"The furies are at home in the mirror; it is their address. Even the clearest water, if deep enough can drown."

- R. S. Thomas

Disco Elysium is an award-winning computer role-playing game developed by independent studio ZA/UM, headed by Estonian novelist Robert Kurvitz. Disco Elysium is set in a tabletop role-playing game setting synthesized by Kurvitz in 2005, that itself was used in Kurvitz’s previous novel Sacred and Terrible Air. The original game released on October 15th, 2019. The Final Cut, a fully voice-acted version as well as free expansion to the game, was released March 30th, 2021, a year to this day.

The original cut of the game, whilst not fully voice-acted, stars Will Menaker :will-fancy: Matt Christman :matt: Felix Biederman :felix-linus: and Virgil Texas :virgil-bb: of our amicably-disowned origin podcast :cth-of-saud: in select roles across the board.

The Final Cut does replace them, but if you want the experience of extremely-online podcasters trying to actually voice-act, you can swap the voices to the original cut in the menus.

50 years into the Current Century, a detective :tequila-sunset: wakes up (quite unclothed, somewhat bloated, permanently smiling, and very hungover) after one hell of a bender; one so disco he developed an alcohol-induced case of semantic and retrograde amnesia. Without an identity, nor and idea of where he is or what he is supposed to be doing, he gathers his bearings, hobbles downstairs after a conversation with his hostel room neighbor (who you may or may not try to proposition, or utterly fumble in it; the objectively funnier option, as are many check failures), and meets his assigned case partner, Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi :lt-kitsuragi: of the Revachol Citizen’s Militia, Precinct 57.

Apparently there’s a body hanging from a tree. You were supposed to deal with it (bring it down) and you didn’t (oops), you’re supposed to have your badge (double oops), and furthermore, you’re also supposed to have your gun (triple oops), and by the way, you have to pay for the damages to your hotel room with a sum of réal you probably don't have (oh no).

Those, however, can wait, as you might want to get your shit together and inspect the lynching scene behind the hostel. Or don’t. After all, there’s an achievement for solving the case without inspecting the body.

Explore Martinaise, a small city in both Revachol and decay after the Moralist (mostly) and Nationalist crushing of the failed Antecentennial Revolution, as your twenty-four personality-filled skills talk you through the case, as well as many other things. Negotiate with the local union, discuss the nature of the world with a visiting capitalist, and decide whether you're fit and agile enough to kick in the skull of the local phrenologist.

By the way, have you considered your copotype? Political views? Wanna be a superstar communist? Or a sorry fascist? An apocalypse-warning liberal? Or a boring centrist? Mix and match personality and politic, this game explores and critiques all in an (ironically) sobering and realistic way, including how said politics reflect on the persons holding them, and the implications of those views being held by a cop.

(And, a personal addendum, for those wary, Disco Elysium’s politics are some of the best politics in a critically acclaimed game bar not much at all that I can name.)

A point-and-click adventure, with skill checks decided at the roll of a dice, Disco Elysium is a story-driven game first and foremost. Internalize thoughts in your thought cabinet? That services the story. Level up your skills to unlock previously failed white checks? Story-servicing. Change your clothes or indulge in vices for some stat boosts? The latter unfortunate, both story-servicing.

Disco Elysium is a story about a solving a crime. But it can also be a story about getting better. Or building communism (which will obviously be your first chosen ideology) as much as you can individually. Or getting worse. Or finding out the truth of the world. Or learning to let go. Or piecing together your shattered identity. Or picking up the pieces of that which you previously broke. Ultimately, for a game with over a million words (all voice acted), Disco Elysium wastes very few of them. It is a masterclass in using the medium it's built on to tell its tale.

There is so, so much I could say about this game. It’s truly a game with a lore-dense unique story, unique and complex characters, a uniquely vast yet claustrophobic setting, and a unique gameplay experience. It truly deserves the awards its won, and is recommended constantly to communists, Planescape: Torment fans, and Planescape: Torment fans who happen to be communists alike for a good reason.

I am only human however, the limit is 10k characters, and I pre-wrote the CrossCode Megathread well over a month in advance and added along the way, so I will leave it at that. I truly, truly recommend this game to Hexbear users who have not played it. You don’t even have to be a gamer to like it, it’s not at all gameplay intensive. Trust me. You are the audience for this game and story.

You can buy Disco Elysium: The Final Cut for $14 USD (65% sale!) on Steam and GOG, and $40 USD on Switch, PS4/5, and Xbox One/Series S and X. It’s only native to Mac and Windows, but it is Steam Deck Verified and marked Playable on ProtonDB.

“Humans, I have loved you all. Be vigilant!”

- Last words of Czech antifascist resistance fighter Julius Fučik, before being executed by the Nazis, translated.

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