https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3045705183

Only a shade of your former self, neurons annihilated in an ethanol holocaust, thoughts irradiated by the fallout of sorrows and what-ifs. That’s the sorry state of your yet-unnamed protagonist, a police officer tasked to investigate murder in a post-revolution banlièue called Martinaise.

With melancholy being the centerpiece of its entire leitmotif – hell, it’s the entire leitmotif - you’re resuscitated into a world that is just as crumbling as your own self. If the demons of your past weren’t enough, you also have a case on your hands. With this premise in mind, Disco Elysium builds a world that couldn't be farther from its ‘Elysian’ namesake, and doesn’t pull any punches in depicting the true-and-gritty nature of it. You’ll come across the worst of human nature, and have a choice whether to improve or indulge even deeper in your own self destruction. Or both, as the writing is flexible and farseeing enough to have middle-grounds.

The painted-canvas like art style is subtly-entwined with modern graphics tech, as it does deliver some splendid light effects and impressive visuals, but only at the right times. It’s not a game that doesn’t look good because it can’t, but more a title that knows exactly how it wants to look, and doesn’t care about flashiness in order to pursue a style that integrates with its mood. And that’s great.

The Martinaise district and its environs trade extension with saturation, as far as content is concerned. Jam-packed with interactions, NPCs with endless dialogue options and thought-provoking caricatures of cityscapes at every corner, you’ll likely take hours to get to the bottom of each building, street and locale. Of course, you may even revisit already-explored locations once you have the skills or the specific tools to access previously-unlikely or downright impossible areas, interactions and skill checks. It’s a rewarding exploration system that works organically and intelligently, but at the same time doesn’t give second chances in many cases (unless you reload, but where’s the fun in that?).

There’s a metric ton of optional locations, secret items and unique interactions for you to be discovered -admittedly, some exceptionally obscure and nigh-impossible to figure out, unless you stumble onto them perchance. The lack of a detailed map and inconsistent fast travel that just doesn’t always work are minor issues, as the sense of direction and uniqueness of each environment are strong enough for you to not get lost.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3046360878

Crown jewel and core of the experience, the dialogue system, and generally the interaction framework with the environment as a whole - including yourself - is a highly-advanced one. As in any RPG, you’ll be presented with skill checks at every turn, testing one of the dozens of attributes you may invest into. Dodge a bullet with Reaction Speed, avoid blacking out from pain with Pain Threshold, formulate logical conclusions with Logic, become a (quasi)human trivia machine with Encyclopedia - these are just a few of the many skills, each governed by an attribute.

The checks are both active and passive, some can be retried after a day passed or after you leveled up, while others have only one chance of success. The system deciding the outcome is RNG-based, however in many cases, such chances can be boosted by performing other actions that give that specific check a boost. For example, knowing as much as possible about someone, before questioning them or their motives, will give you a better chance at understanding them and tell if they’re lying. Works in the same way for everything else, in a system that is contextually-plausible and realistic (most of the time).

Despite the world and your own mind saying anything but, you -can- actually improve, and become a smarter, faster, stronger, savvier alcoholic wreck with each XP-based level up. Passive and active checks award experience, needing 100 each time to gain a Skill Point that you can use to improve your skills - or, invest them to unlock Thought Slots that, when filled with more-or-less insane metaphysical, social or philosophical digressions, award a great variety of passive bonuses (and maluses).

Other than that, being Martinaise adequately-filled of abandoned junk as any post-revolution liberal dystopia should be, you may appropriate such junk in the shape of clothes, accessories and consumables that might as well boost your stats, or even have more special effects - changing your apparel frequently based on the task ahead isn’t only smart - it’s suggested and implied in the gameplay design. Lastly, fun-based consumables like drugs and alcohol can boost your core stats and give great bonuses, especially when stacked, but there -will- be consequences for fueling your self-annihilation.

Lastly, you can get various archetypes stuck to your sorry sketch of a human being; some of them political, based on the opinions you voice about social issues and circumstances, while the others strictly archetypal, classifying you as one of several “copotypes” that express the kind of cop you have become. While none of these massively influence the experience, they do unlock interesting stuff.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3044205345