While you’re at it, you can dress Harry up in some rather nice jackets. This motif of multiplicity is underscored by the moments when the player can choose from multiple names that Harry might go by. In addition to the multiple fragments of Harry’s internal world, there are multiple possible external Harries that can be enacted their seeds can be found scattered through the game’s quests, and it is up to the player to allow them to flourish or wither. But player choices do have an effect on Harry’s character, accounted for by the game’s system of allocating points to different “cop-o-types” and political philosophies, as well as a structure called the “thought cabinet” that gradually builds an inventory of ideas that influence Harry’s skills and dialogue. This isn’t quite true: the protagonist is far from silent, and although the player shapes him to a significant extent, we also, through the ways we learn about his past and through the ensemble cast of voices in his head that speak on behalf of his various skills, get to know a man who has already been shaped by his circumstances, and yet has lost himself to them.īy the time we start trying to mould him, it is to some extent too late. I assumed at first that his amnesia was a simple narrative conceit by developers ZA/UM, a way of making him a blank slate for the player to turn into whoever they would like to roleplay. Rather, it’s an investigation of ideas, of the way we think, of power and privilege, and of how all of us are shaped, with varying degrees of autonomy, by the society we find ourselves in.Disco Elysium‘s Harry DuBois does not know who he is. Critic David Wildgoose said it is "a mad, sprawling detective story where the real case you've got to crack isn't who killed the man strung up on a tree in the middle of town-though that in itself, replete with dozens of unexpected yet intertwined mysteries and wild excursions into the ridiculous, is engrossing enough to sustain the game. In our Disco Elysium review the game was awarded a rare 10/10. If you haven't already checked out Disco Elysium, you should. Be sure to subscribe to GameSpot on YouTube to see more episodes as they’re released every Sunday. Both of these episodes are available on YouTube. Game director Mikael Kasurinen shows exactly how Remedy executed the memorable sequence from one of 2019's best games. Episode 2, meanwhile, is a deep dive into Control's Ashtray Maze. The season began with legendary developers Hideo Kojima and Yoji Shinkawa breaking down a pivotal scene from Death Stranding. This is the third episode in Audio Logs Season 2 and, if you haven't already, make sure to watch the first two. Needless to say, this is a must-watch episode of Audio Logs, whether you've played Disco Elysium or not. He also talks about some of the ideas he'd like to explore in future projects, offering a tantalizing tease of what we could see next from 2019's breakout studio. He has some fascinating insights into player behavior and the tendencies of modern-day video game players. However, Disco Elysium's devs decided to mix things up and it found inspiration in Twitter, of all things.īeyond the design of the game itself, this episode is a look into Kurvitz himself, who has been building the world and lore of Disco Elysium for years. Among these is the way text is displayed on-screen, which-as genre enthusiasts will know-hasn't changed all that much since the early days of CRPGs. Kurvitz also discusses some of the other design decisions Studio ZU/AM made to modernize the CRPG genre. ![]() Needless to say, realizing it on-screen and as a core part of how the player progresses through the game and develops their character proved to be a challenge.ĭisco Elysium designer and writer Robert Kurvitz breaks down the creation of the Thought Cabinet in this episode, describing it as a "quagmire" feature that almost sunk the entire project. ![]() At its simplest, the Thought Cabinet gives the player insight into the mind of Disco Elysium's main character, but-as with real people-the mind is a complicated, messy, and often chaotic place. It's easy to forget that this is Studio ZA/UM's first game, especially when you encounter something like the Thought Cabinet-the subject of this episode of Audio Logs. At the same time, Disco Elysium is remarkably ambitious, offering players an incredible amount of freedom to define their character and role-play. Whether it's the striking watercolor acid trip aesthetic, the moody and melancholic music, dense lore, or satisfyingly verbose writing, there's a lot to get caught up in. Who would have thought that, in a year with game releases from Nintendo, From Software, Remedy Entertainment, Capcom, Respawn, and numerous other well-known studios, a CRPG from a small, unknown team would become one of the most talked-about titles of 2019?ĭisco Elysium is a game that commands attention.
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