#disco elysium the final cut gameplay

[rebeccasthoughts]

I'm Going to Become the Disco Cop by Doing Nothing

*spoilers i guess* Disco Elysum is a game that speaks to the soul. Not in the spiritual sense, rather, the game airs itself with a certain sense of uncertainty. It begs the player to ask weird questions, pursue the abstract, and at the end of the day discover oneself. The game is vast in its scope and depth yet feels claustrophobic at times the map is large, but the way one moves around it is…

[pocchi-poket]

I've started playing disco elysium and I just wanted to say that I am completely in blindrun and so I played an hour or so and then I took a break and went to look some gameplay online because I was a bit confused and wanted to be sure I didn't miss something vital and, anyway, long story short, I figured out I hadn't picked the main character shirt before getting out of his room and so our dude met Kim, questioned the bartender and slammed into an old lady's wheelchair while wearing a jacket, a tie, but no shirt.

[hildegardladyofbones]

Something I've yet to rant about is the inherent sadness and misery of post-tribunal disco elysium. Of course it will *feel* different each time depending on the outcome, but I think I had one of the worst one of all. Everyone fucking died, I didn't have a gun, and I failed all but two skills checks. One of them had a 97% success possibility, so it was almost impossible to fail *that one*. Safe to say it was a shit show. When Harry wakes up, Kim is tired. He is running on his last drop of fuel and he is *so* close to done, but he is Kim Kitsuragi, the entire RCM's finest, he doesn't give up. Still, the air in the post massacre streets of Martinaise feels thick with defeat. Everyone has fucked off, closed off. People are only left with a burning memory and the task to accept what happened, because there's nothing to be done now. The choices you've made snicker at you trying to accept the consequences now. You will never know if you made the right decision.

Not only that, but this game doesn't let you forget for a second, that Harry is severely wounded. When he sleeps in the flak tower it is mentioned multiple times that his wound is bleeding, the game makes a point to comment on how his pelvis hurts, how it's hard to run... and in the final cut scene, the Finale, Jean outright says that Harry is actively bleeding everywhere. This game doesn't let you forget what the character has been through, wounds don't heal when the health bar is full.

Harry has been a broken man from the beginning, not even the beginning of the game, but the post-tribunal gameplay doesn't play along to his madness anymore, it has given up on the fanfare. The tie stops talking and something within me compelled me to turn down on the out-of-pocket replies. It didn't feel appropriate anymore and honestly, it didn't feel like the same game anymore. All that is left is the death and misery present all around him, not contained to inside him anymore. Martinaise is a district that has had to go through the worst, but *it* has learned to cope. Now it just needs time to get back on its feet again. But Harry... Harry is down low, but he's still going. He's not going to take the time to get back on his feet until he's forced to, I think. This pitiful relentlessness only highlights how truly fucked everything in the moment is.

Disco elysium is truly a wonderful game for portraying this misery so bone-chillingly. It forces you to feel the last bit of hope they chased. The ending, the confrontation with his past, can only be described in a word I don't know the English translation for. I don't think it exists.

Õõvastav. The ending is exactly that. Harrowing is the closest word I could think of.

[hawke-jpg]

At @moominhands behest here is my game list thing! <3 Reasoning under the cut:

Favorite game of all time: If i absolutley have to pick one it'd have to be Shadow of the Colossus, tho runners up are definitely ICO, FNV, Okami, Windwaker and Twilight Princess. it's hard to choose just the one honestly there's so many more too, but this game was so influential and i sunk so many hours into just exploring the world and taking in every tiny detail, it and ICO really changed my perspective on games in general.

Favorite Series: Dragon Age, it's camp and has a lot of issues, but it gave me extreme brain rot and i love it a lot.

Best Soundtrack: ICO, this game has barely any music! But when it does, it really goes all out, the resting theme and the erie music before the final boss are my favorites.

Favorite Protagonist: Hawke, from Dragon age 2, this is surprising to absolutely no one.

Favorite Villain: Dormin from SOTC, I love this thing, is it even really a villan? who knows but it's very cool and i love the voice acting for it! runners up are the shadow creatures from ICO for similar reasons and The Master from Fallout 1.

Best Story: Night in the Woods. This was really hard to pick tbh i could've put a few in this spot but this is one of my favorite story focused walking sims and i love to revisit it.

Have not played but want to: Disco Elysium, I've attempted to play this game on console very briefly once but couldn't get used to the controls. Now that i have a PC I'm planning to play it but i need to be in the right headspace for big CRPGs as i find them hard to get into so, i just need to wait till the time is right to play it. I also want to play Hades.

You Love, Everyone Hates: The Last Guardian, everyone hated this game SO MUCH, especially at launch.. Heaps of streaming people who had only ever played Shadow all expected it to be SOTC again but when it turned out to be much closer to ICO with only some elements of Shadow people just hated it so much for what it wasn't. This game much like ICO can be frustrating at times but it's really good and had a lot of love put into it, the A I of the Creature Trico is especially cool as it learns depending on how you interact with it and becomes more responsive and easy to direct. It's certainly not a game for everyone but it didn't deserve the amount of disdain it received on release.

You Hate, Everyone Loves: (please don't kill me for these I don't actually hate them they're just not for me) Kingdom hearts, I tried multiple times to play these games and i just couldn't get into them, they're just not for me i think, i don't really find the gameplay or story elements particularly engaging. Sad! a lot of my friends really love these and seem to get a lot out of them. I never had the chance to play them as a kid though so i feel like i may have had different opinions if i'd started playing them earlier. Last of us 2, The weird opinion split when it released between bigots who hated it cause women and queer people were in it and then the other people saying it was the most profound piece of media ever was really frustrating because it kind of shut down a lot of good faith criticism. I think the main problems i have is that it came out in a really depressing time where something with such a bleak and unsatisfying ending came across as a bit gauche even though the devs couldn't have anticipated it. And that there's a bunch of good elements about it that just didn't really stick the landing for me, or were handled poorly imo. Personally the overall message it's going for via it's gameplay and story had already been done, and done better over 10 years prior (see Shadow of the Colossus; Ico was a stated main inspiration for the first last of us and i'm pretty certain Shadow was for part 2 considering the parallels), and it would've been quite ground breaking back then but now it's not so much. Again this is personal opinion of how it's just not really for me.

Best Art Style: Okami! Kind of self explanatory, even on ps2 this game's graphics still hold up because of that art style, and i love how it was incorporated into the gameplay.

Favorite Ending: Zelda: Twilight Princess, love this game, the climactic boss rush and the story conclusion is so good, it's such a long game and the characters go through so much it all really wraps up nicely even with it's melancholic tone. This was the first Zelda game i fully finished so the ending had more of an impact on me too because of that.

