Disco Elysium Preview

ZA/UM Studio’s upcoming detective RPG Disco Elysium, formerly known as No Truce with the Furies, had a playable build at this year’s PAX East, which allowed the folks over at PC Gamer to give it a spin and see what it was all about. The resulting preview reads fairly positive and describes how such novel concepts like the Though Cabinet and double-edged attributes work in the actual game and not just on paper. An excerpt:

A case of disco fever

After clicking around to collect my clothes and limbs, I find my way downstairs where a morose-looking bartender is itching to hassle me. I gather from his scorn and sarcasm that I should have been dealing with the dead body in the tree out back instead of drinking myself stupid and losing my memory. There’s someone waiting for me at the door, another cop, who doesn’t seem too impressed with the fact that I’ve gotten nothing done. I pretend that I’m still somehow in control of the situation by just giving deadpan answers to his questions without elaborating. “Have you gotten the body out of the tree?” I look through my dialogue options: outright lying, deflecting, or just telling him no. “I haven’t,” I say, as if I might have a reason for it. He doesn’t seem to buy it.

We head through the back alley into an ugly lot where a body is hanging from a single tree in gross contrast with the colorful planks of wood nailed to its trunk for children to climb. The only child nearby is not interested in climbing trees. He’s throwing rocks at the body and shouting obscenities at me, and isn’t in the mood to answer questions. When I try to assert my authority, he and his friend scream bloody murder that I’m about to assault them. I retreat with my partner/handler, whose name I can’t remember any more than my own.

My only solace is that by choosing a character type focusing on intellect I seem to have a natural ability to read the crime scene. My partner can’t make anything out of the mess of footprints at the base of the tree but I take a shot at it. The right side of the screen records our conversation history, with my options to either make an uneducated guess or attempt a skill check against my intellect below. Thanks to my character class, I handily pass the skill check and identify eight separate sets of shoes and their sizes. One has a funny gait. One weighs significantly more than the others. That one was carrying the victim, most likely. After walking back and forth several times, the group stood around the tree together. A lynching, I decide.