Disco Elysium: A Sorrowful, Deteriorating, Pensive World

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Disco Elysium:

Last week's review of Disco Elysium didn't even hint at the plot, so that's part of today's story. The protagonist wakes up three days into a bender, and is joined by a police detective from a neighboring district to solve a murder. A body has been hanging for a week in the yard of a local hostel called the Whirling-in-Rags. Arising in his wreck of a room, the protagonist remembers nothing about his life, but eagerly anticipates solving the mystery. With Lt. Kim Kitsuragi, the protagonist must explore the political, racial, and economic forces in conflict over the future of Revachol. To examine these feuds, the developer creates an entirely new world, mundane in general, but containing fantastical features like The Pale, Cryptids, and Innocences.

When the protagonist awakens in the Martinase district of Revachol, he is suddenly a part of time again, and time circumscribes his activities in this slum which he can not leave. Time effects who will be where, what one can do, and when the day ends. Most games that include time make it flow evenly and consistently, applying pressure to the player, like Majora's Mask. In Martinase time passes not by walking, but by talking. Even then, it flows slowly, gelatinously. The protagonist is drawn into many tasks, connected to the crime or not. Disco Elysium features a well designed task log to record the many jobs assigned to the stumbling, shuffling cop. In contrast, the game includes an atrocious map, which doesn't point out where the tasks are. Not only is it useless, but it's disturbingly ugly, with green-gray builds drawn haphazardly on a gray background. While the rest of Disco Elysium doesn't suffer the same level of aesthetic inanity, its drab and dull. The developers designed a unique look, and for a few scenes, those with a bit more color, it shines through the grime momentarily, before sinking back into the muck.
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As the protagonist patrols the waterfront, shipyard, beach, abandoned church, and neglected living quarters of the former capital of the world, time continues its slovenly, lurching pace, the protagonist needs to do the Jamrock Shuffle to find some cash quickly. He's woken up without a cent to his name, his badge and gun are missing, he's trashed his hostel room, and the department won't forward him a dollar to pay for repairs or rent. The manager won't let the protagonist spend another night unless he pays 130 Real for the damages, plus 20 Real for the nightly fee. As dusk approaches, if the player hasn't found the cash, Kim Kitsuragi offers to sell some fancy hubcaps he confiscated from a wealthy criminal, but had hoped to put on his car. The next day the player still needs to locate 20 Real for a bed. What Disco Elysium doesn't do, is explain the penalties. It seems to imply that failure to find the money means a night on a park bench, accompanied by a penalty to Attributes or Skills for the following day. As 2am approaches, and people disappear to bed, it becomes clear this isn't true. Sources online, confirmed by the developers on Steam, paint a dire picture. If the player can't find $20 by 2am, time doesn't pass. Disco Elysium doesn't officially lock up, but it's impossible to progress. In fact, it's extra difficult, because most of the possible money making adventures (the bottle recycler which rewards the player with insubstantial coins, the Mega Rich Light-Bending Guy, Rejoyce Leyton-Messier, and the Union Boss) all go to sleep at midnight. It's terrible enough that it's impossible to move forward, but even worse that the game doesn't mention this at the beginning, or at 2am on Tuesday as the protagonist wanders back and forth along the deserted alleys. By this time my three save files were past midnight, and restarting from the beginning after eight hours wasn't an option. I considered hacking the game file after reading online about this option. Fortunately, I was able to sell everything the protagonist had collected to the pawnbroker, scraping together just enough Real to pay for a night at the Whirling-in-Rags. The developer clearly doesn't know what a pawnbroker is though, because it wasn't possible to repurchase the stuff the following day. On the third day a free bed becomes available, just travel west across the canal. In spite of this small redeemer, this feature is an atrocious design choice because the player is not warned of the severity of the punishment.

The character never regains his memories, but in exploring the town both he, and the player, learn about the world of Elysium (an odd name for such a depressing location). With the developer committed to a world-building exercise as vast as that of Pillars of Eternity, it isn't surprising that multiple factions are vying for power. The wastes of Revachol are the result of a deposed monarchy, a communist uprising, and its defeat by the capitalist countries of the world. Fifty years has still left Revachol an economically devastated vassal, pillaged repeatedly by corporations and wealthy individuals who see it as fit for extracting riches and dumping refuse. Like our modern world, poverty, greed, and political violence breed racism, the third compounding factor in the murder mystery. When Disco Elysium is exploring these connections it is at its best, using emotional power to blow the player away, reminding the player that decay and desolation lead to innumerable sorrow. An excellent musical score compliments the themes. But it also misses beats occasionally. Communism isn't just a red herring. Disco Elysium's radical condemnation of capitalism is delivered by a lunatic, murderous, hermit, undermining its point. And many of the components they don't feature in the ending, or weren't explained enough, similar to the mistakes of Tyranny.
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To address the final problem requires returning to Skill checks. Disco Elysium includes an uncountable number of these, but a few are crucial for progressing. But even those these critical checks are required, the game only uses one specific Skill, creating a bottleneck. For example, the final conflict requires a check to toss a Spirit Bomb, composed of a Blue Medicinal Spirit and the Horrific Necktie, but only one skill is applicable. With an 80% the protagonist still missed, so I'm more upset at the game engine than the design choice, but I lament for those who never had better than a 20% chance to begin with. More damning is the required check to locate the murderer's hideout. Again, this requires a specific Skill check. It's a white check, which means the player can repeat it, but only if they can unlock it. Remember, a check can be unlocked by putting a point into a Skill, but a Skill can only be improve equal to its original value. So a Skill that started the game with a value of one, can only be improved once. This was my situation. I tried the Skill Check once and failed. I put the point into the appropriate Skill, tried again, and failed again. This could have been the end of my game, but there is one other way to reopen a Skill check. The protagonist need to do something which modifies the check, which also unlocks it. Fortunately I was able to use the boardwalk payphone until Dolores Dei answered, and on my third attempt, I entered the villain's lair. But it was a terrifying moment, feeling that the Skill check was locked permanently. I would have had to abandon the game twenty-two hours in.

In conclusion, don't design a character with one point Attributes. Don't be squeamish about asking for money, or wait until midnight on Tuesday to start looking for 20 Real. Seriously, Disco Elysium is a phenomenal choose your own adventure novel, with an enthralling protagonist, well written supporting cast, set in a expansive world explained through the sociology and political aspects of a beat down district in the former capital of the world. Aside from one or two glaring game play flaws, the Attribute and Skill system, and the manner by which it is woven into Elysium, is fantastic and unique beyond anything seen in games. But the murder mystery plot doesn't go anywhere except in circles until the it reaches a disappointing conclusion. The player spends a lot of time running circles themselves around Martinase, as time passes slowly in drips and drabs, looking for the objective to move the plot forward. If you're looking for a deep dive into the broken psyche of a man and his world consider Disco Elysium. Otherwise, forget this one.

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