If you'll pardon the ASMR whispering in the video, this Disco Elysium trailer finally gives me an idea of what the heck Disco Elysium is even about. First off, it's a fantasy-fiction detective RPG, which throws me for a loop from the beginning. I mean, I'm attempting to break into this whole "urban fantasy" genre by reading Roger Zelazny's The Chronicles of Amber. Though I'm not going to pretend like The Lord of the Rings and Dick Tracy naturally go hand in hand in my mind. But hey, what are we here for if we're not here to see something new once in a while?
So, now that I've got a handle on urban fantasy, let's take a look at that name, shall we? Disco Elysium. Kind of awesome, right? I get what Elysium is getting at. It's part of Greek mythology's afterlife. It's located in the western ocean at the end of the earth, and Disco Elysium will, at some point, get you from the streets to the beaches. Your main and sideline detective missions take place within a city called Revachol, which doesn't roll off the tongue at all until you take it to an anagram de-scrambler and hypothesize that Revachol can also be rearranged to spell "cholera." Just kidding. It's missing a "V."
You play a disgraced lieutenant—trust me, the guy looks like a scumbag—where corruption runs rampant, murders go unsolved, "and the kids just wanna dance." I guess that's the disco part of Disco Elysium. Your skill set is purportedly pretty unique, digging into your innermost feelings, doubts, and memories, as opposed to, say, reloading your gun 10% faster or whatever boring nonsense a run-of-the-mill RPG would come up with in its place. And it looks like you can go Renegade or Paragon during your playthrough. You can be the good cop or the bad cop. Or both, perhaps.
I don't know, color me curious. If nothing else, I'm absolutely okay with the very painted-looking backdrops. Like, you can almost see the oil paints drying on the canvas on these scenes.
Disco Elysium hits the dance floor on October 15. We might have to get a closer look at this one for review.