Favorite Boss Fight: Crimson Helm, from Okami, this guy is super fun to fight, cool design, great arena, always a good one to revisit.

Childhood Game(s): my first ever game was Duke Nukem DOS on the floppy disk on my dads old computer, it's a side scroller that's sound effects are drilled into my brain. Frogger i got later on the same computer once dad upgraded his for work, it was the first game i ever finished. and Nintendogs i got much later again with the old clunky silver DS, i played this game way too much.

Relaxing Game(s): Lil Gator Game, it's so fun and cruisey to play, really charming and great controls. Flock, I only played this recently but it's so fun, very pretty, you just fly about and spot new creatures to list in your encyclopedia! A Short Hike, really great chill vibes, i love revisiting this one every now and then. Proteus is also a good one.

Stressful Game: Mass Effect 2, I love these games but they're so stressful trying to avoid people dying from random dumb choices you make hours prior omg! 2 is especially bad for it off memory, i remember writing up a strategy sheet for that last big level so i could avoid people dying.

Game you always come back to: Drakan The Ancients Gates, I love this one, it's a bit janky but it's got a really weird and interesting world, with a weird plot and bizzare character design.

Guilty Pleasure: The Dog Island, this game is so silly but i played so much of it as a kid it was kind of ridiculous, so i really enjoy revisiting it every now and then, it's also kind of bizarre in terms of how the story is written.

Tons of Hours Played: Baldur's Gate 3, I've only played it through twice but it's stacked up a bunch of hours, really good tho! others that I've spent way too much time with is Dragon age Inquisition, Animal crossing NH and NL, and of course SOTC but i dont actually have the hour count for that one, i can only assume.

[quohotos]

Unprompted ideas for Underland Chronicles video games

Well, if the god damn hunger games never got a video game adaptation then underland chronicles never will either, but I can daydream about this.

First: The ones that actually engage with the themes of the story, the faithful adaptations:

The Underland Chronciles: a Telltale series:

Like it says on the tin, a classic Telltale games style story driven narrative adventure game with light slight branching based around your choices. Play as Gregor in a retelling of the five books' events, but with some choices thrown in. In the jungle do you give the shrimp and creamsauce to the kids, or do you give it to Ripred? Ripred will remember that. "Why do you walk two blocks to the laundromat, it's the same price, I checked"

[|||||||||||||| ]

Y) ...

X) the washers are bigger there?

B) Mind your own business!

A) I dunno, it's just what mom says to do

And of course, the final decision:

[||||||||||||||||||||| ]

Y) ...

X) Side with Luxa

B) Side with Ripred

A) Refuse to chose, "kill" the warrior

Disco Underland:

Disco Elysium, but set in the underland instead. A narrative RPG where your skills are not combat, but rhetoric and empathy and intellect and stuff. Navigate the tense cyclical trauma of an underland in between wars. Someone in regalia died, and it's your job to figure out who was responsible. All evidence points to a ganwer doing it, and that's what everone wants to believe. Do you tell them the truth, or tell them what they want to hear. If you prove the gnawers innocence will it matter? Perhaps a gnawer did do it, and that's the truth, but telling the truth will lead to a war. Is it worth it to lie and deny justice and closure to the family if it averts something worse? idk, there's legs there

The Underland Trail:

You and your band of diverse underland inhabitants need to get from point a to point b. Encounter random events and manage dwindling resources in an endlessly replayable Oregon Trail style game. Half way to the deadlands and oh no, your only human falls and cuts himself badly. No one else in the group has opposable thumbs. Maybe the spinners can treat him but do you want to take that risk?

Next, we have the neutral adaptations, the ones that make good use of the source material but don't really do anything with the themes

Batball Online:

A sports game where you can play whatever game they were in the middle of before Gregor shows up. Play as either a human or flyer to play different roles, party up with your bond and work together to score goals and climb the ranks against other players in ranked online lobbies. Obviously it's gonna have a detailed character creator and battle pass so you can deck out your human and bat with all manner of (tasteful) cosmetics.

[This would also work as just a mini game side mode in a different game]

Uncharted (lands):

An uncharted style modern 3rd person action adventure game. You could go full playstation exclusive and make it a blue tinted third person action game with themes of fatherhood where you can contextually climb on things. You and your bond are lost in the uncharted land and need to work together to survive. Gameplay is split between on the ground traversal/ exploration, puzzle solving, and tense flying sections. It'd be really cool if you could even play co-op with one player being the human and one player being the bat

Okay, now we've got to the unfaithful adaptations. These ones sure are underland games, and I bet they'd be super fun as well, but they definitely would be in poor taste for what is an anti-violence anti-war story. Suzanne would probably not approve...

Uncharted (Lands)... But you kill people in it:

Basically the idea from above, but with fighting mechanics and lots of combat encounters. Lots of in depth mechanics that utilize both bond's unique abilities and fighting styles. Utilize cool named combo moves like "the coiler". Stealth is interesting too, flying is fast but climbing on walls is quieter. Echo location tells you about the environment but reveals your location.... there's cool game design options there

Underland: Total War:

A 4x-ish grand strategy game in the vein of the total war series. Multiple different factions all with their own play-style, macro objectives, and available units. Engage in diplomacy, try to get unaligned factions to join your cause, and when war breaks out zoom in to intense RTS battles with hundreds of units that you can micro manage in massive subterranean three dimensional environments. Humans are great damage dealers but need light, Gnawers are deadly and easy to micro but have little in the way of tech and specialization, Flyers are mobile and great scouts but are fragile in a fight, Crawlers don't deal great damage but can hold a choke point like no one else... you get the picture. Don't even get me started on Rager Hero Units and prophecies. Play as Solovet and unlock new technology like "Fire arrows" and "The curse of the warmbloods", play as Gorger be sure to keep your overland prisoners healthy while they work on inventing guns for you, or play as Ripred and play both sides until the time is right to betray them both!

Dynasty Ragers:

Ripred tends to crack at 400 to 1? Wanna put that to the test? Play as everyone's favorite war criminal hearthrob and/or father figure as you slaughter hoards uppon hoards of enemies with his trademark spin attack in mindless hack-and-slash dynasty warriors style gameplay. Oh and of course we have to give him a dedicated emote/quip wheel. Is this what the Underland chronicles is about? Not at all! Would it be awesome? I mean yeah probably, but I'd feel really guilty playing it.

Yeah those were my ideas, thought I'd write them down. Feel free to add your own in the reblogs and the comments.

