Disco Elysium is currently 75% off on Steam!
I first added it to my wishlist a couple of years ago after there was an uproar in the Australian media about this game. It had the audacity to feature drug and alcohol abuse. Oh no. The humanity! Whatever shall we do!? 🙄
After reading the article about this game and how it could possibly be banned in Australia, I naturally zoomed to the Steam store to have a look at it. What I saw was an RPG with an extensive dialogue and choice & consequence system — so, my type of game! — and I very quickly added it to my wishlist.
Today I finally bought it! It's a mere $15 AUD at the moment which is the cheapest I've seen it since the day I wishlisted it, and there was no choice. I had to grab it.
Starting the game, I am offered three pre-determined character types and the ability to create my own. Naturally, I create my own!
I made my guy completely average, and gave him the signature ability of Empathy. He shall understand others and relate to them.
After selecting my averageness and empathy, I was greeted with a reptilian voice laughing and belittling me, which then transformed into a woman's voice as my character awoke with what must be the worst hangover ever.
Clearly he needs to drink some water before passing out the night before.
Roaming around my completely trashed apartment, I find some clothes. I put my pants on first, then my blazer, and then find a shirt to put under my blazer. The perfect order for a drunkard to get dressed in. xD
As I leave my room, a blonde woman says, "Hello." to me. I interact with her, expecting to be able to half-drunkenly flirt with her, but instead I turn my ugly, bloated, blotched, alcoholic face away from her and continue on my path.
Downstairs is a karaoke stage and my inner monologue tries to convince me to go onstage and sing, that the world needs to hear my musical genius.
I decline my own thoughts and speak to the bartender instead. Turns out he's displeased with me, probably because I trashed his hotel room. So that wasn't my apartment! Woopsies.
There is a man blocking the doorway. Apparently he's here to see me. He's waiting for me to introduce myself but I don't even know who I am. I roll my mental dice in hopes I could conjure up a random name and I meet success! Of a sort.
Instead of admitting that I don't know my own name, I tell him that, "It is not yet time."
Apparently I'm a police officer but I've lost my badge. I've already chuckled several times at the dialogue options at this point. "I'm a policeman! I have my badge! I'm a policeman and I have my badge!"
I can just imagine that in a British accent, perhaps Manny from Black Books, haha! ("They think I'm a policeman! I've just drunk too much coffee!")
My new policeman friend and I go back to the bartender to ask questions about a murder. Then he tries to extort me for money to pay for "damages". Pfft. I'm of the law!
After making the bartender question my mental abilities, I try to figure out if I have a home to return to after spending half the week in this hotel. I can't place my finger on it. Fuck it. I'll be a hobo-cop.
(I love the dialogue in this so much already!)
We leave the building and find a strange looking car... the policeman's car. Opening the door I can fidget about with all the various contraptions and also use the radio to call my precinct.
I do and tell them I lost my badge. A bunch of people on the receiving end laugh and laugh, then ask if I lost my gun too? Holy crap! I'm supposed to have a gun? xD Then they ask me seriously if I have lost my gun.
I remain silent. They ask again. I am silent again. They ask again... I hang up on them. Haha!
Not really knowing what to do, I talk to my policeman friend and try to work things out. He gives me little to no information, so I try to suggest to him that the murder we're working on in is actually a sex crime. He doesn't agree.
That's when I discover that I actually have a journal and I have a bunch of tasks I need to accomplish.
Unfortunately, this is where I had to turn it off because despite being such a simple, graphically un-intensive game, my laptop was on fire even with Throttlestop active and I didn't want to risk burning up my laptop's insides when I'm still waiting for my damned motherboard warranty claim to be finalised for my new PC.
Still, I spent an hour in this game before turning it off and I really love the dialogue in this.
Since dialogue is most of the game, that's very important that it's actually good! I can't wait to open this again when I get my new PC working and actually have a decent go of it. I'm also impressed with the voice acting in this. So many RPGs in this style have terrible, terrible voice acting (Lookin' at you, Pillars of Eternity) and I'd rather read instead of listen. In Disco Elysium, I'm actually enjoying listening too!
⭐️ So, first impressions?
The voiceovers are fantastic. The dialogue is fantastic. The immersive depths are quite impressive. The graphic style is not my cup of tea and I'm still getting used to the movement and area interactivity system, but it's bearable. The UI is easy to work through and nice to look at. The amount of options I've been given so early in the game is wonderful and I can only imagine that it remains the same all throughout the entirety of the game.
I was really enjoying myself. Having a few giggles. I was interested in the story, in who I was, despite being a clumsy horror of a human being. Normally I dislike games where I can't create my own womanly character, but this hilariously horrible drunk man is acceptable. I was having a great experience!
Until both my CPU and GPU went over 100 degrees Celsius and tried to fry my sound card. I haven't had that happen in a long time. The entire reason I have Throttlestop on this laptop was because Cyberpunk 2077 did the same thing... after I installed Throttlestop and undervolted my machine, it rarely went over 80 degrees. Looks like it's a good thing I have a new PC on the horizon.
I'm looking forward to doing a full and proper playthrough of this game once I get my new PC up and running. This game, right from the start, has well and truly hooked me and I can't wait to play some more!
Until next time! 🙂