Political commentary never looked so good.
Political commentary never looked so good.
“There is nothing. Only warm, primordial blackness. Your conscious ferments in it— no larger than a single grain of malt. You don’t have to do anything anymore.
Ever.”
Disco Elysium is the only game made by the company ZA/UM, written by Estonian author Robert Kurvitz. It has enjoyed a good amount of popularity online for its engaging RPG game play and complex and divisive political messaging. The game treats politics philosophically, forcing you to engage intellectually with NPCs as the game systematically picks any argument you could make apart and then laughs at you.
Disco puts you in the perspective of a cop who wakes up after a bender, barely remembering anything about his life beyond the fact that he is a cop and he’s on a case. It’s a beautiful game that moves you through this strange and bleak setting called Elysium. It’s a world gaining its composure after horrific wars, and different ideologies struggle for power in everyday life while a supernatural fog cloud called the Pale engulfs most of the world.
The game takes place in a city called Revachol, a former world capital ruined by war, and specifically the lowdown neighborhood of Martinaise. The game is deeply entrenched in its own fictional history, of kings and lords and revolutions. This comes into conversation often and influences the viewpoints of many different characters you can speak to.
But what Disco Elysium does differently than other similar games is that it really brings its setting of Revachol to life. It’s part of what makes Disco a beautiful game. It does this in three primary ways:
So without further ado, let’s get into it:
Disco Elysium’s ambient soundtrack was played and written by the band British Sea Power, and it is mostly in the background of the experience. It is beautiful, but while playing you don’t really think about it too much. But the secret hidden in those somber brass notes is that it haunts you. While I was doing work on my own and listening to music, I suddenly heard the beautiful and evocative music of the streets of Revachol come on unexpectedly. And in an instant, I am transported to those grim streets without even being near the game!
The thing about the music is that it embodies Revachol very well, and the quiet sound of it hanging in the air while you wander the streets makes you feel like an amnesiac cop whose life is all but certainly falling apart at the seams.
Simply put, seeing the oil-paint rendered art of the game while hearing the music is a unique experience which brings Revachol to life, in a way that video game music very rarely does. It is a treat to hear the first time as much as the tenth, when the game is familiar to you and you explore the places the game takes you and the people you meet. Speaking of the people…
There are a lot of characters in Disco, from the ever patient lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi who accompanies you on your adventure, to the business-savvy Joyce Messier, to the ultra-racist Measurehead. You’ll meet people of all kinds who have many different opinions about you, or the city, or a whole host of other things. Ordinarily, you’d have a hard time getting people to care about the history of a fake city in a fake world, but you come to care about it by caring about the characters you meet.
The history is ultimately just like real history: interesting but ultimately boring as a grade school subject. But characters like Rene, the old soldier who angrily ruminates on his glory days and the failure of the revolution he took part of, sell the lore to you by disguising it with engaging and unique characters.
And you will also meet characters who suck. A lot. Like the aforementioned Measurehead, who is so racist it’s almost hilarious. He meets you, immediately spits out some phrenological talking points, insults your ‘inferior’ genetics, and depending on your actions, punches you really hard. He also has some lore embedded in his insulting dialogues, and you unfortunately learn a lot about the world from speaking to him. But Measurehead and many other NPCs go to show that the varied human perspectives that we get to see in the city of Revachol bring it to life.
And lastly, there is Shivers. A discussion on Shivers requires a brief discussion of the game’s main mechanics. The main game mechanic is making skill checks to succeed on things, and you succeed more often on skills you are better at. One of those skills is Shivers, which falls into the category of skills called Physique, controlling your physical body and lower instincts. While the other skills like Endurance, Pain Threshold, and Electrochemistry clearly deal with your internal and external world, Shivers is different.
Shivers governs street wisdom and a slightly supernatural attunement into the city. It doesn’t do all that much, but every now and then you’ll be able to learn things about people or the city just by observing the air and the stones. One of the early interactions in the game with Shivers is a passive check— a skill check made automatically against a hidden target.
While walking through the street, the camera suddenly pulls back and you can see much more than you can usually see. That is to say, the game gives you some beautiful poetry while your senses tell you about the city and its history and for a moment you feel truly connected to this strange place. And then, the camera falls back down and the game continues like nothing ever happened!
Shivers is cool because it’s striking, and it almost literally makes Revachol another character in the story, one who is old and ruined but still so beautiful if you know where to look. And if that’s not the truth of most cities, then nothing is.
In all, Disco Elysium does a lot to pull you in and engage you with its wondrous world and it’s all the better for it. While the company has had a lot of internal controversy over creative differences, it’s a great game that supposedly has a couple of spiritual successors in production right now. So maybe check those out. In the meantime, Disco Elysium is an incredible game if you like fun. Which you do.
