Incline Disco Elysium - The Final Cut - a hardboiled cop show isometric RPG

[Kem0sabe]

Game has a big problem... too much fucking text. It gets boring and tyring to sit in front of a screen reading text dump after text dump for hours on end.

 

[Haba]

Game has a big problem... too much fucking text. It gets boring and tyring to sit in front of a screen reading text dump after text dump for hours on end.

Don't try to vacuum all the options then. Just go for what you need to do.

 

[Prime Junta]

Game has a big problem... too much fucking text. It gets boring and tyring to sit in front of a screen reading text dump after text dump for hours on end.

Don't try to vacuum all the options then. Just go for what you need to do.

You're also allowed to take breaks.

I'm trying to stick to one game day / one real-life day.

 

[Ezeekiel]

Game has a big problem... too much fucking text. It gets boring and tyring to sit in front of a screen reading text dump after text dump for hours on end.

Depending on your stats you can get anything from fairly straight-forward convos that are over quickly (physical side of things) to endless navelgazing and internal monologues (mental side).
Maybe a different build would make things more palatable for you?
Don't need to exhaust all dialogue options either, if you just want to stick to the investigation part.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

IGN gave the game a 9.6/10:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/10/16/disco-elysium-review

I can't believe my eyes. Not because the game doesn't deserve it, because it's Ian Gaming Network.

 

[Adidas-Clichèd Cringe]

How fast are you guys filling up your Thought Cabinet?

I'm not even halfway through day 2 and only have three empty slots left. Have been getting them so often most of my skill points have gone to unlocking new slots. Not vacuuming all the dialogue and haven't even talked to any of the lorry drivers or shop owners yet.

 

[Tigranes]

I really like how the writing tries hard to make sure that not asking a certain question, or not accepting a sidequest, is presented as appropriate for your character/situation. It encourages you to think of it more as a real life conversation or even just a conversation with a good DM, where you don't sit there covering every single thing again and again.

Now, uh, I am short on money. I knew I shouldn't have bought those pants.

How fast are you guys filling up your Thought Cabinet?

I'm not even halfway through day 2 and only have three empty slots left. Have been getting them so often most of my skill points have gone to unlocking new slots. Not vacuuming all the dialogue and haven't even talked to any of the lorry drivers or shop owners yet.

I'm at the same point and I just have three. I've turned down maybe four or five?

 

[Prime Junta]

The RP possibilities are endless. I just internalised a thought that turned me into David Hasselhoff. +1 to Suggestion if I have both hands free.

 

[vota DC]

I also had an impression that plot-crucial events and dialogues "eat" more from the clock than inane-questioning of less important npc. With an exception of book/file reading that takes more time, but notifies about it in advance.

Writing autopsy take very few time despite you are writing.

 

[Grauken]

The RP possibilities are endless. I just internalised a thought that turned me into David Hasselhoff. +1 to Suggestion if I have both hands free.

That's not real is it?

 

[Prime Junta]

That's not real is it?

Okay maybe not literally David Hasselhoff.

Spoiler

That would be cool though

 

[Rahdulan]

Holy shit, 92 / 100 from PC Gamer...

https://www.pcgamer.com/disco-elysium-review/

IGN gave the game a 9.6/10:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/10/16/disco-elysium-review

I'm amazed even the big boys are all over the game. You'd think it would be under the radar for them.

 

[Optimist]

The RP possibilities are endless. I just internalized a thought that turned me into David Hasselhoff. +1 to Suggestion if I have both hands free.

It's the 'finger pistols' one, right? Does it do anything else?

'Cause for now (about eight hours on my clock, finished the second day) it feels like unlocking slots/ internalizing most thoughts is usually a worse idea than just bumping your skills. One thought gave me +2 to perception (which is really good, especially seeing how it breaks the cap), but the rest are kind of meh. Do they pop up in dialogues, similarly to skills, at least?

 

[Kem0sabe]

For those wanting to edit their save games to fiddle around with stats, number of skill points, money, etc. Very easy...

1. Go to: Users\xxx\AppData\LocalLow\ZAUM Studio\Disco Elysium\SaveGames
2. Open compressed folder for the save file you want to edit
3. Within compressed folder open, with a text editor, the largest of the *.JSON files
4. Your atributes and skills are listed right at the start, edit at will
5. Search for "playerCharacter": { and it will land on your player stats, where you can edit the number of skill points you have available to spend as well as money.
6. Save and exit text editor, then exit zip folder and update the folder when it prompts you to. Load game.

 

[Haba]

How do I get the finger pistols?

 

[Andnjord]

How do I get the finger pistols?

