Disco Elysium - A (Mainly) Spoiler Free Review

The thing you’re doing is relating this game to todays time and todays ideals..

It makes perfect sense that racist and sexist comments shouldn’t have any effect on gameplay.. it was the mentality of a majority of the world. It was in everyday conversation and no one cared.

The fact that it stays true to the time period only shows how good the game actually is

It’s not supposed to be Skyrim or Starfield

It's not a good adventure game because it's a focking detective game. You are here to detecting shit, not adventuring.

Esprit de corps has a different feel in the USMC lol

Sorry shill up, choosing Libertarianism over communism just made all your other opinions 80% less accurate

"The bookshop owner shows us a picture of optimism and hope in a town that no longer has any." Did we play the same game?

I had this video in my playlist for almost a year now, and finally watched it now that I finished the game yesterday. Such a masterpiece.


I was afraid the game would be a leftist woke propaganda and I wouldn't enjoy it since I am a right wing libertarian.

But god damn, the way the game deals with the different political themes is so respectful, honest and interesting. And on top of that, the human and emotional themes so masterfully developed.

One of the best games I ever played.

HUH!?!? Why haven't i seen this review until now? Been watching this channel for ages.

Finally playing this after I surprisingly liked Baldur’s Gate 3 despite usually hating turn based, point click, non-action games that you can walk away from w/o pausing at any moment. I’m loving the political commentary, been going full leftist and very much enjoy getting to talk trash to oligarch corrupt and racist pigs to their faces, even if it’s only virtually. The game has made me laugh out loud several times already.

I just wish there was some kind of fast travel or map markers though. BG3 has them and still maintains the constant feeling of discovery, I feel like so much of my time is already spent backtracking and clicking on random objects over and over and over and that does get grating.

This is not even close to being spoiler free lol

Kim threw my ass under the bus for drinking on the job when I had one drink when he wasn't even with me. I was called an ultraliberal when that trait had the least amount of points in it. Honestly disapponted with how misconstrued my character was at the end of the game after trying to "set everything right". Id recommend fucking around and having fun with the ridiculous options to turn it into a comedy. Game is funny as hell but don't take it serious

did it change game design and game creation like you thought?

I am not into RPGs. It's just not my style of game.

However, Disco Elysium is the best RPG ever made so even I loved it. It is an incredible game and if you are into gaming, you have to play this game at least once in your life.

I personally think Disco Elysium has the best ending in all video games I've played aside from maybe The Last of Us.
The conversation with the "unexpected character"(for sake of spoiler) was the most beautiful conversation I've seen in a video game.
If you don't look at at for a murder mystery but a absurdism existentialism experience, it makes much more sense.

Really liked your review of the skill tree in the game and the meaning behind it. Your review of the game is as intelligent as the game itself. If there was such a thing as a game review club, you might be the host of it!

You really didn't get the point of the game, huh?

when you said "Mundane murder mystery and dissapointing villian" I started to have doubts about this review

Weird question I hate critical theory I absolutely hate it👊🏼 Will that prevent my enjoy of this game!! Or does the game let me push back because I love capitalism!

a pretentious review on a boring game.

This was beautifully written - but I agree with others that you perhaps missed the point - the case is clearly supposed to be banal, the progression of it chaotic and messy, the empty confusion of the ending - the real changes are in yourself - especially if you unlock the best endnote. You’re not embodying a detective, you’re embodying the despair of a broken ex-detective.

Imagine dedicating more than an hour to review a game and still completely misinterpreted it.

okay but like also "every member a union of the board" is a perfect slogan that is simultaneously revolutionary in the given radical environment and the very epitome of labor aristocracy. its the perfect for slogan for a social democrat that actually considers themselves radical

So, and I mean this very condescendingly, you didn't get the ending. Which I'm not surprised; you're not a communist.

Yeah thanks you saved me $40 💪🏽 because this a point and click edge novel.

Skill up is a gamer poet

This game on sale 75% off on Steam .. probs will pick it up

Fucking centrists. My dude, when you said "the stability capitalism brings" I just about spit out my tea. Capitalism is the most unstable economic system we've ever had, the market crashes every 5 or so years, jobs are constantly being relocated, do I need to go on? What stability?

