So what's up with
Disco Elysium? Is it a genuinely great game, or is it an overhyped piece of simplistic commie propaganda? On the strength of the very well written and very convincing current
Insomnia review, as well on the recommendation of two CULT players (Hanged Man and Diamong Dawg; though they didn't play too far into it, for what it's worth), I would guess the former; but there are some quite convincing contrarian opinions out there too, and I figured they were worth examining while the world waits for the opinion that will settle the matter: God's, of course. For as everyone knows this is a God-fearing website, where My word is The Gospel and My opinion the Last Judgement. But since that's gonna take a while, why not sit back, grab a cup of your favorite beverage, and see what the contrarians have to say too?
https://steamcommunity.com/id/habraken/ ... ed/632470/habraken wrote:It's an okay game, and somehow I already put a lot of hours into it, but don't fall for the hype. It isn't 'great' or 'groundbreaking'. So my thumbs-down is mostly a 'meh' to balance the many thumbs-ups. Probably buy it when you like the kind of game, and when it's become a bit less expensive.
A couple of (minor and major) annoyances I found:
- Loading screens, a *lot* of them. Expect a loading screen after *every* door you step through. Like games in the nineties.
- Repetitive music. You'll hear the same thing over and over again. After a while you'll probably mute it and play your own music.
- Changing your clothes before every dialogue. "I could tell you, but you need more points in Logic." "Okay, bye for now." Put on your glasses with Logic+1, your shirt with Logic+1, and change your Logic-1 shoes. "Hello, I changed clothes, let's have the same conversation again please."
- Bad voice-acting. Some are great, but some are *really really* bad.
- Too many different options on the character sheet that don't seem to really matter. After a while you stop caring about the difference between 'Esprit de corps' and 'Inland Empire', between 'Logic' and 'Visual calculus'. You will only put points in things to pass the various skill-checks. "Okay, apparently I need more 'interfacing', let me put a point in that'.
- Running back and forth the same few streets by double-clicking, over and over again. "Do this thing for me at the other side of town."
- Lots of useless orbs to click. "Oh! There's an important-looking blue orb at the other side of the room, let me spend 10 seconds to run towards and click it, it might be valuable!" "You hear the sound of seagulls." Okay, at least the game gave me some XP for clicking the otherwise useless orb.
- The game tries too hard to be 'weird and deep' in my personal opinion. A matter of taste probably.
- What's with all the anti-racism rhetoric? We get it, racism (mostly: xenophobia) is bad. No need to point that out over and over and over again.
- It feels like yet another old isometric point-and-click post-apocalyptic adventure game. Nothing new about it.
Sure, pick up the game, it's okay. But don't expect too much out of it. Maybe I started the game with stats/skills too well-balanced (I never died for example), and it's more fun when you go all-in with weird character builds. Maybe I'll try again one day... But right now I expect this game will go on my dusty shelf with meh-games.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/fingerspi ... ed/632470/onionunion wrote:"Disco Elysium is This Generation's Planescape: Torment"
-jumpdashroll.com
Now, I don't think there's any point for me to go through the motions here. You've read enough Polygon/Kotaku/whatever-isms to decipher that this game is at least competently written, has a fantastic soundtrack and looks great, which alone should be enough to warrant a purchase. This is nor glowing, neither is it really a review at all; a mini-rant, disheveled collection of nitpicks, if you will.
Calling Disco Elysium this generation's Planescape is preposterous and misleading. Misleading, also, is the game's marketing campaign, calling this point and click adventure an open world RPG. Disco Elysium is more of a this generation's Monkey Island (Петька if you happen to live in one of those grey post-commie wastelands) with dice roll skill checks and a tacked-on political alignment mechanic that barely influences the game in any way and comes off as meaningless fetishism. It's more infatuated with an actual idea of there being a political coordinate system at all rather than delivering any sort of meaningful and/or unbiased commentary on the variables, all while cheekily patting itself on the back when it comes to the political system ZA/UM clearly likes the most. Not to say it doesn't quite have anything worthwhile to express, but most of the time it's obnoxious at best.