I was able to access it after

Spoiler

talking to the salesman lorry driver and going along with the joke that I was arresting him

 

[GreyViper]

Yeah the PR has been good. Oddly enough I stumbled upon one of the stories on the web radio site. A pleasant surprise to say the least.
https://sky.ee/kaur-kenderi-hiiglas...is-ja-meil-on-selle-kohta-suur-vihje/#RETROFM

 

[Prime Junta]

It's the 'finger pistols' one, right? Does it do anything else?

It is. And I don't know! I'm keen to find out though.

 

[Prime Junta]

Channeling Infinitron

https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/1...s-dragons-experience-for-your-inner-detective

Disco Elysium Is a Dungeons & Dragons Experience for Your Inner Detective
Rolling for success.

By Matt Purslow
Updated Oct. 17, 2019, 12:06 p.m.
Posted Oct. 17, 2019, 11:58 a.m.

For decades, one of the major goals for many video game RPG studios has been to capture the freedom of tabletop role playing games. Without the walls of developer-created player spaces, pre-written dialogue, and inflexible rules, tabletop adventuring is so freeform that it’s practically expressive art. Within a tabletop RPG’s imaginary world, you can be whoever you wa
The latest milestone in this pursuit has been laid by the most unlikely of studios: a tiny team called ZA/UM. It has just released the critically acclaimed Disco Elysium, a murder mystery detective game that beautifully captures the freedom of roleplay by presenting a world that feels as if it has few rules.

That might well be down to the fact that, before it became a video game, Disco Elysium’s world was a custom Dungeons & Dragons setting that ZA/UM had been playing with for more than ten years. As such, it’s unsurprising that it feels so much like a tabletop RPG. But there’s more than just a feeling to all this. Disco Elysium is such a success because it rejects decades of video game RPG design in favour of adapting the essence of what makes tabletop RPGs so interesting: they are a series of complex and interconnected decisions, rather than modes made of binary rules. The majority of video game RPGs are broadly divided into two core components; the ‘role play’ elements in which you talk, explore, and discover, and the action-led combat sequences that come with equal frequency to conversation. But that split is not true for many tabletop games, and that’s where Disco Elysium works its magic.

For starters, violence in Disco Elysium is an oddity, not the norm. Part of this is due to the setting - real detectives are not known for getting into battles with gangs every ten minutes - but this approach also reflects the way in which many gamemasters run their tabletop campaigns. Video game design has traditionally leant into Dungeons & Dragons' epic fantasy, and so we associate RPGs with cutting down legions of orcs and hobgoblins. While D&D has a stronger combat slant than many other pen-and-paper games, a good GM will make violence a terrifying prospect; it’s a major decision for players to make, and one that could leave their characters’ reputation in tatters, their body mauled and irreparable, or even dead for good. On the occasions when a course of violence is presented to your detective, Disco Elysium captures the weight of these decisions.

Disco Elysium is a success because it rejects decades of video game RPG design in favour of adapting what makes tabletop RPGs so interesting: decisions.

In addition, ZA/UM has opted for a consistent, flowing approach to conflict. Punching a person in the face is considered an equal option alongside verbally abusing or even consoling them, and so rather than combat being mode that you enter, it is a decision made through conversation dialogue trees. Selecting them plays beautiful animations that are bespoke to each situation, making violence feel like a shocking - or sometimes deeply hilarious - event rather than simply part of the day-to-day. Additionally, violence comes with a consequence; over in the Forgotten Realms no one is going to care if you’ve butched a dozen Kobolds, but in the city of Revachol a killing is a big deal (you’ve been brought here to solve one, after all), and you’ll have to answer for your actions.

Success in many decisions - violent or otherwise - is dictated by skill check dice rolls. It’s another component of Disco Elysium that makes it feel like a tabletop experience rather than a video game. There’s a real anticipation as you wait for the dice to roll and the screen to either blink green or crack with red light as the result is revealed. So many video game RPGs have hidden these checks behind invisible rolls and seamless dialogue in order to better heighten a sense of realism, so it’s a real treat to have this important part of tabletop gaming make it into Disco Elysium intact.

The stats that dictate your chances of passing a skill check also highlight the game’s link to the tabletop. Rather than the rote RPG staples of dexterity, vitality, and mana, Disco Elysium’s skills are exotic cocktail ingredients pulled from the shelves of an otherworldly pub. Among them are strange delights with names like Inland Empire, Shivers, Physical Instrument, and Conceptualisation. Each one helps you craft a very specific kind of detective - a mastermind investigator, an aggressive interrogator, or even an officer with the apparent ability to sense clues through touch. The vast amount of choice these skills offer reflect the importance of backstory and personality roleplaying in tabletop gaming, where you literally have to become a character, rather than inhabit the shell of one.

