“Revolutionizing RPGs”. In the many decades of Computer Role-Playing Games, such a statement has been thrown around so much that it has lost its gravitas. A bold statement for sure, but one that’s easier said than done. From Betrayal at Krondor to Pathfinder: Kingmaker, the obsession with shaping limited and contrived VRPGs in the mould of Pen and Paper RPGs, an endless ocean of creativity and possibilities, is an ongoing process. A hit and miss process, to be sure. While Original Sin 2 and Pathfinder have been successful in emulating tabletops digitally, compromises are always made, especially in balancing the mechanical complexity with reactive world-building.
ZA/UM, A European video game developer comprised of artists, writers, entrepreneurs, and activists that initially wanted to bring forth a cultural renaissance before turning to full-time game development, is now taking the shot at ‘Revolutionizing RPGs‘. As if that wasn’t weird enough, the title of the game that is supposed to bring this revolution is even weirder. Disco Elysium, they call it. An isometric detective RPG with the prime focus on bringing the complete tabletop experience to your PC. Sounds ambitious? It is.
Calming the voices in my head, I wake up with the worst hangover in a sleazy motel room. Naked. I have no idea who I am or how I got here. The mirror told me that I had a face showing years of alcohol abuse and suppressed pain. Collecting my scattered clothes, I head outside, only to be greeted as ‘officer’ by the tired lady in a jumpsuit just outside my room. She told me that I was a police officer and has been in the small city of Revachol for three days, most of which I spent stone-cold drunk. To this, I replied, “why would anyone let ME be an officer of the law?”. With this, I had taken the first step in defining how I wanted the world to perceive me. I was the ‘sorry cop’ and no one would be safe from hearing me wallowing in self-pity and disgust.
Apparently I’m here on official duty. There’s been a murder 7 days ago. Tensions have been on the rise between the union of dockworkers and a mega-corporation. A corporate mercenary has been hanged and the suspects are, obviously, the union workers. The fact that the corpse is still hanging in its original position and the alcohol-induced retrograde amnesia insinuates that I’m not a really good cop or a well-functioning human being for that matter. But the murder can wait. The top priority is the philosophical back and forth between me and the dozens of voices in my head.
Much like what Planescape: Torment did 20 years ago, Disco Elysium plans presents the player with a unique and bizarre world to explore, humongous walls of texts to stare at, wads of ways to get through quests and giving the complete reigns of the pre-determined hero to the player. Similar to Torment, Disco Elysium puts you in the shoes of a fixed character from a fixed designation but the real magic lies in how much freedom you get in shaping character both physically and intellectually, as well as influence the events of the world and shape its outcomes through your actions. Not even a single dialogue escapes the gaze of over 20 skill checks the game employs. Even though every skill check doesn’t affect the dialogue drastically, it results in well-written lines of texts to pop up. It’s a thinking man’s RPG for sure, but one that will not be much interest to people that dislike reading.
Now, you may have seen RPGs try to do these things before; presenting a reactive world, a character who can be moulded to your liking, choice-driven gameplay and more. The difference between those games and Disco Elysium is the degree of success in doing so. Within 2 hours of playing the game, I had mapped out the initial traits and behaviours of my detective. Not just by putting points into shiny columns but also by putting myself in his shoes and confronting the world with his worldviews. It’s not my avatar I was staring at. It was Det. Harry Winsor, a confused, pathetic excuse for a human being that can’t do anything right. Within the next two hours, I had taken up neo-communism, lost my gun, badge and crime reports, got bullied by a substance-abusing teenager, crashed into a wheelchair-bound paraplegic, burst into tears in front of a union leader, and die due to a cardiac arrest before the day was over.
But the city of Revachol wasn’t ready for Det. Dushyant Phillauri, the baddest of the bad. The daddy of the baddy. Within the first two hours, I had taken up racial theory, lost my gun, badge and crime reports, hit the substance-abusing teenager in the face and made him respect my authority, mishandled a 7 day old corpse and tried to steal its shoes, asked the wheelchair-bound paraplegic out, beat the union leader at his own game and told cardiac arrest, “not today”. The third playthrough had me play a pseudo-feminist who said things like “do you have a phallus in your ear” to male chauvinists. Disco Elysium is self-conscious and doesn’t shy away from ridiculing the modern socio-political climate and propagandas. It expects you to take the game in the same spirit as well, which may be off-putting to some people. Just chill out, will ya? It’s a video game.
Aside from the variety of role-playing possibilities to be found within, one unique aspect of Disco Elysium is The Thought Cabinet or THC. THC is the main way through which the game lets you be one with your character. Disco Elysium keeps track of all things you say, how you say it and who you say it to. Then presents the summarised version of commonalities as thoughts to the player. You can internalize the thoughts in the thought cabinet to reveal its true identity and how it affects your detective. They function as traits, perks, reputation, and alignments; and gives defining or even contrasting personality traits to your character. Pursuing traits like good cop, bad cop, asshole cop, superstar cop, suicidal tendencies, hell even an art degree is possible thanks to THC. There are about 54 thoughts in the game but the player will only see about 16 per playthrough.
Disco Elysium is a visual treat and I expect no less from a collaboration of artists. The hand-drawn world looks something out of an oil painting and ushers in the retro-nostalgic feel of the ’70s and ’80s. Even though most of the interaction is in the form of text, they are accompanied by well-designed animations to give them visual flair. Though I have given so much praise to the game, there are several kinks to work out. The option to pan edges of the camera, more responsive and smooth character handling, ability to customize UI, font size etc are really needed if Disco Elysium is to deliver on all fronts.
It’s not possible to say if Disco Elysium is going to re-invent the RPG genre with just the 15 hours I spent in the preview version. But what I can say is that it is a massive game made with lots of love and care. The sheer amount of brilliant writing and creativity in Disco Elysium is seldom present in any other game in the genre. It’s a thinking and reading man’s RPG that continues to reduce the gap between PnP RPGs and VRPGs. It’s a very ambitious and experimental game that’s not going to be everyone’s cup of Masala Chai. The lack of traditional combat, text-heavy gameplay and slow pace might turn casual players away. Truth be told, I haven’t been this impressed with the narrative of an RPG since Torment. Hopefully, the rest of the game continues to keep up and polish this excellent formula. Expect a full review once the game launches on October 15.
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