Disco Elysium takes the the classic point and click RPG format and brings it bang up to date. Complex mechanics, peerless writing, an intriguing setting and plenty of dark humour makes the game a pleasure to explore. The story on the surface seems straight forward but contains multiple layers of nuance and the political and social commentary is on-point. The games confident isometric style and detailed environment makes for a graphically stunning game. I wanted to explored every nook and cranny of the beautifully dark and grimy world. The user interface is superb, allowing walls of text and branching decisions to be easily read. It really is a credit to the developers exceptional writing and design choices that such a text focused game remains engaging and well paced throughout. I have some minor criticisms in how the story is wrapped up but these issues are far outweighed by nearly every other aspect of the game. This is the best point and click experience I have ever had and If you are a fan of this type of game then this is masterpiece that cannot be missed.
Occasionally fun but often mundane, The Outer Worlds seems to miss more times than it hits. The writing is consistently good, with a reasonably engaging story and some likeable characters. It's let down though by frustrating and repetitive gameplay that really grates by the end. There is simply not enough variety in the areas, enemies, weapons or story beats. The loot system is irredeemably awful with every area stuffed full of the same crates full of the same junk. You have to ask yourself how any play tester could have said clicking on boxes for hours on end was ever fun. It seems to just be used to pad out the play-time. The world is also strangely lifeless with a lack of cutscenes or animations outside those of NPC's. You never see any ship land or take-off, ones in the sky are just static objects, there are no real set-pieces and the world itself never seems to change dynamically. Although I enjoyed some aspects of my time with the game it's hard to recommend.
A word of warning - the minimum system requirements are simply not adequate to play this game. I've got a 2.7GHz i5, 16GB RAM & 2GB of dedicated graphics but in the lowest graphics settings I still faced single digit frame rates in the later sections of Xen (and a couple of other places). Ignoring performance issues the game is very good. It maintains the feel and pacing of the original while modernising the more dated elements. It's not perfect but I still had great fun. A huge well done and thank you the Crowbar Collective.
Single player campaign review: A short sweet blast from start to finish. The plot revolves around the standard sci-fi macguffin hunt but what it lacks in lore it makes up with gameplay and spectacle. The ammo is nearly unlimited, the grenades are plentiful and the movement is incredible. Simply as good as first person shooters get.
A very short and very sweet metagame. I can't actually say anymore without spoiling it so just go and play... You won't regret it. Afterwards go and learn your fractions with Frog Fractions.
A brilliant Monty Python style point and click adventure with plenty of dark laugh-out-loud humour. The puzzles are both good and logical only sending me, head in shame, to a walkthrough twice. A real gem **** and although short, it is beautifully sweet.
2020 review - Having been excited for its release but giving it a miss due to its early state, I finally dipped in after the last big update this year. 100 hours later and I can say this is a great game and I highly enjoyed my time with it. It revolves around exploration, mining, trading and upgrading while following an interesting and engaging central story. It's a slow burn and not for everyone but other than a few quality of life issues and some areas of repetition I found it a pleasure to play. I look forward to jumping back in when we get another big update.
Well, what can be said. After reaching the west coast i finally put the game down and just watched a video of the ending. I felt taken advantage of, as though the developers aimed to create an insulting but addictive game play loop where each time you are given a small amount of shallow gratification for hours of menial work. Lets just deliver one more package, maybe I will then reach a 'high' and find something more interesting - instead I felt empty. I'm sure some of the better mechanics will influence future games and the world has to be one of the most stunning realisations of Iceland ever seen in video games but its not enough - the game is tedious and insulting to its players.
A highly enjoyable romp with an interesting and engaging story. The web-swinging although somewhat basic is pure fun and the combat system is superb. The combat move set is both deep and complex but the spider-sense dodge mechanic makes it pretty easy once you get the hang of it. The main story is interesting and has lots of good set pieces but is generally pretty superficial which is probably to be expected from a comic book superhero game. The way the city changes throughout the story is excellent though. The stealth missions can get a bit tiresome by the end but i generally enjoyed my time with the main story. The side missions are a different story. They are mostly short, uninteresting and involve similar repetitive tasks. Some try to mix things up but its clear that they simply didn't receive their fair share of developer time. As with nearly all modern open world games there is the standard radio tower climbing, endless collectables and repetitive randomised events but these are generally inoffensive. Overall, it's an enjoyable but somewhat forgettable game that doesn't overstay its' welcome. It has nothing to 'say' and doesn't push any boundaries but is generally fun and well worth playing.
The game is an enjoyable and often beautiful romp but is let down by a number of technical issues. It is often frustrating and simply demonstrates an overall lack of polish. It’s sad to think that the artists and designers that worked hard to create the game had to put out a product they knew was not ready. Although I experienced no game breaking issues the game is plagued by minor issues. The controls in general feel sluggish and imprecise. Ropes, avoiding obstacles while sliding and jumping between balance beams is particularly problematic and I died many frustrating deaths while fighting the controls into doing what I wanted them to do. The AI in general is poor, enemies seemed to lack any communication between themselves and swamp the player from every direction. This makes the parry mechanics hard to manage and you are often struck by one enemy while you are in the animations for attacking another. Enemies seem able to interrupt your animation yet you are often unable to interrupt your own animation. This is very noticeable while entering a run or when performing a dodge. Enemies are also easy to break and ‘cheese’. You will have enemies reach a doorway while attacking only to turn around and ignore you. One particular boss fight you can just walk through a large natural arch and the boss just walks off. The game is at is best when you are left to explore and the soul’s like mechanics work well but in general it needed more time in development. It needed more set pieces, improved combat, less backtracking and better rewards for exploration. Hopefully they will learn from their mistakes and release a better sequel.
This really is one of the best stories I have experienced in a video game and although my last play through was a couple of years ago I still regularly think about the games themes. It's a masterpiece in the way it slowly unravels a complex and engrossing story through the slow drip feed of information. I found the twists and turns of the plot deeply moving and i'm sure i will be thinking about it in years to come. I'm still not sure if the 'monsters' should be in the game. The constant awareness that danger could be round the corner adds hugely to the atmosphere but generally when you meet them it can be frustrating. This should not put anyone off though and if you are a fan of sci-fi this is an essential game to play.
