Disco Elysium - What kind of cop are you? - OFFICIAL SA Game of the Year

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Disco Elysium - What kind of cop are you? - OFFICIAL SA Game of the Year

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Foglet: Jun 17, 2014; Reality is an illusion.
The universe is a hologram.
Buy gold.

Palpek posted:

The tag already got uploaded:

I'll just ring it up for anybody who quotes this post in the next day or so.

It being applied to an account depends on admin reaction time though (or you can buy an av with it added in img tags in the text field if you don't want to wait).

Hope it�s not too late?

# ? Nov 10, 2019 12:03

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 21:34

Horizon Burning: Oct 23, 2019

Foglet posted:

Hope it�s not too late?

Day does not mean week, friend.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 12:40

Foglet: Jun 17, 2014; Reality is an illusion.
The universe is a hologram.
Buy gold.

Horizon Burning posted:

Day does not mean week, friend.

Yeah, saw the �cutoff point� post soon afterwards.
...So sorry!

# ? Nov 10, 2019 12:43

Manic_Misanthrope: Jul 1, 2010

Just found that drat traffic hooligan on the third day.

I'm the drat traffic hooligan

# ? Nov 10, 2019 13:16

Anime Schoolgirl: Nov 28, 2002

Horizon Burning posted:

Day does not mean week, friend.

my house flooded during the entire time i could have gotten this tag

:rip:

# ? Nov 10, 2019 13:59

Songbearer: Jul 12, 2007; Fuck you say?

Anime Schoolgirl posted:

my house flooded during the entire time i could have gotten this tag

If you did not live on the street during this time, can you really call yourself a hobocop?

# ? Nov 10, 2019 14:22

Jeza: Feb 13, 2011; The cries of the dead are terrible indeed; you should try not to hear them.

Playing this now, not very far in yet, but I can't tell you how loving refreshing it is to play a game with good writing once more. Pillars of Eternity really bummed me out with regards to having a well-written RPG revival (I know that may not be a popular take). I was wondering if the parallels to Planescape would be overblown in the same way as PoE was to BG, but in this case, it's absolutely an incredible love-letter to Planescape as well as being awesome in it's own right.

I actually died within 60 seconds of starting the game by having a heart attack, so that's A+ from me.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 14:59

Volte: Oct 4, 2004; woosh woosh

Jeza posted:

I actually died within 60 seconds of starting the game by having a heart attack, so that's A+ from me.

Happened to me too. I thought it was funny but I wasn't super thrilled that it didn't even save my game or character so I had to redo character creation. A minor inconvenience but still, :rip:

original Harry. Who knows what you might have been...

I loved the game, and I was primed for a second playthrough right up until the final act when I found out that loving up the case and missing the clues to the actual killer is just part of the story and you can't actually do any better given hindsight. If there had been some way to sequence break and get to the island early (even through some unlikely sequence of events, or even something that you can't possibly know until your second playthrough) I would have started a new playthrough immediately. I thought it was a bit contrived that searching the island for bullet traces was a quest objective all along, but you don't actually have any opportunity to look into getting there until after Joyce and her boat are conveniently gone. I actually spent quite awhile trying to get to the island before triggering the tribunal because I thought that was going to be the point at which I drop the knowledge bomb and diffuse the situation. I guess I don't know for a fact that you can't do that, but that's what seems to be the case from what I've read.

As it is though, I did all of the quests I could find except the church raver one since I couldn't find the final HARDER CORE tape in time for the tribunal, and since I don't think things could have turned out much better in the end, I'm just going to move on to a different game and come back to this one someday when it's not so fresh in my mind.

It's probably an unpopular opinion but I also wish that there was less reliance on RNG. I don't mind the crapshoots for low-probability stuff that you most likely wouldn't be able to pull off (and I pulled off a few of those, which felt good), but I will admit to savescumming whenever I failed a check that was like 70% likely or more. I know you can always "fail forward" but for the most part it never seemed much different than just not trying in the first place and doing the non-skillcheck route. If I were playing a dynamic tabletop game the RNG would be appreciated, but in a largely static game that I'm only really planning on playing once or twice, being able to experience the outcomes of my particular choices is one of the main appeals. For example, during the tribunal there are two or three red skill checks that you can use to try to diffuse the situation, and they were all highly likely for me due to my choices (lots of +1s from my actions), but I ended up failing them all and botching the whole situation. I know I could have kept going but it felt bad to spend the entire game preparing for that situation, unlocking the ability to pull it off, and then not being able to see the outcome because of RNG. I reloaded and made the exact same choices and ended up with a much different outcome that I felt like I had earned. Some kind of mode (even if it's called "easy mode" or something, my pride can take it!) where skill checks saturate to 100% likely above a certain threshold (like 50% or 60%) would have increased my enjoyment I think.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 15:36

The Saddest Rhino: Apr 29, 2009; Put it all together.
Solve the world.
One conversation at a time.

