Disco Elysium

Much ink has been spilled for this indie darling. First, the preliminaries:

• Disco Elysium is not for everyone
• Disco Elysium does everything on purpose
• Disco Elysium has mediocre or difficult mechanics in many respects

For example, the labyrinthine level-up system. If you’re new to the game, the Disco Elysium wiki reads like some kind of treatise in an intergalactic language. None of it makes any sense. You put a few points into things, and it still doesn’t make sense, but as you slowly progress, the holistic nature of the system becomes more evident.

The POV character has amnesia and must rediscover the world. The player, being introduced to opaque mechanics, must discover and grok these mechanics as the character unlocks and groks his own existence. After about a day in-game the systems started to click for me, but on your first playthrough you’re flying by the seat of your pants.

Also:

• Disco Elysium hates tankies
• Disco Elysium will allow you to do anything, including die
• If you opt-in to death, do not be surprised when you do in fact receive death