[wjbs-aus]

It's really weird that, in the same week that Disco Elysium got a blatantly fanbase-pandering update that adds a glorified photo mode and was conveniently released at the same time as a major controversy with the current IP holders, ULTRAKILL got, among other things, a new secret level with unique gameplay, fun clue-based exploration, and a bunch of cameos from other New Blood-associated games, a fully-explorable museum level replacing the original credits, and a bonus boss-fight that adds to the game's lore, with the boss being voiced by the guy who provided the post-Final Cut narration for Disco Elysium.

Like, these are both games I like, but one got an underwhelming update that goes against the original creators' vision, and the other got content that people have been waiting almost a year for and a beautifully-made bonus level that credits everyone involved in the game.

[raven]

what video games would u recommend. based on me seeing ur posts and thinking ur right even though i never know what youre talking about. also i have dogshit taste but i have good taste actually but its bad

OMG

hop on backloggd heres mine and heres my buddy rory's bc they make points too and are generally more serious than me so if you want to be serious u can go there. More under the cut bc i cant shut up 👍

otherwise my pretentious but #real and #true recs that i genuinely think everyone should play are disco elysium, pentiment, and kentucky route zero.

"theyre just good!" - who's lila?, the world ends with you, return of the obra dinn, hylics 2, portal 1&2, ghost trick, outer wilds (however outer wilds may be difficult for whatever reason- i recommend hollow_tones on twitch's streams although she has not streamed the dlc!)

series that have taken over my life for periods of time, for good or ill - dragon age (2 is my fav, all are worth playing, inquisition is dogshit storywise but has good gameplay, centrist liberal writers that make u want to bomb a church (for the record @ fbi this is a reference to the events of one of my favorite characters in the series, not real life. he was justified), ace attorney (1-3 are great with some questionable moments but apollo justice is the best overall game, 5&6 are some of the worst games ive played in my life, and the great ace attorney... exists), and persona (UGH). i can go more in depth about any of these, but i will go more in depth about persona because thats my current disorder and because theyre the most problematic, LOL. but dgmw da and aa are also problematic in many ways

persona - ive posted about it. im realizing i didnt talk about the misogyny in that post because i thought it was well known honestly but like. my god. the misogyny. especially persona 5 royal. dont play 4. or do, bc i need anyone to suffer as i have, but im serious. i feel like whatever people say, its worse. ive also posted about 4.

if you want to lose a week of your life in a "game for 16ish hours, sleep for 8ish hours, repeat" cycle play baldurs gate 3. its a fun game it takes up your time it has great mechanics! do not pay attention to character discourse baby.

if you like good gameplay, play dishonored 1&2

if you don't like good gameplay, play morrowind (this is kind of a joke in that i dont actually think morrowind has bad gameplay, but it still can be tedious.)

if you don't like good gameplay, play the persona 2 duology (this is not a joke, the gameplay in those games are actually bad.)

if you like gameplay, play any katamari game

also gonna plug one of my favorite genres, nonlinear visual novel adjacent games (lots of wordy, story-based segments but there are actual gameplay portions) these games also are not necessarily "good" but they are "fun": 999 (play on DS!!), ai the somnium files (note that this and 999 kind of require a... specific taste with the sexual humor) these games did have sequels but theyre all pretty bad for various reasons but check em out if you enjoyed the originals, paranormasight (one of the best ones in this genre imo), gnosia, 13 sentinels

also i have not hopped on final fantasy 7 (ORIGINAL) but i am about to hop on final fantasy 7 (ORIGINAL). and i am currently struggling against the current playing smt iii nocturne.

also, games that i have not played but interest me storywise and deserve honorable mentions are baroque (not really planning on playing but planning on watching stuff), pathologic classic (played a little and watched a full playthrough years ago, probably will get back to one day), pathologic 2 (never completed), fear and hunger (played for a few hours and decided to watch a playthrough instead), and fear and hunger 2 (not played but planning on playing bc ive heard its a little more user friendly than the original!)

so thats video games.

[automatisma]

Discovered the allure of Topsters & made a chart of the games that significantly influenced my tastes. Not really a top 25 although I believe most of the games of the list are good. Ramblings under the cut.

TLOZ: Twilight Princess was my first Zelda as a child & while not a particularly interesting Zelda gameplay-wise it cemented my fascination with that kind of dark and decadent aesthetic.

Persona 3 is again the first Persona I've ever played. Not the best & with many larger-than-life sterotypical characters but it does have a lovely apocalyptic atmosphere and the sexiest dungeon concept bar none (sorry persona 4 tv world you were not It)

Hexcells is my favourite puzzle game. Perfect difficulty curve, minimal & functional aesthetic, little spatiality sense required to finish it. The whole trilogy is honestly brilliant.

Disco Elysium literally what is there to say about DE that hasn't already been said. Masterful dialogues and characters, deeply political while being smart and complex about it, it has one of the most interesting fantasy worldbuildings of recent memory.

Final Fantasy X was my first FF. Bizarre & unique if nonsensical world, great party interactions and often dumb but really really rich with overarching thematical meanings so

We Know The Devil I believe it's up to personal taste in the end whether you'll like this or Heaven Will be Mine more, but to me the minimal religious setup & the very realistic teenage dialogue take the cake. Also Saturn is #so me #releatable #girlsbeinggirls

Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 I bet everyone's sick of seeing it on their dash but what can I say I adore its day-to-day routine and the character subplots and its sound design and the beetle battles and

The House in Fata Morgana is maybe my favourite visual novel of all time. Often cheesy, frequently melodramatic, the epic highs and lows of its writing did not stop me from loving its intricate fantasy plot and multifacted characters.

Valhalla cyberpunk ok too long of a name. The bartending part was fun, the fauxanime thing is well MY thing and the #quiet cyberpunk adult disillusionment of its dialogues stuck with me in some way. Not great but really solid & it worked a lot for me for reasons I am not entirely sure of to this day.

Danganronpa is a terrible and complicated horror b-movie with cartoon characters and stupid but captivating mysteries. I genuinely believe the trials are absolutely cool and adrenaline inducing though & I would love more of this except better I guess

Darkest Dungeon a game in which every inch of its systems and aesthetic choices works in perfect synch to convey the hopelessness of this brand of lovecraftian horror. Also the turn-based combat is soooo fucking good

Final Fantasy VII THE final fantasy ecc ecc what can I say. One of the few games I played when the stereotypical version of the characters I saw in popular culture was so much less interesting than the actual story beats and the direction the plot went in. Packed with genre-defining moments and lovingly mystic at times.

