Disco Elysium

2026-05-28
REVIEW IDEA: Keep it short but interperse with the voices from the game a la Zark’s review. BUT each voice just says a variation of “try again later i’m jacking it right now”

2026-02-04
Important to note I played w/o dialogue being voiced. I played it PURE.

2025-01-14
Found a notebook with a couple notes:
"I love that it doesn't seem to be about a twist. More about just understanding people and then everything is clear. Like clearly Klassje didn't kill the dude. She loved him in her own way."
"Thoughts are great but them being tied to skill points means I never used them. Should have tied them to sleeping to swap out."

??? (2021)
Almost anything I could say about this game being a masterpiece has already been said so I'll try to keep this short.

The writing is absolutely tremendous. Each and every part of your character's brain is given a unique voice. And they're wonderfully consistent. Some are total meatheads like Physique and some are poets like the Inner Empire. The writing can be beautifully descriptive and also be absolutely hilarious. They did such a great job writing an absolutely hilarious character. The amount of options given to you in each conversation are downright staggering.

The plot was actually kind of slow and boring to begin with. That added with the general downer of the environment made me want to stop playing like 7 hours in. But I'm glad I stuck it out because it actually ends pretty nicely. It's not a huge mind blowing ending but really it's the way they tie all the little subplots together. That and the phasmid scene is incredible.

You encounter this creature that the entire game everyone is convinced doesn't exist. And then at kind of the height of the plot it shows up. I actually ruined the surprise for myself by looking something up (woops) but it was still a scene that left and impression on me.

So many other things are great. Cuno, Titus-- really a bunch of the characters. The way each one has its own believable unique voice and the way they have their own character growth over the arc of the game. The main character's growth and his dealing with being broken up with is just so fucking accurate. It's amazing. Other little moments like giving the old man the picture of his dead friend. Which I just so happened to randomly pick up. Wonderful detail in moments like that.

There are things I could ding it on. It kind of drags on in the middle part. There are often too many things to do that seem inconsequential at the time, though some of them have big impacts like helping the cryptozoologists and talking to Cuno. Thoughts not being able to be re-rolled, etc.

But at the end of the day it's a wonderful piece of art and I'm super happy I took the time to play it.