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

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USGamer believes that The Outer Worlds represents RPG's of the past while Disco Elysium represents its future.

Disco Elysium covers more than a single block, but it feels dense, with every interaction impacting the story in some manner, even if that's not entirely apparent in a single run. It's a vast Jenga tower, and every piece is important. That smug, clearly-high child you meet in the early hours may be the lynchpin to the case, or a punk you had to shut up with your fist. You determine the direction you go, and the game is very responsive to even your smallest actions.

It's this depth that makes Disco Elysium such a revelation, and it's changing the conversation around another recent RPG: Obsidian Entertainment's The Outer Worlds. Like a few other reviewers, I played Disco Elysium and The Outer Worlds back-to-back. The Outer World is a throwback to Obsidian's Fallout: New Vegas, which itself was a throwback to the original Fallout. The quests offer a number of choices, but the outcome is fairly localized. Skills allow you to navigate through conversations, but it's a rigid binary: either you have the skill level to pass a persuasion or intimidation check, or you don't. If you do, it works every time. The Outer Worlds is an older, standard style of RPG, executed to a high degree.

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Can't bothered to read an article with that level of stupidity in its title.

That said, I certainly don't hope Disco Elysium represents the future of CRPGs.

That would kill my interest in the genre.

Also, I'm pretty sure it doesn't.

Beyond that, Disco is - if anything - a throwback to an even more distant past, including Torment and choose your own adventure book-style games.

It seems to be a game that's unaware of what computers can actually do, meaning it feels like something that belongs in the 80s or 90s.

At least, to me it does.
 
Excuse me I cant stop laughing as this whole article is hilarious.:lol:
 
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I still have to shake my head when I read "Disco Elysium", because all of the time I must think of disco music - so, this title essentially means to me : "Sacred Dance Hall".
 
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I still have to shake my head when I read "Disco Elysium", because all of the time I must think of disco music - so, this title essentially means to me : "Sacred Dance Hall".
Elysium is the name of the fantasy world that the game takes place in. And disco music is involved in the game. So your notion isn't 100% wrong :lol:

Anyway, I wouldn't say Disco Elysium feels anything like a "choose-your-own adventure" or whatever. In fact, it doesn't play much differently than Torment: Tides of Numenera from a couple of years ago. That game did have combat, but not many fights and they were all stupidly easy.

The article title is obviously clickbait but it does have some truth to it. Disco Elysium does a lot of cool and new things, or at least it excels at certain things to an extent no other game has. Outer Worlds, well…no.
 
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These articles fail to realize there are no perfect RPGs. Also cant compare a game like Disco Elysium to The Outer Worlds. Completely different and targeting different audiences.

It's like putting a classical music fan into a live metal concert.:lol:
 
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All the stuff that Disco Elysium does so amazingly could also be done that well inside of a game like Outer Worlds too, if they put the attention and effort into it. And had people good enough to make it happen. I think that's the point of the article. Not that combat-free RPGs are the future, just that RPGs need to step up to this next-level story/choices quality that Disco Elysium has demonstrated.
 
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Well people also fail to realize The Outer Worlds is not a big budget RPG either. It was planned and started development to be similar to the KOTOR RPGs. They succeeded.

It's also outselling Disco Elysium and earned a larger future sequel.

So not denying Obsidian could learn but hey sales speak louder then taste.:)
 
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I would have to agree with Couch here :)

That said, I'm very happy that Disco appeals so greatly to so many people.

There's no way I would let my own preferences get in the way of how other people enjoy their game reading.

But, the future of CRPGs? Come on now.
 
It's also outselling Disco Elysium and earned a larger future sequel.
It'd be selling a lot better (and reviewed a lot better) if it had Disco Elysium quality story/choices/etc…again, that's the point.

If you want to bring up money, well, the guys in the small team who made Disco Elysium will probably all be newly-minted millionaires when all is said and done here, while the guys who made Outer Worlds will keep working their day jobs for standard salary. The advantage of taking risks and creating something truly unique and excellent.
 
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Ah the age old indie developer becomes millionaire trope.:lol:
 
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I don't think Outer Worlds would sell better with Disco writing, not at all.

Disco is extremely stylized in that way - and I very much doubt it would match the sort of mainstream experience that Outer Worlds represents.

The run-of-the-mill combat-oriented gameplay of TOW would clash rather significantly with the absurdly opaque and involved writing of Disco. It would interrupt the flow significantly.

Also, there's a reason so much of Disco isn't voiced - as real people don't speak in deliberately obtuse for-effect sentences.

There's a huge difference between critical acclaim and mainstream appeal - usually.

Disco is a hyped up game based on being unique much more so than having a particularly wide appeal.

If you think the average mainstream gamer would bother to read/listen to that much text, you're kidding yourself.

In fact, I think the average gamer would prefer to stay far away from it, though I could be wrong.
 
Hopefully there will be more games like Disco Elysium in the future. I love this game and for me it's very mich different than Torment: Tides of Numenera, which was not able to grab me. Disco Elysium has the way more convincing world.

Regarding the The Outer Worlds: the colorful comical art style is enough to keep me away from this game.

Regarding the article: Why can't be both types of games be the future? The more different games are from each other, the better - at least for me.
Games can learn a lot from Disco Elysium (especially games in iso perspective): immersion, world build and story telling are wonderful. But this certainly works best for people who already love to read books and are willing to read a lot of text.
 
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so pleasing to see peoples values shift.
please yes, hope old rpgs die )
their fighting and world building is so mediocre
 
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Regarding the The Outer Worlds: the colorful comical art style is enough to keep me away from this game.

There's nothing comical about the art style in TOW. It's more like a colorful Art Deco, and it's actually quite good for the most part. It reminds me of the Bioshocks in some ways, and I'm a big fan of those games. I find it a lot more appealing than the drab, mediocre art in Disco Elysium.
 
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A professional writer wants to promote a medium that increases the value of professional writers? Shocked I am, shocked I tell ya ;)
 
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I still have to shake my head when I read "Disco Elysium", because all of the time I must think of disco music - so, this title essentially means to me : "Sacred Dance Hall".

:lol: Nailed it, exactly what I thought.

This title of a rpg game is so ridiculous that it immediately put me off the game. Call me shallow - whatever - but it did. And then I saw the graphics and read about how the game plays and I knew it was not a game I would enjoy. Anyway, your post was so on point with my own reaction I had to comment.
 
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2077 is the future. :p

Outer Worlds is just bland and poorly designed. Also leaves impression, Cain&Boyarsky were afraid of "overreaching", considering how it ended with Troika.

I agree though on ( binary) skill checks: the most banal and uninteresting form of "challenge". It should provide degree of additional info, while leaving ultimate decision making in hands of player ( agency).
 
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Outer Worlds is just bland and poorly designed. Also leaves impression, Cain&Boyarsky were afraid of "overreaching", considering how it ended with Troika.

Eh? TOW is a lot of things, but I wouldn't call it bland. I do agree that many of the quests are poorly designed though.

The problem is that you're told exactly what to do and how to do it in most cases. They leave nothing for the player to figure out on their own.

It's a far cry from games like Fallout and Arcanum. Unfortunately, the vast majority of modern games are the same in that way.

I like the style and atmosphere though, and it has decent exploration. If not for those things it might be pretty bad.
 
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