Skills are far more than just modifiers for performed actions, though; they’re actually characters within themselves. They literally speak to your character, as if his head is filled with two dozen Jiminy Crickets. Empathy, for example, will chime in mid-conversation and suggest taking it easy on a broken and bruised dock worker. Physical Instrument will coax you into dangerous actions, almost like the red cloak fluttered by a bull-fighting matador. Inland Empire, meanwhile, offers the strangest side of Disco Elysium’s world of personality; a Lynchian sixth sense that allows you to feel rather than think your way through the case. It brings inanimate objects to life, permitting corpses to retell their last moments and items of clothing to insult you.

Your skills literally speak to your character, as if his head is filled with two dozen Jiminy Crickets.

It’s through these character-like skills that Disco Elysium augments the tabletop experience with something only a video game can provide. While a GM could take on the role of your multiple instincts, those voices would have to be heard by the rest of the group, therefore breaking the perfect illusion of a man stuck on the knife edge between functioning and insanity. And, as elegant as your GM may be, they’re likely not capable of spinning quite such fantastic prose on the spot. But by combining the tabletop pedigree of these skills with the unique qualities of a pre-scripted video game, ZA/UM has created something that truly stands out in Disco Elysium.

Thanks to its wonderful writing and deeply political takes on almost any subject it presents you, Disco Elysium will most likely be famed for being the true successor to Planescape: Torment. But I actually think its closest companion is Divinity: Original Sin 2. While the two games have wildly different directions - Divinity is often about finding and subverting the logic in flame-engulfed battles, while Disco Elysium chases a more sombre, twisted reality - they are both united in truly capturing the unpredictability and discovery present in tabletop gaming. And while I love the games that have been created thanks to decades of video game RPG evolution - your Witchers and Skyrims and Mass Effects - I’m incredibly happy that a little part of the development world has dedicated itself to replicating the most old-school method of role play. ZA/UM has set the new bar, but I can’t wait to see what comes next.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Seemed obvious to me from very early on that time advances only when you do stuff, not when running around.

The RP possibilities are endless. I just internalized a thought that turned me into David Hasselhoff. +1 to Suggestion if I have both hands free.

It's the 'finger pistols' one, right? Does it do anything else?

'Cause for now (about eight hours on my clock, finished the second day) it feels like unlocking slots/ internalizing most thoughts is usually a worse idea than just bumping your skills. One thought gave me +2 to perception (which is really good, especially seeing how it breaks the cap), but the rest are kind of meh. Do they pop up in dialogues, similarly to skills, at least?

Some are very good, like the superstar thought that raises learning caps across the board at the expense of only 1 logic point (I think), some are downright useless, and others again are just counterproductive for your build. Since you don't know exactly what they do before internalising them, it's a gamble, albeit one that should be easy to metagame on successive playthroughs, if you go in for that sort of thing.

 

[Prime Junta]

I'm actually looking forward to metagaming and minmaxing this to hell and back again... in later playthroughs.

But right now I'm savouring playing it blind. You can only ever play a game the first time once.

 

[Optimist]

That might well be down to the fact that, before it became a video game, Disco Elysium’s world was a custom Dungeons & Dragons setting that ZA/UM had been playing with for more than ten years.

I honestly had them pegged as more of a GURPS type of people.

Some are very good, like the superstar thought that raises learning caps across the board at the expense of only 1 logic point (I think), some are downright useless, and others again are just useless/counterproductive for your build. Since you don't know exactly what they do before internalising them, it's a gamble, albeit one that should be easy to metagame on successive playthroughs, if you go in for that sort of thing.

Seems like that. I guess I'll focus on skills for now, and come back to thoughts once I'm at comfortable enough levels of proficiency.

 

[CRD]

Does it change the game a lot choosing one archetype or another?

I mean, is it obligatory to go with thinker as it was for example on pst with high int to not lose all the lore, or you can go with sensitive or whatever and have a fair run?

 

[Prime Junta]

I honestly had them pegged as more of a GURPS type of people.

Marat Sar collects tabletop games. I think he's played all of them. He also somewhat eccentrically uses "D&D" as a synonym for PnP RPG-ing in general so I don't even know if their "D&D campaign" was actually technically D&D. Kasparov ? Kras Mazov ?

 

[Prime Junta]

Does it change the game a lot choosing one archetype or another?

I mean, is it obligatory to go with thinker as it was for example on pst with high int to not lose all the lore, or you can go with sensitive or whatever and have a fair run?

It changes a hell of a lot, and whatever you pick, you're guaranteed to miss something.

If you're a lorefag, go with high Intellect. Don't expect to have much of a love life though.