Lil Swamp Booger Baby posted:

You're looking at this too clinically. The Pale's primary purpose is thematic. Disco Elysium's world is a decaying one that is falling apart and diminishing as its inhabitants dwell in an idealized past even as they suffer and moulder because of that past. The Union and Wild Pines is ultimately the past repeating itself, hence the premonitions that the ultimate result will be the city getting blown to poo poo again as the "new Communards" head up against the "new Fascists."

It's a story that's about the recursive nature of things, both political and emotional. Harry is consumed by his past even as he has had all notions of it wiped clean, but he can't avoid it, it's coming back to him. It takes shape in gum wrappers, the smell of apricots, in phone numbers stored in his muscle memory and the consequences of his past deeds. Just like Harry, the world is consistently trying to forget but coming into constant conflict with the past.

The Pale is that past catching up with us, it's what was destroying what is. It's age old enmity making modern cooperation impossible, it's a several year dead relationship poisoning the mind of a man who tried his hardest to forget. It's that first drink you took on the path to alcoholism. It's when the Coalition came to wipe away the revolutionaries seemingly destined to happen all over again.

There are two people you meet who are wholly consumed by the past, the Paledriver, and the Communist at the end, both of them are a stark contrast to Harry who is essentially a newborn with a genetic, instinctual memory of some life before, but almost entirely, purely existing in a world of now. They are people who purely exist, and are incapable, of escaping from the past. The Communist's entire identity crumbles when the one thing keeping him anchored to the modern world, love, lust, and the neurological effects of the phasmid, is severed. As soon as those passionate, immediate feelings are taken away, he is nothing.

The plot is based around people avoiding or being subsumed by their past. The Pale is that concept manifest. In order for the world of Elysium to work, people need to fall apart in that strange void for the benefit of others, there is no world that isn't built on the suffering of the past, there is no ignoring that world and there is no progress if you just live in that world. Harry tried to ignore it AND obsess over it. He's the two methods brought to a head, combined, they cancelled out and created nothingness, a being of pure and utter now.

Hence the phasmid, hence a creature that only lives in the now, only capable of perceiving a now. No wonder Harry saw it, no wonder Harry was the miracle, he created a freak accident of self annihilation that allowed him to see the world as a several meter tall insect would. Instinctual, no past, no future, just now. Seeing things for what they are, context removed, only living with the face value of things, and what you feel in the moment. No one else saw the phasmid until that moment because no one else shared its view of the world. Kim saw it because he had you, learned from you, as insane as it was. You, a being of utter insanity, are the one who set up the dance club. Harry is nothing but now, all the time. Super hardcore.

drat, this puts Joyce's parting lines (voiced) calling you insane so much more poignant

# ? Nov 10, 2019 15:46

Sekenr: Dec 12, 2013

SexyBlindfold posted:

You can get him to tell you why he *thinks* he did it. Might want to double check with your bug pal, though.

Heavy spoilers: Phasmid's pheromones are a neurotoxin that makes people forget that they saw it. Prolonged exposure to Phasmid destroys your brain and they lived together for years. He formed an unhealthy obession to Klaasje (and Rene I guess) and wanted to punish her while also killing her lover

# ? Nov 10, 2019 16:33

Sekenr: Dec 12, 2013

Lil Swamp Booger Baby posted:

You're looking at this too clinically. The Pale's primary purpose is thematic. Disco Elysium's world is a decaying one that is falling apart and diminishing as its inhabitants dwell in an idealized past even as they suffer and moulder because of that past. The Union and Wild Pines is ultimately the past repeating itself, hence the premonitions that the ultimate result will be the city getting blown to poo poo again as the "new Communards" head up against the "new Fascists."

It's a story that's about the recursive nature of things, both political and emotional. Harry is consumed by his past even as he has had all notions of it wiped clean, but he can't avoid it, it's coming back to him. It takes shape in gum wrappers, the smell of apricots, in phone numbers stored in his muscle memory and the consequences of his past deeds. Just like Harry, the world is consistently trying to forget but coming into constant conflict with the past.

