Opinion - The Outer Worlds is RPG's Past, Disco Elysium is Its Future

I recently finished Disco Elysium. I thought it was great, really well-written, extremely funny in parts, extremely thoughtful and thought-provoking in others, dripping with faint melancholy, excellent/fitting music, and just sort of evoked a wide array of emotions in the right order throughout the experience. The extremely frequent skill checks, the interplay between all of your skills and traits (and even items in some cases), and myriad of different ways the game can be played and situations can be dealt with was all very refreshing, and something I hadn't really seen before to this level of mastery in craftsmanship. The game also has an interesting hand-drawn look with a color palette fitting with the game's overall ambiance.

As for DE being the future of RPG's - in the above ways, I agree that it could be and would absolutely embrace it!

That said, there are also ways in which DE is dreadfully dated and probably should not be representative of the future. Namely, trekking back and forth was sometimes grating. At one point, I was sent on a quest to receive an item on the other side of the map. I traveled across the map, did what I thought I was supposed to do, only to find out that when I returned that I misunderstood precisely what item I was expected to retrieve, and had to do it all over again. While it's not a huge map, the problem is compounded by the interface, since pointing and clicking is the only way to move, and you can't hold down the mouse to button or use any keyboard commands to move your character (in other words, a lot of clickity clickity clickity). The way the game progresses is interesting - time only passes through conversations or by reading books - but at times it seemed like I was just seeking out people to blather with just to pass the time and progress the game forward. Minor complaint I suppose, but something that could be improved. One final way I think DE should not represent the future is with voiced dialog. There is a lot of reading, which is fine. But the voice acting present in the game is soooo good, I would really like to see it all voiced, including narration, a la D:OS 2.

Overall, great game and I'm glad I played it. I'm actually really surprised reading some of the strange hostility towards this game at the Watch, it seems like a game that this community would want to rally behind. Then again, seems some people are never satisfied. I will be tackling The Outer Worlds next, so will have more to say about how the article characterizes it in a month or two (I'm a big fan of Obsidian, so I doubt I will see it the same way as the article).
 
Last edited:
Joined
Sep 16, 2011
Messages
791
Overall, great game and I'm glad I played it. I'm actually really surprised reading some of the strange hostility towards this game at the Watch, it seems like a game that this community would want to rally behind. Then again, seems some people are never satisfied. I will be tackling The Outer Worlds next, so will have more to say about how the article characterizes it in a month or two (I'm a big fan of Obsidian, so I doubt I will see it the same way as the article).

I think hostility is the wrong word. I think there's been an adverse reaction to some of the overly praising reviews that, imo, are exaggerating how good DE is.

I think DE is a good game that will strongly appeal to certain people, but these reviews giving it 10/10 and acting like it's the new holy grail of crpgs are pure bunk.

Personally, I have a hard time even considering it an RPG. To me, it's an Adventure game with some RPG elements. That said, it's only my opinion, and I have no problem with other people calling it an RPG.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,129
Location
Florida, US
@JDR13; It's definitely an adventure game. Lots of story paths and choices are not mutually exclusive to an RPG and all that jazz. The developers had to sell their game however and so they are not going to call it an adventure game no matter how much it largely is.
 
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
Messages
9,312
Location
New Zealand
@JDR13 It's definitely an adventure game. Lots of story paths and choices are not mutually exclusive to an RPG and all that jazz. The developers had to sell their game however and so they are not going to call it an adventure game no matter how much it largely is.
Sounds about right so allow me to agree as well.:nod:

I brought this up in another thread about journalists and developer's stating a game is inspired by another RPG classic. When if fact it has nothing in common with said game.

It's just a way to get attention and money from fans.

* Not calling DE a bad game just agree with JDR.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,178
Location
Spudlandia
I think it has a lot of point and click adventure game qualities, but considering the dependency on your skills and how you've developed your character in what your options are (both in terms of story results and with dialog options), it screams RPG-first, adventure-second to me. To me, that is the essence of "role-playing", be who you want, and have resulting impact on the narrative.

I would think the above is exactly where the comps to Planescape: Torment come from. While the two games are pretty different in plenty of other ways, in that way they are very similar. Outside of a handful of (for the most part unnecessary) combat scenes in P:T, what would you say qualifies P:T as 'a definitive RPG' (assuming you do, like most people) and DE as adventure?

Edit: You're right, 'hostility' may have been a strong word, but there certainly has been an adverse reaction here since its release. I take the opposite stance - I am happy to see an indie studio make this type of game to such acclaim. I want to see more of its ilk. I think in a lot of ways (but certainly not all ways), it *is* a step in the right direction for RPG's. I thought the Watch might share my take a little more, as it seems like I align with community sentiment here a little more, generally.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Sep 16, 2011
Messages
791
I definitely share your approval and adulation for Disco Incline, rossjensen. I really love the game and found it one of the most well written RPGs just about ever, up there certainly with PS:T (among other similarities between the two.) Can't wait to see what DLC they cook up and a possible sequel. They are an extremely promising studio team imo.
 
Joined
Sep 5, 2018
Messages
1,603
So I played a few hours Outer Worlds now, man this is boring and shallow. One problem is the difficulty. I ran amok on the groundbreaker and no one could stop me...i even did not even really level my char, nor was i focusing on got equipment. But I must say it is a little bit better then Greedfall.
 
Joined
Nov 12, 2019
Messages
2
Back
Top Bottom