Pyre is probably my favourite Supergiant game even though Hades is far superior in gameplay terms. The peculiar worldbuilding and the choices you make are really something unique to this one and they very much stick with you during your playthrough and even after that.

The World Ends with You when I played it Neku and Joshua were on my mind 24/7 I was on that fujoshi grindset which is quite peculiar for me. Weird and fun gameplay too but to me the main thing was the killer premise, its characters and its commitment to peculiarity in the JRPG landscape at every turn.

Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria weird ass sequel of a game I didn't play that spawned my love for this kind of combat. Perfect blend of tactical and reaction-based that's usually a mess but here it works and its glorious. The story was whatever but frankly who cares

Black Closet is probably the most obscure game on this list & I love it. I adore the setting, the writing of some of the subplots, the tight mechanics and even its wonky UI designs. Try it and be captivated by the playful eroticism of mystery and power NOW

Ib foundational as everyone knows. Kind of tied with Yume Nikki in my mind but in the end I played Ib more and I was in awe of its finale systems and the genuinely anxiety inducing gameplay moments. Epitome of you're a kid and something fucked up happens.

Analogue: A Hate Story my favourite Love game even though it's only vaguely sci-fi. Funniest thing about it it's probably that its title works even if it's a silly pun on her previous game

999 I like Danganronpa so this one was a given since it's even less stupid. Puzzles are ok but I was here for the characters & plot because I am a mystery junkie at heart.

Lisa: The Painful managed to work with the legacy of Earthbound without making a lol so random uninspired clone. Profoundly different in its subject matter while incorporating a lot of the bizarre & offbeat humor of its inspiration. It also deals with its themes in a quite brutal and blunt if not at all tactful way which i really respect.

The Stanley Parable is one of the first things I've played as a returned prodigal PC gamer and it blew me away at the time. Full of neat little secrets & mysteries and with a lot to say about the relationship between the player, the game and the narrative frameworks we encase our lives in.

Earthbound is my love and joy and nothing else will ever come close to recreate what I experienced playing it, which is why I never played Mother 3.

Digital Devil Saga yeah I've never played an SMT to the end but I played this duology and I was deeply impressed by its combat system and its weirdass apocalyptic world and even my party of broken people. I was on board for that Gainax ending baby

Dragon Age: Origins was the only good DA actually. I am also the only person who hasn't played it for the worldbuilding and the lore because I'll be frank it's run of the mill fantasy stuff except for some things but I adored my party and the choices I could make and some plot moments so yeah. Still a fan of the saga despite everything

Opus Magnum is the only Zachtronics game I've played but I'll have to play Hackers one of these days. I still have all the gifs saved and I am NOT a minmaxing person irl but this one sinked its claws into my skin and for thirty hours I was an engineer

[turtlemagnum]

made 2 more threads on bluesky about Myself, here's one of them! warning, long!

q: first video game a: pirated spore on my dad's lap

q: favorite character a: undyne… how i love undyne…..

q: a game that is underrated a: the turok games on N64 and yugioh dark duel stories on GBC, the best yugioh video game adaptation because it doesnt follow the real rules at all

q: guilty pleasure game a: i don't feel guilty for having pleasure because i'm not fucking catholic

q: game character you feel most like (or wish you were) a: every day that passes is a day that takes me closer to becoming harry du bois from the hit game disco elysium the final cut

q: most annoying character a: i've never played the games but there's a little white haired boy from i think danganronpa(?) who always attracts the most insufferable people to choose him as a profile picture, so probably that guy

q: favorite game couple a: alphyne

q: best OST a: UTDR & PMD

q: saddest scene a: papyrus fight during a no mercy run

q: best gameplay a: celeste

q: gaming system of choice a: PC and switch because switch emulation isn't there yet

q: game everyone should play a: no good game is gonna be for everyone, so i can't really meaningfully answer this question

q: game you've played more than 5 times a: i'd assume this means like, start to finish, and the closest i can think of is that i've beaten skyrim and oblivion's main quests a few times each? i dunno i'm bad at finishing games (ADHD)

q: current (or most recent) video game wallpaper a: when i was a lot younger i had my ipod touch background as art of the hylian crest that was all like, cyan and burning and such, and i think that's the last time i remember having a dedicated gaming background on any device i had

q: post a screenshot from a game you're playing now a:

q: game with the best cutscenes a: i play games to play games, not watch movies

q: favorite antagonist a: flowey UTDR

q: favorite protagonist a: meeee =D

q: post a picture of a game setting you wished you'd live in a: i don't feel like posting any more pictures but i think the best game series to live in would probably be pokemon? mostly because it operates on logic where you're probably not gonna die from shit like hugging a slug that's the temperature of the surface of the sun or getting a million volts run through you by a magical electric rat, and if you know what you're doing even a 10 year old can become the most powerful person alive. imagine being an adult with a real world degree of intellect! i'd build a champion tier pokemon team easily, make a living off of that AND i'd meet people & make friends through it. plus, have you seen all the women? i'm gonna professor oak some milfs, i swear

q: favorite genre a: i'm not sure i have a favorite, but i probably spend most of my time in open world games and RPGs

q: best story a: undertale & fallout: new vegas. both appeared in my life at a deeply young, formative age and i've never been the same since

q: sequel that disappointed you a: honestly? totk. i think a big part of it is just how similar the overworld is, and at this point in my life i'm not really that big of a fan of the whole "create your own fun" thing that it took basically wholecloth from gmod and such. i probably would've loved it to death when i was a kid, though

q: best art style a: probably botw/totk

q: favorite classic title a: majora's mask babey!!! probably my favorite zelda game, and i fuckin love zelda

q: a game on your list to play a: pathologic classic HD

q: best voice acting a: oblivion

q: most epic scene a: hashtag epic hashtag awesomesauce…

q: favorite game developer a: probably a tie between nintendo and valve

q: game you were surprised you liked a: the first FPS game i ever played was CoD, and i fucking hate that style of shooter but since it was my first shooter i thought i just hated shooters, but then i played tf2 and hl1 and iliked both and was surprised about that so yeah, turns out that i don't dislike shooters, i just dislike mediocre military propaganda

q: favorite game of all time a: peggle 3 for nintendo gamecube (i can't reduce complex pieces of art to something as simple as "favorite")

[notajinn]

Top Games Played in 2023 - Number 5: Disco Elysium

5. Disco Elysium: The Final Cut (Switch)

Continuing the trend of playing games in genres I don't typically play, here comes probably the best point-and-click adventure game: Disco Elysium.

What I Like

The strength of this genre is entirely in its writing, and that's exactly where Disco shines.

