime change. Your adventures will take place in Martinaise, a derelict district of Revachol, the former capital of the world.
As you will find out during your investigations you are part of the RCM, a corrupt police force that safeguards the interests of the oppressing regime. Due to a mysterious death, you should investigate, you will find yourself in the middle between the capitalist Wild Pines and the communist dockworkers union.
Although a murder charge should be serious enough, you will find out soon enough that the real stakes are much higher than finding a simple culprit. It is up to you how deep you get involved in the social and political matters you will be confronted with. You can choose a specific ideology or, you can go with a superstar attitude, partying and trashing the place, or even adapt the doom and gloom harangue so typical for the heralds of the end times. You can help people, or you can help yourself. Other than following the main questline, everything else is optional, but the developers managed to build the world in a way that makes you not want to miss anything.
The story is complex and there are plenty of choices that will affect the outcome of the game. There is no complete freedom since you will have to go through some mandatory steps, but the way you complete them is up to the decisions you make. The focus is on the experience, and not the technicalities. The level-up system is not overly complicated, there is no real combat, and although you have some wacky equipment options in the game, their influence is limited. It is all about detective work and dialogues.
Depending on how you build and evolve your character, you will tackle each task differently. In certain key moments, you will have to pass different checks, that will determine if you succeed or fail with a different action. Based on your chosen attributes some of these checks you will pass with flying colors, while others will prove impossible.
The sum of these failures and successes determines how the events unfold, and with a few exceptions, there is no real bad answer. Failing a check opens up another avenue you can follow. The fact that the final outcome is being determined by a throw of dice, can feel a bit haphazard. But, old-school RPG fans know the importance of being in the graces of the almighty RNG. Beyond the apparel pieces, you can alter your abilities by using different drugs, from alcohol to opioids. There is always a price to pay for turning to illegal substances, but in some cases, the outcome can be quite hilarious.
Still, despite all the fun, after a while, the long dialogues can become tedious. This is the negative part present in all classic RPGs relying heavily on text: at one point they can become tiresome. This is especially true for Disco Elysium, where you can have dialogues that go on for 15 minutes. You have to pay attention so you can make the right decisions, and even though all dialogues should by now be fully voiced, it is a challenge to follow the long interactions.
After solving the initial technical issues, The Complete Edition should be the best experience Disco Elysium has to offer. The complete voice-over of the dialogues helps a lot, especially that the voice actors did a tremendous job, and their performance adds to the unique atmosphere of the game. The visuals are even more gorgeous and the original art style remains a big part of the unique atmosphere of the game.
The frame rate is shaky in some places, far from a constant 60fps, but in the case of this game, it does not really affect the overall experience. The control scheme based on the gamepad feels natural and is quite precise. The various problems with the occasional hotspots not popping the interaction button have been fixed by the latest patches. After three series of patches, most of the biggest technical issues are gone.
The Good
- Brilliant story with interesting characters
- Plenty of replay value
- Full voice-over, excellent voice acting
The Bad
- Dialogues can become tiresome
- Not all technical issues have been fixed
- Occasional crashes
Conclusion
Right now Disco Elysium The Final Cut is damn close to that vision. It is not often that I can forgive a messy launch, but the fixes that patched up things quite quickly and the experience itself outweighs any issues that are already in the past. If there was any game from the ones presented in a while that I wholeheartedly recommend, this is the one.
