Disco Elysium – First Introvert RPG
Attention, non -critical gameplay (if you can put it at all) spoilers to Disco Elysium, so continue at your own risk
What is Neksten Game? For some reason, everyone says about some kind of ephemeral new generation, but everyone means different. For some, a new generation of games is correlated with the new generation of consoles-better graphics, quick downloads, and even ray tracing. This, of course, is cool, but in fact the above improvements are not some kind of tearing the realities of innovations that fundamentally change the game experience and/or make it unique.
Someone will say that the games of the new generation are games in virtual reality. Here everything is in place: a unique game experience, and a change of user perspective, and previously unprecedented opportunities for the interaction of a player with a virtual environment. Take one Half-Life: Alyx. It is difficult to argue with those who consider this game to be nonsense, because taking Hedkrab into their own hands or solving a mystery, turning his own head is really so interesting, but for me personally, the problem of buried in the game design, which is not too much and differs too much from modern everyday life.
There are a lot of good and innovative games, but so that the “new generation” is more complicated here. Therefore, it becomes only more amazing that some unknown Estonian Indie Studio ZA/UM managed to make RPG with the genre that no one has succeeded, probably, the transition of role-playing games to a full-fledged 3D: to create a real game of the new generation from the point of view of gamdescine and game experience, because Disco Elysium is the first introverted RPG.
Since I am going to concentrate on the role system of the game, I will not pay special attention to its other advantages, such as an exciting narrative, excellent stylized graphics and so on, but it is still necessary to give a certain plot introductory: in one of the dysfunctional areas of the city of Revashol, a murder occurred and it will have to be investigated by a “brilliant” policeman … which was not only drunk before the memory of memory of memory of memoryAnd sometimes he has to explain the most basic concepts of modern reality like money and books, so he also lost all his property, starting with a token and ending with a gun.
However, which is much more important, our detective would not be so “brilliant”, if not for 24 votes in his head, which are local skills. The inner empire, for example, is the imagination of a character that allows him to talk with the elements of the environment, clothes, corpses, and also in every possible way tries to direct him to the path of expressiveness and self -expression. It looks like this – the main character approaches to examine the microphone for karaoke, after which an inner voice turns to him, which says: “Listen, you must sing and pour out your rich soul the size of the ocean! Just give some sad song, otherwise funny for suckers. You just found a package from a cassette with a suitable song – you will find the cassette itself and sing!”.
Of course, the player maximalwins.co.uk can abandon the sentence, but who in their right mind will do so? Similarly, in dialogs or simply when examining objects, other skills can also intervene in your stream of thoughts: for example, the encyclopedia recalled some well-known fact in this world or self-control has noticed uncertainty in the gait of the suspect. However, skills do not work by pike command, but depending on the pumping. So, the low parameter of logic will not allow your character to draw the simplest conclusions, and the absence of pumped resistance will make the hero more than once devastate the contents of his stomach at the sight of the corpse.
And it is at this moment that Disco Elysium brings another unexpected turn into this system – too strongly developed skills can also have a negative effect. One of the most striking such examples is found almost at the very beginning of the game: passing by a spilled bottle of wine, improved electrochemistry (is responsible for the knowledge of the character in the field of drugs, alcohol and other carnal pleasures, as well as for addiction to them) will begin to obsessively try to try alcohol and only the willpower will be able to resist the seductive whisper of alcohol and without the back of thoughtBottles.
Oh yes, I forgot the most important, the skills also interact with each other! They can argue, both in the last example and supplement each other. The encyclopedia usually goes hand in hand with other skills, providing the hero and player with additional information, but authority and empathy will often have opposite opinions: “This granny is shaking because it hides important evidence or simply because it is afraid of a formidable policeman?”
It is important to stop for a second and pay attention to the role systems of other games. Take, for example, a loved one beloved by many, a witcher 3. The whole wagging in it is essentially limited by periodic elections in dialogs, most of which do not affect anything at all. Yes, depending on the user’s solutions, the fate of both the main character and the world around him will change, but the player is purely physically unable to at least somehow influence the nature of the witcher Geralt, his worldview. White Wolf is a registered character who can make decisions himself, participate in conversations, to exist without any narrative participation of the player. The gameplay wig, at the same time, supports the same thought, not allowing to move too far from a predetermined archetype.
But okay, you can take a game more similar to Disco Elysium – Tyranny. Also isometric RPG with a strong emphasis on the narrative and play. However, here we are faced with a situation opposite the Witcher – the main character, the name of the fate, is inseparable from the player. He has no character, no emotions, there is no story, and the entire thought center is located in the user’s head. This hero is actually not a character, representing a certain interface, a layer between the player and his virtual environment. The ruler is a tool that allows the user to interact with the world of the game, a doll that adopts from a higher instance character, worldview, moral compass.
Creating a character in Tyranny
Creating a character in Tyranny
Creating a character in Tyranny
Creating a character in Tyranny
I could give more examples, but, it seems to me, the pattern is already quite clear: games (at least RPG), by their nature, extrovert, they are concentrated on the player’s interaction, with the help of a protagonist, with everything, except for, directly, a controlled character. Exactly in this aspect, Disco Elysium makes a real revolution, allowing the main character to interact with himself with the help of a player. Despite the fact that the user makes most decisions himself, his perception completely and completely depends on the perception of the character, which, in turn, is built precisely with the help of the development of the player of skills. Due to the game features, the player receives almost all the information about the direct environment of the hero through the prism of the detective and the thoughts that come to his head, the conclusions that he draws, relying on his skills. This creates an unprecedented connection between the user and the character, when the hero is not just a unilateral tool, but the character, the development of which is directed by the player and affects further game experience. That is, while in all other extrovert games, the user interacts only with the world around the world, the introvert Disco Elysium allows the player to turn to the inner world of the protagonist.
This system, in my opinion, reaches its climax during one of the interrogations. The detective asks a pretty suspect girl questions, she answers them. Empathy draws attention to the fact that at the mention of the deceased’s gaze, sadness appears, so she is unlikely to be a killer. Drama (is responsible for lies and its recognition) reports that the girl is worried, but in general everything is within the normal range. Logic discovers that some testimonies do not converge, but they do not concern things. Even the perception, who had previously discovered drugs from the girl, does not notice any special features in the facial facial expressions. However, at the end of the interrogation, among the answer options, the legendary verification of the will of will “look into her eyes” appears. With failure, willpower will simply say that the girl is really beautiful. But with success, it turns out terrible – you like the suspect! And I don’t just like it: because of this, while communicating with her, your skills fail, because of which the player post-factor finds out that the whole interrogation of the character’s skills gave the desired for the real one, and did not tell the truth, thereby, in fact, canceling any value. This moment most clearly shows a special connection between the player and the detective, because both find themselves in the same situation thanks to both of them – yes, the hero liked the girl without the participation of the player, but it was with the help of the user that the character understood this and now they both realize that they cannot be trusted, although they rely on them earlier.
It turns out that the whole game is a protagonist and player together digging in the head of the protagonist in order to reveal the murder, solve the mystery, adequately and effectively conduct interrogation in the end, affect the perception of each other with the help of skills (the player directs their development, the character interprets the information obtained), which makes the Disco Elysium a real role -playing game of a new generation, which, unlike everyone, is, unlike allthe rest, is the first truly introvert RPG and one of the most important, if not at all, then decades for sure.
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