The biggest and best part of the writing is the skill system in which every different skill is personified and contributes to conversations. Since this game only really has one playable character, these give the feeling of a full party as you get new skills and level them up so they become more capable. But whether they succeed or fail, the skills chiming in are always entertaining.

It's also a fun twist on the "blank slate" player character by having them be extremely hungover and depressed, and therefore unskilled. Sometimes it feels more like he's remembering skills he already has as opposed to completely learning them for the first time.

The world of Disco Elysium, while bleak and in the de-saturated colour scheme I hate, is really interesting to explore. You start off thinking it's basically an alternate version of Earth, but there's so much unusual stuff going on that makes it more of a fantasy world. But it's unclear where the fantasy is, where the real world is, and where people just assume one or the other.

The gameplay is based around walking around and interacting with things, seeing if you have the right skills/skill levels to progress. The interact able objects are clearly highlighted so you never feel like you're pixel hunting.

The "Final Cut" edition of the game is also fully voice-acted, and the voice acting is stellar. It also makes the huge amount of text you regularly need to deal with much more manageable.

What I Didn't Like

There's one point late in the game where it's very unclear how to progress the main story. Given the rest of the game is clear, this part stuck out and was the only time I had to look up information online. The fact you can find out what to do and just fail the skill check is also frustrating because then you need to level up and try again.

Leveling up on purpose takes time since there's no enemies to grind. It's rare outside of the above point I felt the need to grind though, so it's not a big deal.

Otherwise my only real complaint is the colour scheme. It fits the world, but I don't like it. Just pure aesthetic preference.

Final Thoughts

Disco Elysium is the only point-and-click adventure game I ever beat, so that speaks to how good it is. As long as you don't try to rush things (and have a little luck at one point), you're in for an entertaining game.

[octoberwinters]

XotY 2024

Book of the Year! 3. Piranesi a friend’s worthwhile recommendation. House of Leaves for dark academia, veering in and out of the territory of Paul Auster’s City of Glass. the beauty of the House is immeasurable; its kindness infinite.

2. Neuromancer so foundational to the genre that its random one-off lines invoke ideas still new and exciting today. the bleeding edge of the digital then, almost an analogue delight now. plays a magic trick with perspective in its final third that’s still on my mind.

1. The Hydrogen Sonata Banks’ final Culture novel, and the second of the lot that feels right as an ending. ultimately, deliberately, much ado about nothing. transcendent. i will return to these and reread, someday, and until then i will miss them.

Comic of the Year! 3. James Tynion IV’s paranoid ongoings (W0rldtr33, Dept. of Truth, The Nice House…, etc.) JT4 is telling too many versions of this story to pick just one, but i’ve come to love his indie horror work. betraying your friends and conspiracies of hate…

2. NYX Lanzing & Kelly are my favorite new authors in comics these days, and NYX may be their best work yet. goes further with Krakoa-X-Men Phonogram: Singles Club than Gillen ever dared to. sometimes the only big 2 book right now meaty enough to keep thinking about.

1. The Power Fantasy post-Thunderbolt, post-Immortal, post-WicDiv Kieron fucking Gillen at the peak of his powers. Wijngaard’s consistency maintains a Watchmen-descendant so enthralling you could almost see it existing even if it went back and killed its grandfather

Game of the Year! 3. Disco Elysium - The Final Cut my first time revisiting Revachol since its original release. still exceptional: deliberate friction with contemporary RPG modes of play, politically incisive (& smarter than its fans), & essentially, pathetically human.

2. Cyberpunk 2077 2.X thank god i didn’t play this at release. gameplay is smooth and responsive and generally feels good, but the high drama and performances hooked me—cherami leigh is exceptional. understands the cyberpunk genre better than the hangers-on of its moment.

1. Life is Strange series cringeworthy dialogue comes and goes, but the plots and themes of these—young adult under the weight of the world, high-stakes navigation of social life—just work. first game found my true weakness: nostalgia for the 2013 indie scene.

Film of the Year!: Theatrical 3. Don Hertzfeldt’s World of Tomorrow I-III shorts almost feel essentially home/digital viewing these days, so seeing these with an audience at the Paris was unexpected. bitterness and laughter, memory and legacy, and the hope for a paycheck to come.

2. I Saw the TV Glow Justice Smith’s best performance yet and the best soundtrack of the year. nostalgia for Buffy and Nick at Nite boiling over into transgender existential horror. that final scream, man…

1. Tenet (70mm IMAX) works even better on every new loop. bullets from the future, fired at the past. particles and antiparticles annihilating, becoming each other, ending history. too big for your eyes, too loud for your ears. an expression of faith—

Film of the Year!: Home 3. Mystery Train Jim Jarmusch just wants to hang out all night. you should want to hang out with him.

2. Run Lola Run peak Tykwer. a cartoon, a soap opera, a tragedy, a race. the most nineteen ninety-nine anything has ever been. you absolutely see how he ended up with the Wachowskis and David Mitchell.

1. My Own Private Idaho 50% shakespearesque stage acting blank verse, 50% stylistically-out-there gay tragicomedy. a smidgen of SNL’s Sprockets; nude portraiture standing in for sex; the Pogues and the B-52s. narcolepsy is my favorite scene transition device in cinema.

Album of the Year! 3. Moons Melt Milk Light my first Anenon album, which technically came out late last year. gorgeously breathy sax and bass clarinet jazz. the type of piano playing where the wood of the bench settling is part of the instrument. highly recommend.

2. Only God Was Above Us in love with the odd-numbered VW albums, and seeing them live this year didn't hurt. a return to form while maintaining the new jam band aspect that enlivens the act post-Rostam. in dreams i scream piano!

1. All Hell + More Hell i've spent more time this year listening to All Hell and its companion EP More Hell than any other album. Los Campesinos! pulled 00s emo through the pasta-shaper of leftist twitter-tumblr and came out the other end with a masterpiece noodle.

[jambjars]

ACADEMIC BLOG POST 1- Narrative: Can It Boogie?

What makes a story compelling? Is there one answer that applies to all narratives, and, if there is, is it so horribly broad as to be utterly useless? From Aristotle to Campbell to Juul, we've been trying to figure out a way to pin down the key to a good story for centuries. Like many modern narratologists we covered in the lecture, I have trouble coming up with an all-encompassing, meaningful theory that's inclusive of the video games I enjoy and traditional narratives. Interactive media, especially video games, can follow a strategy all its own. That's not blasphemous to the media before it.