The Pale is that past catching up with us, it's what was destroying what is. It's age old enmity making modern cooperation impossible, it's a several year dead relationship poisoning the mind of a man who tried his hardest to forget. It's that first drink you took on the path to alcoholism. It's when the Coalition came to wipe away the revolutionaries seemingly destined to happen all over again.

There are two people you meet who are wholly consumed by the past, the Paledriver, and the Communist at the end, both of them are a stark contrast to Harry who is essentially a newborn with a genetic, instinctual memory of some life before, but almost entirely, purely existing in a world of now. They are people who purely exist, and are incapable, of escaping from the past. The Communist's entire identity crumbles when the one thing keeping him anchored to the modern world, love, lust, and the neurological effects of the phasmid, is severed. As soon as those passionate, immediate feelings are taken away, he is nothing.

The plot is based around people avoiding or being subsumed by their past. The Pale is that concept manifest. In order for the world of Elysium to work, people need to fall apart in that strange void for the benefit of others, there is no world that isn't built on the suffering of the past, there is no ignoring that world and there is no progress if you just live in that world. Harry tried to ignore it AND obsess over it. He's the two methods brought to a head, combined, they cancelled out and created nothingness, a being of pure and utter now.

Hence the phasmid, hence a creature that only lives in the now, only capable of perceiving a now. No wonder Harry saw it, no wonder Harry was the miracle, he created a freak accident of self annihilation that allowed him to see the world as a several meter tall insect would. Instinctual, no past, no future, just now. Seeing things for what they are, context removed, only living with the face value of things, and what you feel in the moment. No one else saw the phasmid until that moment because no one else shared its view of the world. Kim saw it because he had you, learned from you, as insane as it was. You, a being of utter insanity, are the one who set up the dance club. Harry is nothing but now, all the time. Super hardcore.

This is a profound take, thank you for posting this. My only playthrough so far was the sensitive cop, inland empire/shivers and that makes him in my opinion some sort of savant who is very in tune with the world, the world is in trouble and thus so is Harry. This makes the conversation with revacholaise more literal and less of a metaphor because he is the only one (that we meet at least) who is able to sense the coming doom and thus will either be a savior or a herald of that doom.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 16:47

Perhaps a hamster: Jun 15, 2010

Jeza posted:

Playing this now, not very far in yet, but I can't tell you how loving refreshing it is to play a game with good writing once more. Pillars of Eternity really bummed me out with regards to having a well-written RPG revival (I know that may not be a popular take).

Might be not a popular take, but I was really disappointed in Pillars in terms of writing too, so I know the feeling. Partly my own fault for fully buying into the Kickstarter hype and promises, but eh.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 17:22

Songbearer: Jul 12, 2007; Fuck you say?

Pillars made an attempt, bless it, but felt cardboardy and tried much too hard to wedge world building into the game at a time where you really weren't invested in it yet

Disco Elysium takes a tiny little slice of the world and fills it full of character and depth, but leaves the greater scope of things on the sidelines. It's mentioned enough that you'll naturally want to ask questions about it, but knowing the world at large does not necessarily help too much for actual gameplay.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 17:27

A Sometimes Food: Dec 8, 2010

Deadfire's a lot better in that regard. Still not this, but like really loving good.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 18:14

dead gay comedy forums: Oct 21, 2011

Lil Swamp Booger Baby posted:

A completely Disco post

Rating: Stayin' Alive out of 5 Barry Gibb Falsettos

# ? Nov 10, 2019 18:52

Accordion Man: Nov 7, 2012; Buglord

Yeah, I enjoyed PoE1 but Deadfire is so much better and more confident in itself in being its own thing instead of just rehashing Sword Coast/Tolkein.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 18:53

Khanstant: Apr 5, 2007

Manic_Misanthrope posted:

Just found that drat traffic hooligan on the third day.

I'm the drat traffic hooligan

Cool trick I found with that event: It was so late in the day I didn't want to spend the hour and half or whatever when I needed to go talk to someone else already. So I went and did everything, just barely finishing by 2. I start walking back to rest for the night, not realizing 2 was a special time. Time doesn't go later than it, so you can actually freely talk to people and do stuff like the car event without advancing time. Harvest Moon kind of had the same thing in some versions of the game.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 19:24

turboraton: Aug 28, 2011

The real bad guy in DE is everyone that savescumms. Which means Evey single one of you!

