ZA/UM’s cult-hit detective RPG,
Disco Elysium, is set in a city where every political ideology has failed. As your player character an alcoholic cop in flared trousers and a tie resembling the intestines of a dead animal roams Martinaise hunting for clues and discarded bottles to deposit, the legacy of these failures is painted into every one of the game’s pre-rendered dollhouse environments. There’s the cracked tilework built under the King’s wasteful regime; the bullet holes in the walls along which the Communists were lined up; the King’s statue restored by a bunch of art-school “young ironists” as part of an aborted attempt at gentrifying the area into a resort.
All Specs
If you don’t think video games should have politics, don’t play Disco Elysium - The Final Cut. If you don’t think games should aspire to say something, this detective-RPG isn’t the game for you. That’s not to say the $39.99 game is a manifesto. The way it cynically, yet thoughtfully, criticizes a range of ideologies reveals the game’s politics aren’t nearly as narrow you might expect. But this isn’t wishy-washy centrism. Disco Elysium’s sympathies ultimately lie with working people and movements that center their best interests, despite asking you to play as cops on the other end of that equation. The brilliant role-playing mechanics and richly realized world would be impressive no matter the story, but Disco Elysium’s beating, thematic heart makes it the best PC game you can play at this moment in history.
Published 6 Apr, 2021
Each time I play weird and wonderful amnesiac detective RPG Disco Elysium, I fall in love with language all over again, and get properly jazzed up to spill some fancy words. In this case, I ve played the new Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, an updated version of the game that has loads of new voice acting and even some new quests. So I’ll pop a cork in my impulse to use words like ekphrastic , at least a bit, because I imagine you’ve come here with one of two questions.
Those are: should I finally get around to playing The Large RPG? or, if you’ve already played it loads, is the Final Cut reason enough to do so again? Please, enter the slide in front of you, and glide, like a graceful brick, into the answer pool below.
When My Disco Elysium Character Gave Up I Was Like Yeah, I Get It kotaku.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kotaku.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.