While researching some articles on ludology for this lecture topic, I came across an article that, while risqué, does have some points to make about the merits of viewing video game narratives through an entirely different lens. I believe Shira Chess's piece The queer case of video games: orgasms, Heteronormativity, and video game narrative to be an extremely welcome takedown of the Freytag and subsequently the Brooks model. It's true that many traditional narratives have a singular climax, and indeed many video games can fall under this mold as well, but at the urging of Chess to consider other viewpoints of ludological narrative, I'm quite pleased at the prospect of games not following that route in favor of "little victories"-- incremental pockets of pleasure in limbo.

Figure 1: The main characters from hit 2019 video game Disco Elysium: The Final Cut

DISCO ELYSIUM

I sincerely doubt Propp had anything like Disco Elysium in mind when he penned his theories, and yet it's a game that rings true to everyone I've known that's played it-- especially myself. It's dense, jam-packed with 20+ hours of fully voice-acted dialogue, and tightly woven into a story both alien and familiar. Sure, it has a beginning, middle, end, and you could even fit some characters into Propp's archetypes in there if you pleased*. Not only is it an interactive narrative, however, it leans into its own absurdity to a degree that can derail the entire story itself. In an interview with some of the minds behind this grand-scale narrative, writer Argo Tuulik admitted that a great deal of Disco Elysium's success is owing to the creative team's naive willingness to explore even the most off-the-wall idea and not being too precious about the moral integrity of its characters. That's something I really, really value in a piece of media; the ability to not let any character be utterly invincible or badass without reason, for even the most level-headed to be open to humiliation and bizarreness.

*Here, I'll rattle some off now: Harry is the hero, Kim is the helper, Klaasje could be a false hero, the Thought Cabinet is a Dispatcher, etc.

Figure 2: Disco Elysium Character Sheet Screen.

Gameplay is almost Dungeons-and-Dragons-esque in nature. As a player, you must level up your skills, each representing a different facet of your ability to do your job. While each route is plotted, this is a massive departure from the narrative styles we are so used to in traditional media.

Figure 3: A brilliant graphic of the Disco Elysium cycle by Gabriel Chauri.

There are standalone events in Disco Elysium, set in stone or otherwise, and they are fantastic, but so much of the fun of the game lies in the mechanics themselves.

As a 2D animator, my skills would still be valuable in creating such a game-- while I'm picking up Blender on the side, Disco Elysium's still utilizes 2D animation and overlays on top of 3D models. It feels grungy and artistic and gross, something I would adore emulating on my own time. Perhaps After Effects can help me out.

Bibliography

Aarseth, E. (2004). Genre trouble: Narrativism and the art of simulation. In N. Wardrip-Fruin & P. Harrigan (Eds.), First person: New media as story, performance, and game (pp. 45–55). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.]

Brooks, P. (1977). Freud's Masterplot: Questions of narrative. In S. Felman (Ed.), Literature and psychoanalysis: The question of reading: otherwise (pp. 280–300). Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Campbell, J. (1949). The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 3rd ed. Novato, Calif.: New World Library.

Chauri, G. (2021). Disco Elysium RPG System Analysis. [online] Game Design Thinking. Available at: https://gamedesignthinking.com/disco-elysium-rpg-system-analysis/ [Accessed 11 Oct. 2023].

Chess, S. (2016). The queer case of video games: orgasms, Heteronormativity, and video game narrative. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 33(1), pp.84–94. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2015.1129066.

Freytag, G. (2012). Freytag's technique of drama: An exposition of dramatic composition and art. London: Forgotten Books. (Original work published 1863)

Inderwildi, A. (2021). What the Epic of Gilgamesh can tell us about Disco Elysium’s most troubling character, the Deserter. mashxtomuse. Available at: https://www.mashxtomuse.com/single-post/what-the-epic-of-gilgamesh-can-tell-us-about-disco-elysium-s-most-troubling-character-the-deserter [Accessed 14 Oct. 2023].

Juul, J. (2005). Half-real : Video games between real rules and fictional worlds. Cambridge (Massachusetts, Usa): The Mit Press.

Roof, J. (1996). Come as you are: Sexuality and narrative. New York: Columbia University Press.

Williams, L. (2022). How a collaborative writing process birthed Disco Elysium. [online] Games Hub. Available at: https://www.gameshub.com/news/features/disco-elysium-narrative-writing-process-18597/ [Accessed 1 Nov. 2023].

ZA/UM (2019) Disco Elysium: The Final Cut [Video game]. ZA/UM

[master-of-47-dudes]

1, 2, 5, 6, 11, 12, 26!

Hold on let me get this up on my computer so I can reference the asks while I answer....

1: Disco Elysium. I'm three years late but God DAMN does it deserve all the hype around it (and fuck that investor for trying to rob the creators of their own IP). The game is at once incredibly deep, incredibly funny, and incredibly immersive. It got to the point where I was very much in Harry's shoes the whole time, feeling like he and I were one and the same.

2: Well, I just finished Disco Elysium yesterday so I think I might need a bit of a break from gaming rn, tbh.

5: jeez there's a lot actually. RE4 Remake, Megaman Battle Network Legacy Collection, Tears of the Kingdom... April and May are big months.

6: Hm.

Zelda, Mario, and Pokémon were where I cut my teeth. I think @charlezarrd was the one who actually introduced me to Kirby which is another one. Anyone who follows this blog knows I fucking LOVE Metroid to the point that I recently tattooed Samus on my arm. Mega Man is another huge one- I love every game in every series tbh, and Mega Man 2 is probably the game I have played the most of any game, ever.

I love the early Final Fantasies and Chrono Trigger, too, and the Mother series has always been a big deal for me.

11: Hmmm. I actually tend to get too engrossed in gameplay to roleplay most of the time (to the point where Disco Elysium is the only game that really managed to get me there as I mentioned above), so i think I prefer set characters.

12: I'm not currently playing a game since I just put down Disco Elysium, and that game is intense, emotionally. But since that was YESTERDAY, I'll count it. I strongly identify with Harry Du Bois; sure, he's a semi blank slate, but I, too, am a highly suggestible mess of a person who can have a heart attack trying to pull my tie off a stopped fan, can literally die from sitting in an uncomfortable chair, does not understand what money is, and can 360 spin kick racists.

26: Stylized art styles are timeless. Realism is great in the more visceral horror games tho, it really elevates them.

[lauramkaye]

Disco Elysium For Beginners

So apparently my cunning plan is working and some of my mutuals are interested in learning more about my recent obsession by playing the game Disco Elysium. Great!!! In your honor, and so that I will have more people to talk about the game with, I present to you Laura's Beginner's Guide to Playing Disco Elysium.

What Is It Even About?

