Disco Elysium Review (Xbox, PlayStation, Switch & PC)

Disco Elysium might just be the most ruthless eye-scanning triathlon you will ever subject yourself to. And I don’t even mean that in a bad way, either. No, I mean that, with over a million words to scan, as well as hundreds, if not thousands of potential scenarios to navigate and dialogue-mapping arcs to ponder, Disco Elysium is, to an extent, an exercise that can either knock you into an eternal slumber, or keep you wide awake as you flick through block-bolstered scrolls of fine details and bizarre stories for thirty hours or so. To call it a difficult role-playing game just wouldn’t be true. It isn’t difficult. But, if you lack the attentive skills of an elite detective, then you might just struggle to bond with Disco Elysium and its seemingly endless visual novel elements. But, more on that later.

Of course, Disco Elysium isn’t just about reading. Well, it is — but there’s a lot more for you to take into consideration here. As an RPG at heart, it’s also about fostering a unique skill set and developing vast facets for a surprisingly bulky character-based cortex. And with, I don’t know, hundreds of dialogue options to choose from (all of which vary wildly depending upon the context and the skills you acquire and finesse over the course of the journey), there isn’t really one tale to read. In fact, you would, in all likelihood, need to rifle through the pages a dozen times to hear the full story. The details of the case might remain transparent, but if there’s one thing that Disco Elysium does and does well, it’s ensuring that each episode has numerous opportunities for you to bend the rules and adopt new curveballs that can either bolster your image or make you out to be an incompetent sidekick with a drinking problem.

Speaking of the storyline, Disco Elysium centers its tale around an amnesiac detective who, after waking up in a hostel, learns that there has been a murder out of the blue, behind the building and at the epicenter of a city-wide conspiracy involving a Union and a faction that supposedly represents the law. Lo and behold, as the nameless cop in this world, you find yourself at the foot of a case that’s evidently oozing in intrigue, without a clue as to how you got there, and why your notes and reports were buried at the crime scene. There’s more to it than that — but you get the idea. An unruly detective drunkenly awakens to a crime scene, and Kim, an unrecognizable colleague who knows a lot more than he lets on, appears to aid you in your quest for the truth. Who is Kim? Who is the victim? And what on earth does the Union have to do with the murder? A lot to unpack here, though not as much as there are words to read, believe it or not.

There isn’t really a structure to Disco Elysium. Rather, you begin your journey with a notebook and a lot of possible breadcrumbs to pursue—locals to converse with, details to scrub over, and locations to explore, for example. Yet, once you begin to thread the needle and venture into the seemingly post-apocalyptic world, the answers begin to emerge, and the case, being at the forefront of your mind, becomes clearer with each passing hour. The problem, however, is that the game doesn’t tell you how to connect the dots, nor does it tell you when certain events will take place. It doesn’t give you key areas to explore, and it doesn’t put out markers on the map for you to follow. Instead, it feeds you the bare necessities, and it tells you that, in order to progress further into the story, you must lean into your inquisitive nature and chronicle the evidence accordingly.

Due to the way in which Disco Elysium conveys its narrative, you never really know where to begin your search or, more importantly, how to gather clues. In several instances, you’re simply told that something, somewhere, might take place at a later time. Again, you don’t have the gift of clairvoyance to guide you — only a notebook and a lot of people to talk to. There are side quests to accept, for sure, but even with them, Disco Elysium rarely makes an effort to fill in the blanks or lather context over the situation. Or at least, not before the eleventh hour when the details finally begin to make sense. It’s reaching that point in the timeline, however, that’s the tough part.

If you can gloss over the fact that Disco Elysium isn’t one for hand-holding techniques, then you ought to be able to sink a lot of hours into its world. Alongside a thought-provoking plot that only gets better with each passing clue, the game also features an in-depth skill tree with dozens of attributes and character options, all of which affect how you approach citizens and, more importantly, unravel their secrets. For example, if you allocate points to Empathy, then you can relate to your interviewees and pluck out their feelings. And there are hundreds of synergies to consider here, too, with each notch on the tree having distinct traits and benefits that can either make or break your career.

In addition to its sizable skill tree and unfathomably complex plot points, Disco Elysium also fosters some genuinely fascinating character arcs, as well as a solid script and accompanying dialogue with palpable NPCs. It might be a little dark on occasion, but Disco Elysium is, above all else, a surprisingly comical game that had a ton of off-the-cuff one liners and jokes that would make a Dad crack a smile. It might not always hit the nail on the head, but with a good balance of humor and drama, it certainly makes for a unique tale that can quite easily keep you distracted throughout the course of the case.

Verdict

Disco Elysium hits the perfect balance between being a genuinely intriguing love letter to classic murder mystery dramas and an in-depth visual novel that has the capacity to keep you probing the fine details long after the final monologue breaches the million-word script. It might be a bit of a headache to play at times, but with enough humorous twists, satirical characters and creative touches to enlighten the reader, it can, so long as you let it, be a journey that you’ll want to take again and again.