Disco Elysium

 PC
  • Publisher: ZA/UM
  • Release Date: Oct 15, 2019
Disco Elysium Image
Metascore
91

Universal acclaim - based on 64 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1344 Ratings

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  • Summary: Disco Elysium is an open world role playing game. You’re a detective with a unique skill system at your disposal and a whole city block to carve your path across. Interrogate unforgettable characters, crack murders or take bribes. Become a hero or an absolute disaster of a human being.

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Disco Elysium - Epic Games Store Trailer

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 63 out of 64
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 64
  3. Negative: 0 out of 64
  1. Adventure Gamers
    Apr 10, 2020
    100
    A murder mystery set in a rich, fictional setting, Disco Elysium is told with sweeping profundity and hilarious absurdity. With no combat to impede story progression, this is a choice-driven role-playing adventure that deftly raises the bar of quality for the medium.
  2. Daily Star
    Oct 21, 2019
    100
    There’s depth, hundreds of hours of replayability and above all, an experience you won’t forget. With humour, panache, wit and genuinely touching moments, this is a hell of a story.
  3. Game Debate
    Nov 4, 2019
    95
    I loved it, though I barely understood much of it. It's a wild ride despite being mostly walls of text. It's the only game where I honestly couldn't say what I thought my character would do at any given turn because I felt I barely knew him, and that was, I feel, by design. You're getting to know him as you're making the choices that define him. Like you are, in a way, with yourself in real life.
  4. USgamer
    Oct 16, 2019
    90
    Disco Elysium wants to get you in touch with the voices in your head. This detective RPG calls back to the old Infinity Engine games like Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate, but it put a unique spin on everything. With a beautiful oil painting aesthetic, it also features a system that treats your skill like additional party members, each with their own opinions on your actions. Ultimately, every lengthy run-though of Disco Elysium is about the consequences of your choices and actions, adding up to some fantastic stories. A great, surprising entry into RPG canon.
  5. Shacknews
    Nov 21, 2019
    90
    It’s not very often that a game of this calibre comes along. Disco Elysium is mad with psychedelic energy, unabashedly dramatic, and dangerously well-written. I wish, like the detective, I could forget all about Disco Elysium, if only to experience it again as if for the first time. It’s truly one of the greatest RPGs ever released.
  6. Everyeye.it
    Nov 3, 2019
    90
    With the quality of writing and the inventiveness of design, Disco Elysium brilliantly faces the traditions of role-playing. In doing so, it paradoxically succeeds in overcoming them where more "innovative" titles have failed, demonstrating that innovation is not enough as the sole aim and motivation to make a great game, but that a great game can be, by virtue of its qualities, innovative.
  7. Metro GameCentral
    Oct 21, 2019
    70
    A fiercely original take on traditional computer role-playing games that often seems unrefined and self-indulgent but is still a welcome shake-up of genre norms.