Hope, despair, poverty, the human condition, politics, pinball, art, love, loss, communism, experiencing a bisexual awakening in your forties, colonization, dancing, substance use disorders, unions, mental illness, truth, trying to be a good person in a completely broken society, beauty, the end of the world, joy, complicated relationships, kindness, intersectionality, the complex and problematic nature of the profession of police detective, cryptids, juvenile delinquents, PTSD, and falling helplessly in love with Kim Kitsuragi.

Oh wait, did you mean the plot?

You play as an amnesiac detective who wakes up after an apocalyptic bender that obliterated his memories. There is a dead body hanging in a tree behind your hotel, and you are there to find out who killed him with the help of Kim Kitsuragi, a detective from another precinct who has also been put on the case and who will be your partner while you are in town. You can, as the official site puts it, "become a hero, or an absolute disaster of a human being."

Where to Get It

Disco Elysium is available for Mac and PC via Steam and for XBox and Playstation (both current and previous generation) and Nintendo Switch. The current version is "The Final Cut" which includes full voice acting. The Steam version goes on sale pretty frequently - I'd keep an eye on Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales if you're interested in picking it up. The MSRP is $40 but you can often find it for around $20 if you look for a sale - the PS4 version is $17 on Amazon right now (11/15/2022).

I'm Not Really A Gamer, Can I Still Play?

Absolutely! DE does not require any "twitchy" gameplay - you interact with the game by reading/listening to text, selecting dialogue options to talk to people, and clicking things/people to interact with them in some way. It runs very much like a tabletop RPG, where all the uncertain things are decided by skill checks and dice rolls.

Notably, DE is quite replayable even though the solution to the mystery doesn't change, because different character builds will have very different experiences and may even see completely different sidequests and dialogue. Unlike most RPGs, DE makes many checks silently, in the background, and if you don't pass the check you just don't see the relevant content and never know you missed anything. I'm on my third full and sixth partial playthrough and I still find new things.

Mechanically, playing Disco Elysium goes something like this:

Go into a new area.

Look around. You will see little colored circles appearing, either on top of items/people in the environment, or sometimes around your player character's head.

Click on the colored circles to interact with them. You will learn something, do something, or start a conversation.

Doing stuff and talking to people gives you XP! Every time you get 100 XP, you get one Skill Point. You can either use it to increase one of your skills, unlock a slot in your Thought Cabinet, or forget a Thought from your Thought Cabinet. You don't have to spend them right away; you can save them up if you want to.

Once you have clicked everything you want to click and talked to everyone you want to talk to for now, go somewhere else.

Repeat.

What the Hell is a Thought Cabinet?

As you go through the game, you will unlock "thoughts" that you can ponder. You have a certain number of slots in your "thought cabinet" where you can be mulling over an idea; you start with three slots and can unlock more up to a max of 12. Thoughts will have certain effects while you are thinking about them, which might be positive or negative. While you are still thinking them over, you can equip or unequip them at will. Each "thought project" takes a specific amount of time.

Once you have spent the designated time on a thought project, you will see the message "Breakthrough Imminent" and then you will "internalize" the thought. The thought will have effects on the gameplay, which can include skill buffs and debuffs or other effects. Once the thought is internalized, you can no longer unequip it. It will take up that slot permanently unless you spend another skill point to forget it.

So what thoughts should I internalize?

A lot of them are mainly for flavor or role-playing but a few notable ones:

Actual Art Degree gives you bonus XP when you pass a passive Conceptualization check. This is the most common passive check in the game, so AAD is the thought to take if you want to get as many skill points as possible. You unlock the thought by talking about art as much as you can.

Get Jamais Vu as early as you can on Day 1 by talking with Joyce Messier at the dock. It opens up some key dialogue options and skill checks as well as giving you bonus XP whenever you click an orb.

Ace's High or Ace's Low gives you extra Empathy bonuses towards Kim. Which you will want, because Kim is the Best.

Wompty-Dompty-Dom Centre is available starting on Day 3 and will give you $2 and some XP when you pass an Encyclopedia check.

Homo-Sexual Underground. Its only effect is to allow you to talk about sexuality with Kim. Therefore it is the most important thought in the game, because approximately 90% of players will be in love with Kim by the second in-game day.

Okay, What About Skills?

Your character "build" (strengths, weaknesses, abilities, etc.) is primarily determined by two things that you can adjust as the game progresses by spending Skill Points: Skills and Thoughts.

Skills in DE are similar to skills in other RPGs in that they determine how good you are at various things. The main difference is that instead of the more traditional skills like strength, dexterity, or charisma, DE has skills like Savoir Faire, Rhetoric, and Empathy. As befits a game that emphasizes the story and characters over combat, the skills are a lot less about how good you are at punching monsters and a lot more about the state of your character's head. The skills are broken down into four categories:

Blue or Intellect skills - brainy stuff like Logic, Rhetoric, and Encyclopedia.

Purple or Psyche skills - emotional stuff like Empathy, Volition, and Authority.

Red or Physical skills - the condition of your physical body. Endurance, Electrochemistry, and Pain Threshold live here.

Yellow or Motorics skills - how well you use your physical body. Things like Hand Eye Coordination, Perception, and Composure.

There are good descriptions of each skill in the game. At the beginning, you can choose from three predefined archetypes (Thinker, Sensitive, or Physical) or create your own by allocating 12 points between the four skill categories and picking one skill as your "signature."

What Is The Best Skill Build?

There isn't an "best" one! You can play the game equally successfully with any build, but different builds will feel very different to play, especially early in the game.

That said, I would recommend against doing a 3-3-3-3 build because it just won't be as fun. Most skills generally start to really show effects at around a 4, and failing skill checks is often funny and shouldn't lock you out of completing any checks except if you've done something really unusual.

Basically the "best" build for you is whatever is the most fun - pick something that speaks to you and go for it.

In general, Intellect builds will get a lot of worldbuilding and lore and be really good at detecting. Psyche builds will have a better sense of other people and the world and strong intuition. Physical builds tend to be able to punch their way through obstacles but aren't very smart or empathetic and struggle with following their gut instincts/cravings without thinking about it. Motorics builds will find several early-game skill checks a lot easier for them and will be good at skills like shooting, picking locks, noticing stuff, keeping cool under pressure, and talking about cars.

Some key things to consider when deciding on your character build:

Encyclopedia is the skill that gives you lore and worldbuilding information.

If you want to min-max your build to get as many skill points as possible, make sure you have good Conceptualization so you can unlock the thought Actual Art Degree.

Esprit de Corps is similar to Empathy, but it works specifically on other cops. Doing a run with high EDC helps unlock a ton of lore about many of the other key characters in the game.