The quality of writing varies. Going from characters like Harry, Kim or Klaasje to point-and-click-esque weirdo filler like that guy whose entire personality is about "disliking foreigners", or that other guy whose entire personality is about "disliking foreigners" who also owns a collection of "racist mugs" or to a literal walking Scooter reference has the capacity to at least make your eyes roll or perhaps skibadee the hell out of the game for a while. The little interaction regarding Kim and precinct 41 at the very end of the game that I'm not going to spoil so you can experience disappointment yourself is straight out of some shounen anime too.
Disco Elysium is at its best during its hours of urine-soaked existentialism and the drunken ramblings of your failure of a main character; the smells, the sudden urges, the swarms of inner voices all confronting you with their own sets of truths for you to abide by or suppress; and its absolute worst when you're forced to sit through its unbearable strawman of a political satire with borderline twitter-esque depictions of certain ideologies.
It's equally as cool to find various optional characters and side-stories as it is disappointing to come back to them later only to discover that they don't have anything new to say, despite that, talking, being pretty much the only thing you do in Disco Elysium.
The tool system is unwieldy, annoying, half-baked. Most of them are supposed to be equipped before certain action like prying doors open or whipping out your flashlight in the darker areas, which could've been achieved contextually through the dialog window without forcing the player to open up the clunky inventory menu or at least through an additional HUD element, cutting on the tedium.
The time mechanic, to my knowledge, adds absolutely nothing but contributes to the awkward moments where you've exhausted everything you could do in a day but it's not 9pm yet so Kim won't allow you to chill on a bench forcing you to read books until it's late enough for your alcoholic manbaby to go hushabye. Cheeky literary activism it ain't.
There are others like the constant loading screens, sluggish UI, complete lack of interactivity, but what's more important is that the game's simply nowhere near the groundbreaking RPG it was advertised as. A charming yet distasteful at times adventure with a lot of impressive artistry on display, sure, but comparing it to the classic cRPGs doesn't bode well for the former. The red thumbs down, however, doesn't mean you shouldn't try the game out, Steam simply doesn't have another way to to communicate a review's neutral nature. Luckily for them, ZA/UM has enough secretaries under their desk already, so it won't hurt them in any way.
At the end of the day, this is a unique product worthy of at the very least your attention if not your praise, but it is also a testament to how low the standards of writing in videogames are when the first game in a while that manages to be competently written snatches just about every award and unanimous gaming press acclaim.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/765 ... ed/632470/Dinoabunai wrote:I saw the trailer and read reviews. And I thought - this is it. The RPG we was waited for. Open world, decisions, roleplaying.
It was all lie. Looks like people didn't play a single RPG ever. The game is a pretty straightforward quest/adventure and not even close to a RPG.
Open world?
No - the whole game is linear. The city is tiny and you are restricted to even a smaller area, until you finish ACT 1.
Dialogues? Freedom of choice?
If you have a conversation with someone that insulting you constantly and you really wand to punch him or even kill... nope. This is not in the scenario. You can't do it. Suck it.
My partner offered me some suspicious medicine. I said - "No. I don't want it." My partner replies - "No. You WANT IT." And there is no other choice.
You need to take down a hanged man? How about finding a ladder? No. Instead - go and do a favours to thugs, so they can put it down. Cause it is in the scenario. And ladders are not.
Roleplaying?
Trailer: Be a hero, a prophet, a disaster, a psycho...
Game: You want to roleplay a tough serious detective? Whoops you lost your badge. Whoops you lost your gun. Whoops you is an alcoholc and a junkie. Whoops you pis-sed yourself. Whoops you can't remember your name.
Reason: It was in the scenario. You can only play a written role.
Too bad I already spent 2 hours hoping that, maybe a little more and game will show me all that was promised... maybe a little more... Now I can't make a refund. Thank you Mr. Deceitful trailer.
<span class="bb_strike">Thank you people that never played a single RPG.</span>
OK it looks that we rather have a different opinion on what is an RPG genre, than you didn't play any RPG :) You convinced me on that one.