Disco Elysium: The Final Cut Review

Disco Elysium's Final Cut starts in the same way it did its original release in late 2019, in complete darkness with the voice of your Reptilian Brain, and the Limbic System encouraging to remain in the dark. You wake up, a naked and hungover cop who has forgotten your name. This is your introduction into Disco Elysium. It doesn't matter if this is your first time to the war-ravaged town of Revachol or the district of Martinaise. It's cerebral, opaque, and captivating. It's Disco Elysium with a bow.

ZA/UM's smash hit, which we called the most intoxicating RPG of 2019, doesn't make itself easy to get along with in its early stages. Within the first hour, you are bombarded by vomit, a corpse and open racism. There are also a few homophobic slurs that you can censor, but still clearly understand. It almost challenges you to keep playing the game, as if to ask, "Do you really have enough stomach to solve this mystery?" It's a horrible world. Perhaps now is the right time to stop this rollercoaster ride if it's too much for you.

It is worth your energy and time to stay on the ride. Disco Elysium, underneath its rough opening, is a mind-searing manifesto for a videogame. Your amnesiac cop finds himself quickly in a huge conspiracy that involves a labor strike and a failed communist revolution. There are also some strange forces that may push beyond your human comprehension.

Disco Elysium - The Final Cut continues to wear its politics on its sleeves, offering a clear dash of real-world implications in all its situations. You can choose to be a communist, ultraliberal or moralist detective. Or, if you're really unable to read the room, fascist. The game does not attempt to prove that "all sides have points" or any other pedantic notions. On the one hand, the fascist dialogue pathways make you an awful person and the communist dialogue path makes you confront the gap between your ideals of reality.

If the game's writing only focused on political ideology, it would probably be more like a lecture than a game. The Final Cut of Disco Elysium allows you to make choices and guide the plot. There are many paths that you can take to find answers. Kim Kitsuragi, your partner/voice and best video game character of a generation, has a set of objectives that you must complete. However, you are free to choose how you approach it.

You will be responsible for identifying clues and items in the environment, as well as talking to people to collect information. These actions can trigger progress-determining Skill Checks. The game simulates a roll of dice based on your character's stats. Do you want to intimidate someone with a strong appearance? This is an Authority check. Do you want to smash into a locked door or window? Rolling to check if your Pain Threshold has reached the right level will allow you to ram into a locked door. Failing to pass a Check can often hinder your progress. However, most story-related ones can still be retried later. This gives you the chance to learn more information or equip new items to help you. Disco Elysium is a game with a fail-forward approach. Even if you fail a check it's often still very informative and sometimes very funny.

Disco Elysium stats are not the same as those of other RPGs, such as 'Charisma’ or Intimidation. Instead, they include things like?Conceptualization' which helps you think outside of the box, 'Inland Empire,' which allows you to perceive unusual, supernatural happenings, and 'Electrochemistry' to allow you to use drugs and alcohol. Anything that helps you to close the case.

These 24 stats are divided into four categories (Intellectuality, Psyche and Physique), which can also speak to you. Authority may encourage you to take control and push ahead in a conversation while Volition might suggest that you reconsider what you are actually getting out of a conversation. Your stats can be compared to other party members in an RPG. You have other characters along for the ride.

You will find that the more you play the game, the louder and less influential voices you hear and invest in, the better. Your detective will stop considering racist and misogynist dialogue choices in the first sections of the game. The game's key themes are who you are and what you want to become. Through your actions and choices you slowly build a cohesive person from all the random bits you have pinned to yourself.

Disco Elysium is, despite all its detective fiction trappings and fancy graphics, a game about many things. The plot is about a man in crisis trying to decide which kind of animal to become. It could also be about a city that is in post-capitalist decline. It could be about the crushed dreams of a communist revolution, which liberated its people from fascism but was then betrayed and turned into dust by a coalition capitalist countries. It's also about the metaphysical dead zone that exists in all of us, and how difficult it is to live a just and kind life in a world that is so tied to materialisms like poverty and hunger.

In almost every way, the prose of the game is a solid landing. Each thematic slant is dealt with dexterous language. It's both humane and philosophical, cynical, and sincere. The game has a great sense of humor. Set pieces such as a terrible karaoke session are excellent examples. There are also options for dialogue to warn people about coming apocalypse, or tell them your name is The Gloaming'.

If the game's writing is almost flawless, then what can it do? You spend most of your time looking backwards, trying to figure out what happened before the crime, how Revachol's past has led to this moment, and where you lost your badge and gun. Disco Elysium is too focused on the past to be able to see the future. Although no ideology is perfect and can be used as a panacea, Disco Elysium's thoroughness in its themes has the unfortunate side effect of not giving us any idea of the path forward beyond small victories that we will need to do again tomorrow. What did Disco Elysium really believe at the end?

This could be explained in a variety of ways. From a story perspective Revachol is trapped between different parts of its history, unable or unwilling to speak out about its future. The characters are bound by their circumstances and unable or unwillingly to get out of their current conditions. Perhaps that is the message: Revachol's people cannot be saved under the current system. A revolution will be necessary to free them from their fetters. Maybe that's the Communist dialogue option.

These elements were all present in the original release. The Final Cut version adds some new elements. The game now includes full voice-over throughout, though some characters' voices have changed as a result, like the human raccoon Cuno. Voice-acting is powerful and vivid, giving Revachol citizens a stronger sense of self. It is easy to feel the conflict and stakes of each character, both major and minor.

Final Cut also includes new "political vision quests" for each of the major political parties. Each scene opens up new dialogue options and scenes that allow you to get to the heart of each school's political thought. These scenes show Revachol's true meaning and highlight the game’s writing.

Disco Elysium was released in pre-COVID, before the 2020 US election and pre-a lot of other world events. Disco Elysium looked like a game that would be perfect for the end a decade and the beginning of an era. Perhaps Disco Elysium will be seen in the future as a product its time. It could be considered either a piece of historical context or a current-yet-earnest view on major political issues. The Final Cut arrives in an entirely new world, but one that still needs its message. As Revachol said, our world hasn't completely gotten over the past.

Disco Elysium - The Final Cut might not be suitable for everyone due to its crude opening and mechanical quirks. However, it clearly states its goals and pursues these with an impressive level of skill. This game is a landmark achievement in videogame narratives, detective fiction and art for the 21st Century.