Disco Elysium: The Final Cut – Review

Disco Elysium is a masterpiece.

If I’m being honest, I’m not much of a fan of RPGs, but I do love old-fashioned point-and-click adventure games like Grim Fandango. I’m also a fan of more modern narrative-based games in general, such as Life is Strange, and anything that Supermassive Games produces. It took me a while to decide to buy this game, and once the price was right (under £15) I bit – I bit hard. The Final Cut edition was a must for me as it is 99% voice acted as I knew it would add so much to the experience.

The graphics are beautiful, almost like a painting, and the music by the British band Sea Power fits perfectly. The voice acting – by heavens – is phenomenal. There are over a million spoken words in this game, and every character is distinct and believable. Now the script is deep, and you can lose yourself down many rabbit holes of information overload, and this is where it may lose some gamers. If you’re not happy to spend 80% of your time listening and reading, this game is probably not for you. Personally, I didn’t think it would be for me, but it gripped me, and I couldn’t let go.

Story-wise, you wake up half naked in the middle of a trashed hotel room. You have no idea who you are, what you do, or what happened. Drink, drugs, and whatever else has ruined you. You don’t know what the local currency is, heck you don’t even recall the concept of money. Slowly but surely, you piece things together – you’re a cop, and a body is hanging from a tree outside after an apparent lynching, and it’s down to you and your partner to investigate.

There’s a lot going on here. Politics, cultures, and even the paranormal if you look hard enough. Your inner thoughts speak to you constantly. Dice rolls affect your decisions, which you can boost with skill points and thoughts that you have internalised over time. Not everything is explained however, and your hand isn’t held at the start. It wasn’t until I died following verbal abuse from a child, that I realised how fragile your character had become. One tip – save often, especially at the start, I lost an hour of gameplay between autosaves – I wasn’t happy, but I learned.

I put a lot of time into this game and was gripped until the end. Immediately I wanted to start again and change my initial character stats to play it completely differently. I know there is a lot that I haven’t seen, and the replayability is high. And as for your partner Kim, he’s wonderful and I kept trying to please him – I certainly want to see how the big event towards the end of the game could go differently.

I played Disco Elysium on the PS4 and it’s truly a modern classic. Once I get a PS5, I’ll play the free upgrade as well. Simply amazing. One of my favourite games of the year. A worthy Bafta winner.