The nitpickiest review I've seen. It's ridiculous.

man I like this game but you sounded really pretentious during this review. it felt like you were implying that your dumb if this game didnt connect with you.

during all complaints of the story ending, i was saying "yes, but" and then repeated all the points about existentialism that SkillUp discussed at the end of this video. i loved the ending because of its existentialism, i found it extremely satisfying.

Not your best work

Comparing this game to Fallen Order makes no fucking sense whatsoever

They're not even remotely similar, there's nothing to compare

this game has affected me emotionally in a level i didn't thought it was possible. Feelings of loneliness, depression, abandonment, isolation, heartbreak, even suicide. Man, this game makes you not just to think, but to feel in a profound and contemplative way. Also the mystical ending made it all worth.

First spoiler warning.

Warned?

Ok.

I don’t want to make the game sound smarter than it is to make myself seem smarter than I am, but I like the ending. I like that we didn’t know the killer before, I loved the stupidity of his motive. I actually work in law and let me assure you, Cops pretty much never know the killer before they catch him and the motive is rarely satisfying. More often than not, the murder was depressingly senseless. The idea, that it has to be Someone you met 20 hours ago to achieve some convoluted scheme is cliché to the max and I love the absent of that. Was it a ploy to throw oil onto the fire that is the class war oder maybe the target was the female corporate spy? No, a random, less than sane hobo was jealous and took a shot, that was probably 50% muscle memory and 50% luck. I liked how the game screwed over those expectations. No, there was no higher meaning to the killing. There almost never is.

I just bought this, it's been on my watch list for a long time. The thought system seems like genius in terms of allowing you to roleplay an identity, even if the main story progression is somewhat linear. Thanks for this long review Ralph, a great video.

lib

I think you misunderstand what kind of game Disco Elysium is if you compare it to games were you are the center of the world, the most important person etc. Harrier is a policeman, you are solving a case. Do you expect to start a fascist uprising and become the dictator of Revachol, instead a fashy policeman will condescend to and discriminate people. That's about it, and you can do that.

so a terrible game but interesting philosophy

I like your reviews but sometimes they are kinda pretentious and you dissect a game way too much rather than actually say why it’s a good game or not

This game is not a game per se. It’s a vibe unto itself.

I think the whole point of the game is not the impact you have on the game world itself (in reality not much at all), but the impact the game has on how it makes you feel personally as you play it. It gives you the choice to either just peek ocassionally, or burn out out your eyes while staring into the sun unblinking, into the very heart of your own sense of morality and who you are. Or who you think you are. Or who you think you would like to be. Or even hate who you are. Or suspect who you might be. And feel very, very uncomfortable in doing so. Or feel like a fucking God. Even though you're really just a knob head. But one who think he's the shit....you get my drift.

Its perceived flaws are fair enough. But coming at it from a traditional video game player's perspective is the wrong way to go about judging this one I think. I think of it like a more sophisticated intercative game book from the '80's. It has a beginning, middle and end. And you are along for the ride, colouring the story and interactions. Even though in the end it all makes no real lasting impact. You are not a hero out to save the world. In fact no one really gives a shit about you. You are not unique. You are not special. You are just some drunk ass wanker, stumbling his way through the shit show of life, and the game happens to be a small chapter of it. Like for most of us really. And that's just fine by me. We are not special and unique, except perhaps in our own minds. But, like the game, we can still have one hell of a time without it making any difference to the world around us. And that's absolutely ok.

Disco Elysium is a window into your own soul in the real world. And no first time developer has any right to make a game this good. Its beyond ridiculous.

Its also just funny as fuck. Plus I'm a libertarian, socialist, superstar nihilist anyway so its perfect ;)

This wasn't a review. It was a TED talk. Awesome.

It is quite frankly intellectually insulting to bring up Fallout 4 as an example of a game where you can make a meaningful decision by joining a game world faction: Every single faction in this game is written as a lazy and unsuccessful attempt at world building. Henry Du Bois could create a more coherent ideology than the brotherhood in Fallout 4.
That a character cannot apply an ideology he has thought about for 8 hours to the highly complex and contradictory world around him IS one of the statements the game tries to make - why should you be able to peace together the whole world before REMEMBERING YOUR OWN NAME?! Why should a video game character achieve something that the greatest minds of our world did not?!
While (imho) it may be a valid thought to wish the game would explore an other theme or explore an existing theme more fully it is objectively wrong to bring up Fallout 4 in such a discussion.

point and click novel, as a game sucks