Disco Elysium - A crushing disappointment

Cyberpunkd

Cyberpunkd

Member
WARNING: This thread includes not-so-much spoilers to Disco Elysium and end-game spoilers to Planescape:Torment

I have been playing cRPGs for probably 25-30 years. I have played BG, BG2 and PS:T at release. I played Witcher 1 the moment it released. Morrowind is the best ES game of all time.

Disco Elysium is a massive disappointment. I do not even mind "lack of gameplay" - PS:T gameplay was mid at best, the combat was bad, you just wanted to get it over with. But IN BETWEEN - learning about absolute badass you were over millennia of existence, how everything in the world has been shaped by you. Fall-from-Grace. Dak'kon. Ignis. Morte. Masterprice.

What does Disco Elysium offer us? A tale of an alcoholic cop. I kept waiting for that ONE THING that will turn it around, some sort of explanation how low we have fallen. After 20 hours (when I stopped) I got absolutely nothing. The same socio-political gibberish written by school kids for school kids (communism = bad, free market = bad, middle-of-the-road = bad).

In conclusion: a visual novel, but the story is shit.
 
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amigastar said:
Ah, ok, i thought so because from what i have seen of Disco Elysium looked appealing.
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The game is transparent on what it is. No combat crpg, with some great character choices, dialogue, and and overall satisfying plot. It's got plenty of interesting and unique characters, a unique art style, plays well, wonderful voice acting, and that soundtrack? Oh baby!

 
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Yeah I tried it and the gameplay even just moving around is annoying. The story isn't interesting plus I don't need this shit in my entertainment, I can just watch the news instead.
 
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Loop Trump GIF
 
Twists in video game stories are overdone. Personally prefer them without those.

Reading simple descriptions like how a fan makes creaking noise while turning is what elevates it for me.
 
Its fine not to like things, but outside of the few obvious political inclinations from writters, the game is an amazing detective game and with so many choices at your disposal, it was pretty damn good.
 
I didn't have as visceral reaction as you did, OP, but I was pretty underwhelmed. It was in that unfortunate in-between space where there's not enough meaningful interactivity to be a proper RPG or adventure game, and the story isn't focused enough or, frankly, good enough to call the game a visual novel.

I didn't not enjoy Disco Elysium, but was far from the masterpiece some people tried to prop it up as. I feel like it was more a reaction to having a new, story-heavy game that felt Planescape-ish in some ways rather than because the game itself was particularly great.
 
Cyberpunkd said:
WARNING: This thread includes not-so-much spoilers to Disco Elysium and end-game spoilers to Planescape:Torment

I have been playing cRPGs for probably 25-30 years. I have played BG, BG2 and PS:T at release. I played Witcher 1 the moment it released. Morrowind is the best ES game of all time.

Disco Elysium is a massive disappointment. I do not even mind "lack of gameplay" - PS:T gameplay was mid at best, the combat was bad, you just wanted to get it over with. But IN BETWEEN - learning about absolute badass you were over millennia of existence, how everything in the world has been shaped by you. Fall-from-Grace. Dak'kon. Ignis. Morte. Masterprice.

What does Disco Elysium offer us? A tale of an alcoholic cop. I kept waiting for that ONE THING that will turn it around, some sort of explanation how low we have fallen. After 20 hours (when I stopped) I got absolutely nothing. The same socio-political gibberish written by school kids for school kids (communism = bad, free market = bad, middle-of-the-road = bad).

In conclusion: a visual novel, but the story is shit.
Click to expand...

You are the crushing disappointment.
 
Not all games have to follow the same script during development. It is through unconventional approaches to development that unconventional, unique games appear. I also grew up on Black Isle Studios and BioWare (RIP) games, but that did not stop me from playing this game and enjoying it. One of my favorite games, and by the way, there are even TTRPGs in which either there is no combat system, it is not the focus of the game.

P.S - But the fact that this game is not for everyone and not for a mass audience is 100%
 
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SEGAvangelist said:
Commie game, no thanks.
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Did a youtuber give you that take? Cause clearly you never played the game.

Its one ideology among many others in the game, and it criticizes and even goes as far as condemning communism or did a communist uprising and Revachol a city scarred by revolution not ring any fucking bell? The game's communist lore is a failed social-military movement of the past. The "new communism" which is social-democratic is basically the union and its also a flawed character, its incomplete and they are willing to use their workers and parts of the city as pawns. Such a lovely love letter to communism :rolleyes:

The game is pessimistic about the prospects of communism ever happening. In fact the game is pretty critical of all ideologies. Thanking Marx and Engels for their political education does not mean they praise one or the other, they're grateful these works are there to use as a critical lens to view the problems in society.
 
To me, that game should have been a novel. Taking the best dialogue in there, add some different storytelling form to fit the novel-form, and it would have been very good.
As a videogame I was having trouble enjoying it.
 
Buggy Loop said:
Did a youtuber give you that take? Cause clearly you never played the game.