# ? Nov 10, 2019 20:29

Hibbloes: Jun 9, 2007; Yo

turboraton posted:

The real bad guy in DE is everyone that savescumms. Which means Evey single one of you!

The real bad guy is the one innocuous check in the game you really don�t wanna pass. the raver who throws you the keys- if you miss the hand eye he gives you 25 bucks.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 20:50

Reverend Dr: Feb 9, 2005; Thanks Reverend

turboraton posted:

The real bad guy in DE is everyone that savescumms. Which means Evey single one of you!

no, i wasn't going to gently caress up consoling the working class woman, she deserves better and i don't care if i have to cheat to do it

# ? Nov 10, 2019 20:53

V. Illych L.: Apr 11, 2008; ASK ME ABOUT LUMBER

i really really like ma�ana

he's the coolest guy and the main reason i can't bring myself to hate on the clares like most itt do. if evrart is good enough for ma�ana he's good enough for me

# ? Nov 10, 2019 20:54

Arrhythmia: Jul 22, 2011

Thought: the reason most players hate Evrart is because he beats the poo poo out of their health and morale before talking.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 20:58

steinrokkan: Apr 2, 2011; Soiled Meat

Mr. Evrart is good. He helped me find my gun.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 21:00

steinrokkan: Apr 2, 2011; Soiled Meat

Also Empathy told me that, ultimately, his concern for the working class was genuine, and who am I to doubt Empathy.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 21:01

Wheeee: Mar 11, 2001; When a tree grows, it is soft and pliable. But when it's dry and hard, it dies.

Hardness and strength are death's companions. Flexibility and softness are the embodiment of life.

That which has become hard shall not triumph.

Evrart is corrupt as poo poo and also genuinely cares about the working class' interests, there's no contradiction there.

Hand-wringing over obeisance to the law and societal norms while ignoring ideology and material efforts is for liberals.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 21:18

Epic High Five: Jun 5, 2004

Evart has both genuine concern for the well-being of the proletariat and a well-developed theory of power that he is acting upon, one in which you are but a pawn he intends to cast away as swiftly as possible. Wild Pines doesn't bail because things got messy - they made them messy in the first place so obviously that isn't a bad thing to them - they bail because they discover that Evart is 100% prepared to escalate things in response to their sending in mercs to slaughter people

he's also a real SOB and bad person

many sides many sides

# ? Nov 10, 2019 21:25

turboraton: Aug 28, 2011

Piece of poo poo Evrart hits it way too close to what happens here in South America. He is even joyful about it because he knows he is the better option for you guys trying to be the ultimate saviour of humanity.

gently caress him. What a trooper Call me ma�ana is tho, wish you could make him the new leader. Or Titus.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 21:41

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

The way he bribes you is completely hilarious.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 21:42

tripwood: Jul 21, 2003; "Cuno can see you're trying to shit him, but Cuno's unshittable, so fuck does Cuno care?"

Hint: He doesn't care.

That chair is the real secret end-boss.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 21:42

Hieronymous Alloy: Jan 30, 2009; Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!; Morbid Hound

Hibbloes posted:

The real bad guy is the one innocuous check in the game you really don’t wanna pass. the raver who throws you the keys- if you miss the hand eye he gives you 25 bucks.

There are a few thoughts you can only get by failing checks, too.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 21:44

Epic High Five: Jun 5, 2004

turboraton posted:

Piece of poo poo Evrart hits it way too close to what happens here in South America. He is even joyful about it because he knows he is the better option for you guys trying to be the ultimate saviour of humanity.

gently caress him. What a trooper Call me ma�ana is tho, wish you could make him the new leader. Or Titus.

Call me Ma�ana is too easy going to take his place, I think a post-Tribunal Titus could tho

# ? Nov 10, 2019 21:45

Reveilled: Apr 19, 2007; Take up your rifles

I have a vague idea forming in my head that I can't quite piece together, probably because I haven't actually seen all this stuff directly in my playthrough and have taken some of it from others' writeups. Ending spoilers So it's implied by the ending that maybe the chief of Precinct 41 is about to participate in an uprising against the Coalition. It's also apparently the case that Evart's big plan for the docks is to touch off a war. Also, we discover that the RCM itself has communard origins. So, can we assume that Chief Pryce and Evart are working together? Is this the real reason nobody polices Martinaise, not because nobody wants to, but because unofficially the RCM recognises the union's right to police their backyard?

