You wake up on the floor of a trashed hostel room in Martinaise, a poor district of the city of Revachol. You don't remember your name, your job or why one of your shoes is missing. Downstairs, a quiet lieutenant named Kim Kitsuragi is waiting: there is a body hanging from a tree behind the building, and you are the detective assigned to the case.
Skills that talk back
Instead of fighting, Disco Elysium is played through dialogue and dice checks. Its 24 skills — Logic, Empathy, Electrochemistry, Inland Empire and others — are characters in their own right. They interrupt conversations, give advice, lie to you and argue with each other. A high Electrochemistry will tempt you towards every vice in the city; a high Inland Empire lets you talk to your necktie.
The Thought Cabinet
As you play you pick up "thoughts" — ideas, obsessions and political leanings — that you can internalise over time. They change your stats and how characters treat you. You can become a communist, an ultraliberal, a moralist or a fascist, and the game takes every option seriously and makes fun of all of them.
Painted and voiced
The oil-painting art style gives the decaying city a melancholic beauty, and the soundtrack by British Sea Power fits it perfectly. The Final Cut (2021) added full voice acting and new political quests.
Why play it
Disco Elysium won four awards at The Game Awards 2019, including Best Narrative and Best RPG. It is funny, sad and surprisingly hopeful. Even your failures — and you will fail — make great stories.
