Disco Elysium
2019
Audio: English · Subtitles: Chinese, Polish, Spanish, Turkish, Korean, Portuguese, French, German, Russian, English, Japanese
- role-playing (rpg)
- adventure
- indie
- thriller
- drama
- mystery
- single player
The story
Disco Elysium is a role-playing game developed and published by ZA/UM. It is set in the fictional city of Revachol, where players assume the role of an amnesic detective investigating a murder. The game emphasizes dialogue and skill-based choices, with character attributes represented by internal voices that influence decisions and interactions. Its narrative explores themes of politics, philosophy, and personal identity, and it is known for its unconventional gameplay and deep storytelling.
What it’s like
Painterly, smeared and tobacco-stained, the game looks like a hand-painted city left out in the rain: flat-lit daytime streets in muddy ochres and sickly greens, sodden grey harbours, and interiors lit by one bare bulb or a flickering television. The static, isometric-leaning camera holds on dense, shabby rooms, and the portraits and stylised backdrops lean toward expressionist distortion when a character's mind starts to wobble. Sound is a low, unhurried mix of rain, distant brass, sparse electronic dread and long pauses where the only sound is a clock. Its vibe is weary, sardonic and strange, with pockets of absurd humour and psychedelic lurches. It suits a long, rainy weekend or a late night alone with headphones and nothing urgent to do. Pacing is slow and text-driven, with rhythm set by reading, thinking and sitting with the internal voices that argue over every choice. Its amnesiac detective is a damaged, self-deceiving man slowly confronting who he was and what his city has become. Violence is occasional and brief, with some blood and a bleak, unflinching death or two, but the main intensity is psychological: drinking, drug use, cruelty of circumstance and a lot of crude, frank talk. For people who want melancholic, witty, morally tangled mysteries and enjoy talking their way through a dark world.
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