See all 70 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 246 out of 335
  2. Mixed: 32 out of 335
  3. Negative: 57 out of 335
  1. Ubykh
    Oct 15, 2019
    10
    A unique Game of a kind, that revolutionize the RPGs with a level of writing rarely achieved elsewhere.
    True Detective plus Bukowski meets    A unique Game of a kind, that revolutionize the RPGs with a level of writing rarely achieved elsewhere.
    True Detective plus Bukowski meets Pixar’s Inside Out where your thoughts and psyche are your skills and they talk to you.
    Just a masterpiece.    … Expand
  2. grvk76
    May 7, 2020
    10
    a masterpiece. best gaming experience this year so far.
    the very ending... may be 8/10 there, expected a bit more... a new revolution would    a masterpiece. best gaming experience this year so far.
    the very ending... may be 8/10 there, expected a bit more... a new revolution would be good, but even so - overall is 10/10.
    and you know what - even if all the rest was just **** (which obviously is not) - the dance in the church (as it happened, holding a crow bar in hand - my favorite item to hold in hand i guess) - was simply **** awesome. didn`t have such a good wave for a while this fake quarantine **** around.    … Expand
  4. venseyness
    Nov 21, 2019
    10
    This game shot from "what the heck is this and why should I care?" to "This is one of the best examples of games as art" within an hour. ItThis game shot from "what the heck is this and why should I care?" to "This is one of the best examples of games as art" within an hour. It went from there to "This is one of my favorite games ever," within 10.
    A true triumph of risks, polish, and care, that in my opinion stands as one of the best of the decade.
    That said, it's not for everyone. Its dialog can be a bit abstract, and there's certainly a LOT of reading. I can see why there are people who wouldn't like it.
    I just really, really do.    … Expand
  5. AntiqueOne
    Sep 20, 2020
    9
    Everything is just incredible; story, RPG elements, dialogs, lore, atmosphere and so on. Deciding who the Harry is through the game was anEverything is just incredible; story, RPG elements, dialogs, lore, atmosphere and so on. Deciding who the Harry is through the game was an incredible experience. It is 9 just because the ending could have been way better.… Expand
  6. Sidian
    Feb 25, 2020
    9
    What a game. A worthy successor to Planescape: Torment, at last! Anyone who says that video games can't be art or scoffs at the idea of videoWhat a game. A worthy successor to Planescape: Torment, at last! Anyone who says that video games can't be art or scoffs at the idea of video game writing, saying "If I wanted a good story I'd read a book!" should play this and hopefully be honest enough to admit they were wrong. In most games, I talk to what are little more than exposition deliverers and quest givers, full of all the typical clichés - what's this guy's character? Oh, well, he's muscly and shouts a lot, I guess. That's it. Disco Elysium's characters *feel* like people and even though a character like Kim Kitsuragi, your partner in this game, would be hopelessly dull when written by most video game writers, in this game he's impossible not to love. The best of all, though, is not really a character at all but your inner monologues with aspects of your own personality. Incredibly intelligent, beautifully descriptive and outright hilarious writing all the way through.

    But nothing is without its flaws. The skill system is a bit of a mess and encourages you to save up skill points and just casually invest them the second you need them for a skill check, which sort of robs you of the ability to feel like you really created a specific character and are interacting with the world based on who you are, instead you just feel like a skill point investment banker. Also, the thought catalogue system, whilst interesting, is even worse - you have no idea whatsoever what the effects of the thoughts you commit to will be, and it's usually not something you could guess. You could argue that this encourages you to really role play and just pick what you agree with and disregard the stats, but in reality it just makes you want to not really bother with it and save those skill points for stats instead as at least then you'll know what you're getting. There are some quests in the game you simply cannot complete with certain builds, unless you save scum. This is fine in most games like this which expect you to have a good build and understanding of the game, but in a game like Disco Elysium that's almost never the case and it just comes out of the left field to not be able to advance the main plot if you specialised as a rational thinker like I did and as a result didn't have points in 'shivers' to get into a certain building, for instance. I also found the game to be quite buggy which resulted in me missing out on certain quest options.

    But these are all minor niggles; the game is all about the story and writing, and in that respect it's unrivaled. This game will be a cult classic and heralded for decades to come. I sincerely hope it becomes influential and encourages other talented writers to make games like this, and I can't wait for follow-up games by ZA/UM.    … Expand
  7. Troglo
    Dec 29, 2022
    7
    More an adventure than a RPG. More a book than a game. Good game but highly overrated. Check it before buying/playing. Be ready to read a lot
  8. FireRalin
    Oct 2, 2021
    0
    Смешно, что в игре, основанной на вероятностях и выборах есть несколько моментов, когда игра обманывает вас в них. Есть по меньшей мере 2 илиСмешно, что в игре, основанной на вероятностях и выборах есть несколько моментов, когда игра обманывает вас в них. Есть по меньшей мере 2 или 3 проверки, где вы всегда провалите. Думаете, что не увидели чего-то интересно? Перезагружаетесь десятки раз с целью увидеть интересный результат. Ложь и лень разработчиков, скрытая неумело и халтурно… Expand

See all 335 User Reviews

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3
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