Hotly Anticipated RPG Disco Elysium finally gets a release date
If oil paintings could talk.
An RPG that makes you read? What is this, 1990?
Anyone who grew up playing deep, detailed RPGs of the Balder’s Gate/Icewind Dale-ilk should be paying attention to Disco Elysium. With its isometric art style and incredibly detailed script, this game feels instantly familiar and completely new all at once. It already looks like the best of what the RPG genre has to offer and it’s not even out yet. With a new trailer to announce their October 15th release, we’ve been given a great insight into the feel of the game.
Like Mario stepping into his paintings, Disco Elysium has a world that looks made with a paintbrush, all messy strokes and roughly defined edges. It’s lead character, like the environment, is messy too. In the beginning, you construct your protagonist using a set of 24 skills. The skills you pick in the beginning determine who you are, how you act and how things happen to you. You’ll always be a detective trying to solve crimes, but how you solve them will be completely different depending on the decisions you make. We often say that about RPGs, but we think here that really is the case.
Gameplay comes down to you defining your personality in this way, shaping the narrative to be as chaotic as you desire. As the developers explain on their website, you can “explore, manipulate, collect tare or become a millionaire in an open world unlike anything you’ve seen before. The city of Revachol is yours for the taking, one small piece at a time. From the streets to the beaches – and beyond.”
When one of our team saw the game back in September of last year, our conclusion was measured but positive: “The best RPG ever? That might be a stretch. But there’s something quite refreshing about the strangeness Disco Elysium brings to the table. Its hard-boiled detective, mirroring dark anti-heroes such as Max Payne, embraces his demons and visibly carries them for all to see. It’s a grimy, gritty story that isn’t afraid to be offensive in its portrayal of fallible people”
October is looking to be a bumper month for interesting and innovative indie releases, and Disco Elysium certainly numbers itself amongst them. Don’t just take our word for it, go and check it out.