Electrochemistry will try to get you to drink, smoke, have sex, and take drugs. It will also give you insights into the drinking/smoking/drugging/sex habits of others. VERY high EC will allow you to unlock a leopard-print unitard underwear option for your player character.

You have two health pools, Health and Morale. Health is affected by the Endurance skill and Morale is affected by the Volition skill. If you start a game with only 1 point in either purple or red skills, that can mean you die very easily early in the game. My first playthrough I did a high INT build and I died in the first room of the game from turning on the lights even though I had a terrible hangover. So just be aware.

Shivers is my favorite skill in the game and I'm not alone there. Shivers allows you to have a connection to your city. A lot of the best moments in the game come during Shivers checks and the writing is generally really evocative. Great for atmosphere.

My favorite skills are Esprit de Corps for character knowledge, Shivers for cool atmosphere, and Drama because Drama is just really funny.

What Else Do I Need To Know?

If you seem stuck, go somewhere else and talk to more people OR spend a skill point to level up a skill.

You can zoom in and out. My first playthrough I didn't realize this for a while and kept missing certain characters who were standing somewhere I needed to be zoomed out to see.

A lot of things that are usually part of game menus have to be unlocked. You get a map by buying it at the bookstore. You get your stats and to-do list by finding your police ledger.

Cuno seems horrible but if you gain his trust there's a lot of depth to his character. There is also a potential ending where Cuno acts as your partner during the endgame.

Do the sidequests. They are often the best stories in the game.

Don't be TOO afraid of disappointing Kim. If you avoid being racist/sexist/hurting people, he will usually come around.

That said, if you play as a terrible person he won't be your friend anymore. I don't know how people can take the emotional trauma of that, but some people do!

Save frequently, Just In Case.

Don't be too hasty to reset. Let things play out. Most of the deaths are pretty funny and sometimes you might think you died but really you didn't.

That said, it's fine to reload a save if you messed something up. It's a single player game, it isn't "cheating" to do this if you want to.

If you fail the red check at the church it is extra double okay to reload a save and make that not have happened. (This is probably one of the two highest-stakes skill checks in the game because if you succeed you get one of the best scenes in the game and if you fail you get one of the worst.)

Look at everything and talk to everyone.

I like to keep at least one unused skill point at all times in case I need to unlock a skill check I've failed once.

If you arrest someone or send the body to Processing, Kim will be gone for the rest of the day. There are some things you can only do with him and some you can only do without him, so plan accordingly.

Hope this helps and always feel free to ask if you want more help/get stuck/need hints/just want to scream about the game with me!!

[gayestcowboy]

hi! i really want to get into disco elysium but i don't know where to start. i know that it's a very text-heavy game with table-top rpg mechanics, but what about the other things? like, story, characters, etc? what kind of topics does this game cover?

first of all it’s a really good game and you should absolutely play it! basically you play as a cop who wakes up after a massive bender with no memories of your past or who you are, and now you have to handle a crime, and theres also a bunch of voices in your head that tell you shit. it’s very text heavy but the final cut is fully narrated which made it much easier for my adhd ass to get thru, but you can also skip thru the dialogue quicker if youre a fast reader. it’s a very heavy and dense game with a big focus on politics, identity, etc. but it’s also funny as shit and genuinely one of the most emotional games ive ever played, and it has a TON of replay value. because of all of the choices you can make, you can it so many times and have a different experience each time. the environment is incredible. i dont think i can explain it very well but i think it’s a really good game to go into blind or knowing as little as possible. the characters feel very real, theyre all just people with flaws and shit. i was thrown off a bit at first because you play as a cop, but i can assure you it is not copaganda lol. the skill system and gameplay in general is really neat and unique. lots of content warnings including suicide, violence in general, police brutality, racism, alcoholism, drug use, colorful descriptions of gore and gross shit in general, etc. kim kitsuragi is great. if anyone else wants to explain something better then go ahead lmao. some of my favourite characters other than harry and kim are jean vicquemare, cuno, the dicemaker, lena, cindy, elizabeth, gaston, titus, lilienne, [REDACTED], tommy le homme, and of course, egg head.

my biggest tip for a first-time player is to make sure your inland empire stat is pretty high, because it adds an essential part of the experience (fun times with the horrific necktie).

[kuukigajan]

Okay, I will bite. What is Disco Elysium about? You got me curious.

Ohhh boy hang on a minute I gotta stop vibrating at dangerous frequencies first!

Disco Elysium is a video game; Its a mostly text-based game that is basically an RPG on steroids. You play as an amnesiac, deadbeat detective trying to solve a murder in an eerie fictional world.

Theres some exploration but as I said earlier, the gameplay is mostly text-based, in the form of conversations, either with others or yourself. The protagonist (Harry) doesnt remember anything about himself or the world, but has many inner voices guiding him around in good or bad ways. These voices are presented in the form of skills you can level up (24 skills total, including things like perception, empathy, pain threshold...), so the inner dialogue changes depending on your build. There is also some dialogue skill checks where you have more or less chances of succeeding depending on your skills, but failing these checks doesnt mean a bad outcome will happen; failures are acceptable and sometimes *better* in this game!

The game always presents you with multiple ways to finish quests; you can finish the game without even inspecting the body of the murder case you're investigating. The murder is the main arc but theres a ton of side-quests too; exploring and sinking in the world is just as fun too. The OST is absolutely insane and fits the game well.

Id say the story itself is kind of secondary (despite how full, well written and interesting it is); characters are truly the heart of this game. (This includes the world-building; their world is amazingly real and breathing and can be considered a character itself) The writing in this game is so so good and the character interactions are just... 👌 Your detective partner (Kim) is so so well written. I dont even know how to explain how funny, intricate, and smart the dialogue is thoughout the game. Its *really* funny. Like actual irl laughing funny. Harry is a weirdo while Kim is An Angel and their interactions...

I think its worth noting you can potentially make Harry go into a big desperate spiral of sexual questioning. Which is always cool! Harry questioning himself and things around him usually works through the Thought Cabinet, which are thoughts he internalizes and they give him different bonuses or maluses. There are also a significant amount of drugs and alcohols you can use that give insane bonuses; since Harry is a recovering addict, you will get a lot of peer pressure from his thoughts, but you can remain 100% clean if you want.

Theres the older original release (late 2019) and the recent final cut release (2021) which are both very good but id definitely recommend the final cut since theres a TON of new content, fully voiced text (1.2 million words!) and various bug fixes. Its available on all current generation consoles and PC. (Im not sure if its out on Switch yet but its planned soon if not)

Im going to stop here before I make this a novel but feel free to ask if theres anything you want to know!!!