Early on Kim considers the notion that the outcome of this case could determine who polices Martinaise, but his explanation of that seems...confused. Like he suggests first that neither side wants to take responsibility, so they'd assign their worst cops to it, and he volunteered because he considered that bullshit. And when Harry suggests he got assigned for the same reason (he's a poo poo cop), Kim pipes up that no, actually, both sides want a win. Which...I dunno, just doesn't fit for me with what he'd just said about assigning bad cops and neither side wanting the responsibility. I assumed that was him just wanting to cheer up Harry (and maybe it was), but we do then find out that Harry is the 41st's best cop.

But...what if...what if Harry was sent to actually botch the investigation, touch off the war? Either because he got orders not to do anything, or because his boss knew he was too broken to function. I don't know, maybe that doesn't make much sense, but I feel like there's some more significant connection between Pryce, The Union, The war and the murder that's not really easy to spot. Maybe not what I just suggested, but something.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 21:46

turboraton: Aug 28, 2011

Epic High Five posted:

Call me Ma�ana is too easy going to take his place, I think a post-Tribunal Titus could tho

Post Tribunal Titus is in heaven in my run (Canon do not steal pls) sadly. Bless him Dolores.

Eugene will continue the legacy for the people tho.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 21:49

Epic High Five: Jun 5, 2004

turboraton posted:

Post Tribunal Titus is in heaven in my run (Canon do not steal pls) sadly. Bless him Dolores.

Eugene will continue the legacy for the people tho.

if anything is going to become a "canon" run for a sequel I can see it being Titus surviving and the Phasmid being photographed, as much as this hurts me to say that Jr Officer Cuno may not be canonical

# ? Nov 10, 2019 21:51

Epic High Five: Jun 5, 2004

but if I was organizing leadership for a revolution, a post-Tribunal Titus is exactly the person I'd kill to recruit to it, for a hundred different reasons but most of all the resolution to the Pigs thing

# ? Nov 10, 2019 21:54

Perhaps a hamster: Jun 15, 2010

turboraton posted:

The real bad guy in DE is everyone that savescumms. Which means Evey single one of you!

How dare you, the only time I savescummed was to see the "success" outcome of karaoke (ended up liking failure more anyway.)

Also reloaded to stock up on health items when my Endurance of 1 finally caught up to me at the showdown with Ruby, but that was purely to avoid game over so doesn't even count.

sebmojo posted:

The way he bribes you is completely hilarious.

I also love the bit that allows you to succeed not losing morale to the lost guntrap.

Entire Evrart conversation is the best boss battle I've ever read through.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 22:02

Rockstar Massacre: Mar 2, 2009; i only have a crazy life
because i make risky decisions
from a position of
unreasonable self-confidence

Pillars of Eternity shares a strength with this game in that it doesn't have a lot of wasted space, and most things tie into the setting and it's themes.

except for the loving backer NPC's lol. Grieving Mother is also way out there from what the rest of the game is about.

it's just a lot denser and to be honestly, a lot more subtle. maybe it's not accessible enough? I definitely understand DE penetrating much more thoroughly because it's got a broad scope but a narrow focus on it's subject material - the game is all about the political sphere of the modern day, focused on a series of events and a location that have very clear real-world parallels, but the real world equivalents took place throughout an Era and across the globe. It's a very well-organized and *specific* statement.

PoE is historical in nature (i'm not talking about the fantasy nature of the setting) and while it's eye is on a concept with very clear ramifications in reality (it's about colonialism) it's absent a lot of real-world parallels. I guess you could say the Dyrwood is North America but the explicit elements of faith and spiritualism that dominate a lot of the space in PoE aren't nearly as easy to pin down but are both absolutely core to the sort of fictional historicity PoE is crafting.

idk it's weird to me you can have a megathread saying DE is super well-written (it is) and then a page of people missing the same good elements in PoE. PoE has a much 'smaller' narrative focus than DE does but it explores it no less thoroughly.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 22:10

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Poe is heavily blackloaded: the end is great, but there's a lot of stuff to chew through before you get there

# ? Nov 10, 2019 22:15

Rockstar Massacre: Mar 2, 2009; i only have a crazy life
because i make risky decisions
from a position of
unreasonable self-confidence

also hey Evrart is a bad man, but he knows what it takes to subvert traditional power structures. play to win or get outta the game.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 22:17

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 21:34

Impermanent: Apr 1, 2010

Nothing evrart does to win comes across as unjustified if his version of events is true.

# ? Nov 10, 2019 22:18

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Disco Elysium - What kind of cop are you? - OFFICIAL SA Game of the Year

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