Interesting insights into the developer, although not much concrete information about the game:
Gaming is a hobby of mine, but it’s not the only one nor my primary hobby. Even then I’d rather play ten 10-hour games than one 100-hour game, assuming equal quality.
Yep. 6-8 hours for me is a full priced experience. And then if it gets shorter than that, the game needs to be cheaper before I buy it, and if it’s longer than that, the game needs to be cheaper before I buy it. If a game is 60 hours, I’m likely to only experience about 10/60 = 17% of it, up to 35 percent if it’s really good, so I’m willing to pay 35% of full price for it.
I generally enjoy this as well, but it’s a fine line to walk when I’m really enjoying a game and don’t want it to end (Link’s Awakening was probably 15 glorious hours most recently) and think maybe it’s gone on just a bit too long (mostly action type games, though most recently Greedfall was probably a 25 hour game stretched over 40 hours).
This particular title has been on my wishlist for so long I didn’t remember what it was but reading that blog entry was amazing - I’ll have to keep an eye on this. It comes out really close to The Outer Worlds is the biggest issue, but I have room in my heart for two big, fun RPGs. This seems like an RPG, at any rate. Is there a video showing off gameplay? I must have seen something at some point to put it on my wishlist, but maybe something newer?
EDIT: This one seemed pretty good, actually (from OP!).
EDIT2: More info on the Thought cabinet, where you “equip” thoughts (seems like… opinions/personalities that make your character role play as you imagine them? Seems like an amazingly clever idea) found in this short little video:
Like @divedivedive and @anonymgeist, I prefer my games to be tight and punchy, but I don’t recall many titles being both 2-3 hours long and full price–surely not enough to warrant being actively sick of it!
Anyway, sorry to derail. Disco Elysium looks and sounds terrific to me. Definitely one I’d like to check out.
Yeah, displacement is the issue for me with longer games! I may have a thread idea brewing here…
Yes, the Thought Cabinet is apparently central to the game. Today’s Dev Diary goes into detail about it.
Gaaad, I love the aesthetic of this!
Jesus that’s mind blowingly interesting. I’ll drop $40 just to experiment with this system alone, let alone all the other things this is bringing to the table. WTF.
@geggis Yes, agree 100% this looks lovely, from the UI to the art and animation!
I’m not philosophically opposed to long games but I do like there to be a reasonable justification for the length and not just padding out the game. When you have to shoot, shoot! Don’t talk!
I’m buying this game day one. Even if it is a disaster (which I doubt), the fact that it’s trying different things in pretty interesting ways is enough for me. I don’t know if it will be good or bad, but I know it will be unique, and I just have to see what they’ll do and how/where they’ll succeed (or not).
It does? Serious question.
I wouldn’t say it glorifies drugs, but it’s a thematic constant in the game, from the name to many concepts they already talked about. For instance, they call the “Thought Cabinet” THC for short, which is very clearly a drug reference/joke.
I’m hoping you’ll be able to have a drug-free playthrough, because otherwise I’d be a lot less interested in the game myself, but I don’t oppose the presence of drugs in the game itself. It can be done well, and I hope that’s the case here.
Yeah; I don’t mind the presence of drugs, but glorifying is another issue.
Sure, at a casual glance the game seems stuffed with it.
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Attempts at humor by referencing to them in the UI.
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Features that play up the benefits of being able to get high like this one:
40 original pieces of music play as you explore the city. Some 6 different psychoactive substances get you high as you do so. Wine, beer, smokes, anti-radiation drugs… some good old fashioned trucker speed. And so on.
- Dumb Lebowski references in the marketing material:
The detective decides, the citizens abide.
I’m just not a fan of users or their idea of fun.
Not a fan of drugs myself - in fact, I might be the most sober guy I’ve ever known, and I enjoy my sobriety - but I can see how they could be interesting in a game that’s so much about the mind and its processes. And, if they treat drugs for what they are, I’m pretty sure their effects and aftermath can make for pretty interesting (con)sequences and situations in the game.
As I said, it can be well done, and even insightful and appropriate. In fact, this game can make drugs more interesting than anything else in the history of videogames. But if it’s played as “pothead humor”, it will be a wasted opportunity.
From what I have gleaned, the game is about the inner workings of a mind, and this particular mind belongs to an addictive personality, one who has no idea what he has done the past three days, as the story begins and he is called upon to deal with a murder.
Much of his struggle is within himself, how to function without making a total fool of himself, how to maintain some self respect, etc.
I have close knowledge of some people with addictive personalities, and the bits and pieces I have seen of the game ring very true, the moment to moment struggles with it uncertain how it is going to play out. And sometimes feeding the addiction seems like the best short term strategy, particularly when under pressure to perform “right now.” Inner parts of the personality struggling mightily to gain the upper hand.
As you make decisions in character, you have a lot of directions to go, none of them guaranteed successes. But the game appears to contain a lot of dark humor regarding the situation, which strikes me as also true to such a character.
I can see where this might give a more positive spin to substance abuse than some might prefer, but in my mind, it is no worse than the positive spin innumerable games grant to violence. And for the most part, games portray violence as being effective and admired. This game, your character is going to struggle not to lose the respect of all around him as the result of his addictions.
That’s true, of course.
There are certainly games that drag on too long as well as the opposite.
But when you see reviews on Steam of players saying they have finished the 25€ game and it shows a game time of under 10 hours, then I don’t have enough eyebrows to raise.
You seriously need to get that stick out of youknowwhere and learn to relax a little.
It’s a game.
Even one that might actually tackle the subject with some depth as well as jokes. If you don’t like the jokes, well, tough shit, but don’t go around proclaiming they glorify drugs - that’s about as right as Duke Nukem glorifying shooting nukes at pigs.
Drugs could use some glorification, they’ve gotten a bad rap.
Not really fair play considering wine and beer as different psychoactive substances.
Maybe we’re really into this drug issue because we don’t have a lot of other things to discuss about the game. However, I think it’s a little premature to save the game “glorifies “drugs. Maybe drugs play a large part of it, but it remains to be seen whether the drugs have a positive or negative affect on the user. So I’d say it’s more like a game where drugs are featured rather than glorified.
That said, if heavy use of drugs or use of drugs bothers you in games, then I see no problem with you not being interested. To each their own.