Along with this, Disco Elysium moves another narrative line: the protagonist’s past is gradually gathering into an unpleasant picture, allowing you to fill in the gaps on your own. To take over a personality worn out by alcohol, or to replace it with new meanings, projecting your own image there, is a question with which ZA / UM constantly addresses the player.
But no amount of descriptive paragraphs will give the core of Disco Elysium the honor it needs. Setting, artistic choices, narrative details, and the overall structure of a story cannot exist without good writing. And the filigree with which this game was written is the determining factor in its content.
The secret of the combinations of letters and words with which Disco Elysium fascinates you lies not so much in the abundance of adjectives and comparative phrases, but in the general format and manner of their presentation. In almost every dialog box, an invisible die is rolled, hiding from your eyes – it tests a combination of your skills and characteristics, ultimately determining which direction the text will move next. In practice, it feels like in each specific case the scriptwriter is writing a story on the go exclusively for you. Under the hero-empath, trying to take over the experience of other people, under the aggressive rude, puzzled exclusively by momentary problems, or under the tired officer Dubois, who carries in his jacket pocket a set of figures that are not needed for anything and which will never return her.
The text of Disco Elysium flows with life, smoothly transitions from one state to another, and moves in an indestructible stream throughout the game. A humorous line stolen from the funniest anecdote can turn into a great tragedy in just one neatly inserted word. And never do these mood swings seem fake or mocking. On the contrary, they always remain consistent and utterly sincere. In addition, the letters written by the ZA / UM team flow into each other as seamlessly as possible throughout the game. Taking into account the relative freedom of action, you are free to get acquainted with the game material in any convenient sequence, and none of them feels alien or unnatural – the characters remember the events that happened before and even fleetingly abandoned phrases, creating the illusion that you are always moving along a pre-determined and the route developed by the developers as much as possible.
Often, the text of Disco Elysium is criticized for the excessive artistry of almost every dialogue, which is not far from the truth – there is almost no “dry” language in the game, and the most everyday things can be framed in a whole series of sequential epithets, after which, through inattention, it is easy to lose the general thread of the conversation. This decision is dictated by the author’s style – the screenwriters of “Elysium” are almost obsessively preoccupied with inner experiences and reflection, for which huge canvases of various moods are collected. Accidentally staring at the surface of the water, the protagonist can indulge in childhood memories, cold nostalgia and a dubious desire to disappear forever in the dark abyss.
The general melancholy of Disco Elysium, in support of the text, is greatly enhanced by the audiovisual series. The Martinez area appears to the player as a relic stuck in time – an artifact of bygone eras, in which echoes of past greatness are visible, side by side with dirt, poverty and departed hope. The dynamic system of weather and time of day gives the locations even more expressiveness, endowing individual episodes with almost iconographic images.
The visual identity of the game is also supported by the work of illustrators who have created their own palette – each character and skill is presented in the form of static portraits that fuel your imagination.
The musical accompaniment of the project is the responsibility of the British rock band British Sea Power, whose previous discography was reassembled in such a way that the sound of the compositions complements the atmosphere, without taking the attention of the players who are keen on reading the next dialogue. The result is a calm and sad sound, which combines longing for the past and a light spark of hope for tomorrow.
One of the key features of The Final Cut for PC and consoles is full English voice acting… The original release of Disco Elysium also had dubbing, only “speaking” lines in the script were very few – they were used mainly to set the general tone of the dialogues, and not save from reading. Now ZA / UM did not compromise and voiced virtually all of the written textincluding skill phrases and endless descriptions. Most of the actors did their job well – the voices are textured and suitable for the characters. In addition, there are three options in the voice acting settings – full voice acting, voice acting only for dialogue (in this case, the narrator and skills remain mute ”), and the“ classic ”approach to voice acting, corresponding to the initial release.
Another important and notable innovation in The Final Cut is new story content. In particular, we are talking about a set of individual tasks tied to the political orientation of your hero. Choosing certain options in the dialogues, you are free to move on the coordinate system in one of four directions – communism, ultraliberalism, fascism, and, of course, centrism. Through new assignments, these ideologies find additional reflection – you can feel like a real market player, revel in the bright ideas of socialism, return to the sweet conservative past, or rely on infinitely slow but inevitable progress.
In turn, the basic content of Disco Elysium is largely unaffected by the version of The Final Cut. The developers have corrected a number of episodes, made notable (and not so much) edits, supplemented the project with light visual changes. Based on this, the global storyline and its progression remained almost intact. So if you are one of those who were previously greatly embarrassed by the intimacy of the final act of the game, now you just have to put up with it.
We can also mention the technical condition of Disco Elysium: The Final Cut on the console. Playstation 5… The adaptation of the gameplay to the realities of the gamepad was quite successful – interacting with the world through the right and left sticks is more than convenient. From the visual side, the port also raises no questions – the game runs in 4K resolution at 60 frames per second and does not suffer from unnecessary drawdowns. Unfortunately, at launch, The Final Cut was literally drowning in small but unpleasant technical errors, with some directly interfering with the natural process of progress. Fortunately, by now, after a series of patches, almost all of them have been fixed.
Taking into account the above, any trivial positive characteristics towards the debut game creation ZA / UM will simply sound unconvincing. But if you want a simple recommendation, then Disco Elysium is really worth a try, if only for the sake of satisfying your curiosity.
