9/2/2023 0 Comments Disco elysium builds![]() All you have to do to get your gun back is talk to The Pigs, and even if you fail a hand-eye coordination check you will still get your gun back. Where you might be expecting a puzzle, you get a story moment instead. The same applies later on during the confrontation with "The Pigs," a delusional old woman who thinks she is a police officer and has managed to get hold of Harry's gun. There are moments like this all throughout the game, where passing a check will flesh out the world, or perhaps grant you a unique conversation or two, and for the most part they're a big part of the game's charm. This is a big hint that the "Hardie Boys", a group of dockers, are involved. If you do, Harrier will correctly deduce that the footprints were left by four large men in hobnailed work boots. The footprints around the corpse, for instance, can only be properly analysed if you have at least 11 points in Visual Calculus. Disco Elysium doesn't work that way, not all "clues" will be visible to every player. In a puzzle, all the pieces should be apparent to every player - they can be obscure and take time to uncover, but they have to be somehow accessible. Investigating the body of the hanged man is a perfect example of this. The RPG mechanics muscle the puzzle elements out of the way, with skill checks taking over where there would’ve been opportunities for actual deductive puzzle-solving. As it is, it never feels like you as the player are contributing anything other than chucking two six-sided die to progress Harry's bespoke narrative. The opportunity to do some real detective work would have gone a long way to helping me get into character and giving me a sense of agency. Much though I love the game's commitment to old-school RPG rules based around dice rolls, the total lack of investigative or deductive elements is a bit of a letdown - the one flaw in an otherwise perfect experience. Related: Core Members Of Disco Elysium Have "Involuntarily" Left ZA/UM Well sure, yes, it's a game about detectives no doubt, but the investigative elements are totally superficial. Both Harrier "Harry" Du Bois and Kim Kitsuragi (the two leads) are detectives, the plot centres on the investigation of a mysterious murder, and there are no combat or stealth mechanics to speak of. ![]() It's a superbly told and genuinely affecting neo-noir detective story, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a great detective game. I binged the whole thing over a long weekend and I still revisit it from time to time. The characters are complex and flawed, the writing is sophisticated, and the art is breathtaking. Disco Elysium is one of my favourite games of all time.
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