Its one ideology among many others in the game, and it criticizes and even goes as far as condemning communism or did a communist uprising and Revachol a city scarred by revolution not ring any fucking bell? The game's communist lore is a failed social-military movement of the past. The "new communism" which is social-democratic is basically the union and its also a flawed character, its incomplete and they are willing to use their workers and parts of the city as pawns. Such a lovely love letter to communism :rolleyes:

The game is pessimistic about the prospects of communism ever happening. In fact the game is pretty critical of all ideologies. Thanking Marx and Engels for their political education does not mean they praise one or the other, they're grateful these works are there to use as a critical lens to view the problems in society.
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Yeah I agree, the game feels like it is written through the lens of commies who lived through Communism failing miserably (probably feels that way because it was). You can tell they are believers and wanted it to work, but it was nothing short of devastation and they are forced to acknowledge it. Really refreshing, I'd rather read a complex take on it than simply commie good/bad capitalism bad/good.
 
Arsic said:
OP is wrong and has shit taste,

Disco is amazing through and through.
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Wrong.
Arsic said:
The game is transparent on what it is. No combat crpg, with some great character choices, dialogue, and and overall satisfying plot.
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Plot is absolute mid shit.
vaibhavpisal said:
Reading simple descriptions like how a fan makes creaking noise while turning is what elevates it for me.
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I'm sorry you don't have higher standards than mediocrity.
SEGAvangelist said:
Commie game, no thanks.
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It's not. I don't care if it's a commie game, worse than that - a shit game.
FireFly said:
It's a detective story wrapped in a layer of esoteric writing. The OP was apparently expecting a life changing experience.
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Yes, I play video games not to experience the mundane, I have enough of that in the real life.
HRK69 said:
That opinion is wrong
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No.
Vlodril said:
You are the crushing disappointment.
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That's not what your wife said yesterday.
Thief1987 said:
Agree. Incredibly boring, pretentious verbal diarrhea.
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This guy gets it.
 
I enjoyed it a lot. One of the things that really sold it for me was the narrator and sound design in general. It's incredibly atmospheric and often surprisingly affecting. The flashback with his lady actually got to me.

And yea, I'm an avid reader and surely there are better books covering the subjects but the presentation elevates Disco greatly in my opinion. Beat it twice so far.
 
Brilliant game, but one has to meet it at its own terms and vibe with the story and atmosphere.

This video made me want to play it



And it didn't disappoint. The bro-mance with Kim was so fun, all characters were impressively drawn (literally and metaphorically).

And it is funny as fuck at times.

0ED0AC6C8D3C6B2F9DF98599D0014CBB0EAB8629
 
I hope this thread will not stop anyone from playing the game.

There will be no other game like this ever.
Even if it's not for you, you should still experience it.
 
Much like any and every game/form of entertainment...

The Big Lebowski Dude GIF


Some may agree, some may not. I personally have no interest in Disco Elysium, but I've definitely seen more people praise it than say the opposite. 🤷‍♂️
 
I went in expecting magic. I got bored once I realized I needed to look everything up to actually progress the game in the way I wanted to. Turns out I'm not a person who can't look the "right" answers up and that killed this game for me. In BG3 I had to do it a LOT less than in this game, so it did ruin it for me. I wanted to love it so bad. I loved Hotel Dusk but I bounced off this one HARD and have regretted it every since. I'm not one that can do this game by not looking up the "right" answers. This and Slay the Princess.

I think the reason is I can tell they are trying to teach me such lessons, such profound, but I'm attention deficit enough to also be bored by the setup for this and so it makes me want to skip to the good part. The writing is good in this but also in BG3 and BG3 has other things. I would love to try again someday, this time with headphones.
 
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Cyberpunkd said:
Yes, I play video games not to experience the mundane, I have enough of that in the real life.
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That's your preference. But the medium is full of games with universe-ending stakes (Behold, our new saviour!). There aren't too many where you get to play a drunk, mostly incompetent detective, stumbling through a world that doesn't give a shit about him.
 
Same OP. I gave this game two solid tries. Once on Steam Deck, then I figured I'd try it again on console - PS5 I think. One of my consoles in the living room. I forget.

Anyway, I could never get past about three hours in. It's just boring. I was promised that the storytelling would be heady, even keen and insightful. I found it dreary,as if someone had just completed their first collegiate-level creative writing course, secured themselves a thesaurus, and was let loose upon the gaming world.

I'll give it this much: great art, and the writers managed to cobble together a setting that was different and interesting for an adventure game. Just crushingly boring.
 
It's a point n click adventure game, I don't know if anyone played the Lucas Arts games in the 90's, Disco is a detective point n click game of that nature. There's not meant to be any combat. You go around solving puzzles and unraveling the story.
 
I thought the game was brilliant and I loved the philosophy and the prose you get to go through.

It's not a game for everyone, that's for sure, but for folks who don't mind a lot of reading, and like some of themes, it will be amazing.
 
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