Video Gamers Podcast - Gaming Quick Take - Disco Elysium

Episode Date: February 11, 2023

From gaming hosts Paul, Michael and Josh, we're bringing you even more gaming content each week.  Gaming Quick Takes are a short series of game recommendations, funny moments, off-topic chat and more. A small dose of gaming to brighten your Saturdays! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com. Hey guys, welcome to this Quick Take episode. We're so excited to have you here with us. In the past, these Quick Take episodes actually were only available to those who financially supported the show through Apple subscriptions and Patreon. But due to popular demand, we have decided to shake up the perks for our supporters and we'll be releasing these quick takes on Saturdays to everyone, giving you all some extra free content that was previously unavailable to the public. And these quick takes are a little more laid back and they're hosted by just one of us. So sit back, relax, and enjoy this quick take episode. Shazam! Boom!

Howdy, y'all. This is Paul with another Quick Take. Don't know why I came in with that intro. I don't know. I just must be bored here today. But welcome to another Quick Take episode here with the Multiplayer Gaming Podcast. Hope you guys have been enjoying these little bonus episodes. Thank you so much for your guys' support. Boy, oh boy, I got a little bit of a doozy here to talk about. I have jumped into Disco Elysium. I did not write down any notes or

any kind of outline. I mean, I didn't jot down anything that I wanted to talk about. Just thought I would, you know, totally wing it here. I don't even know where to start with this game. I know that Disco Elysium is wildly loved by the community. It pops up on tons of lists for like best all-time RPGs and things of that nature. We've talked a little bit about it on the pod. I don't want to retread any of that old content. But the game is fully text-based. You play as a detective. This is one of the most confusing games I have ever jumped into from the beginning, but that is

completely on purpose. You are playing as a detective. You do not know your name. You do not know that you are a detective. You end up discovering that when you walk out of your room and start talking to someone who's been staying in a room next to you when she calls you officer. And you have to figure out, like, am I in the military? Am I a police officer? You know, what's going on? And your character is basically a complete whack job. You clearly have got a lot of mental instability going on. And your character is basically a complete whack job. You clearly have got a lot of mental instability going on, and you are in very poor physical health. And as you start to

put the pieces together, it's kind of like, and I know I've used this analogy with other games, but it's like the blurriest picture possible. Like you're talking to people, you're giving answers to things and you don't even know what we're talking about, but then people will react to the things that you're saying and that it has implications in the game. And at first I was like, okay, I know that my character has amnesia and I'm not supposed to know anything. And so this is how the game is supposed to feel. And for like the first hour, I was kind of like, oh boy, like, I don't know if this game is really going to grab me. But then eventually it does come into enough focus that you start putting all the pieces

together and you start to learn the landscape of the city. You get to know all the people. You start to learn about the politics and the economics of the city, and even the history. You start to learn about the revolution and all these different people who fought on various sides. It's a very, very interesting game, and it has some of the truly funniest moments that I've ever seen in a video game. These are not like any major spoilers by any stretch. But like these two old dudes are playing with these balls and they're like these, they look like shot put balls. And they're like kind of throwing it. It kind of looks like bocce ball to me, but I don't really know what they're playing. And you just walk up and you have a couple of choices for what to think.

And I had my guy think something like, oh, I know the game that they're playing. And so my character's like, oh, I got this. I'm a pro. I should get in there and impress them with my moves or something to that extent. And that's what I clicked. So my character walks over, grabs one of the boulets, as they call it, and then my character starts spinning in a circle and then shot puts the crap out of this boulet into the ocean. And the guy's like, what are you doing? This is a pecan or it has like, I don't know, some kind of name like that. It sounded very french and my guy was like oh i thought you were playing shot put and then this guy starts laying

into me because he's just this old veteran and i just totally stole his ball and chucked it into the ocean so the game like really goes from zero to 100 quickly in situations, but then it always leads to funny circumstances and consequences for the actions that you do. I have just unlocked going into the second area, so I'm still relatively early on in the game. I might end up doing another quick take as I get further into the content. Also, wacky, wacky outfits. this is kind of the one and only thing i knew about disco elysium and as you go through the game you will loot and find various clothing items you've got like your hat slot jacket shirt pants shoes your left hand your right hand and all of these things get equipped and they all have various stat bonuses

now this game's got i don't know probably like 20 different things like authority volition hand eye coordination and then everything in the game is kind of like dungeons and dragons everything has like a dice roll check and so depending on your, plus the points that you've put into your skill tree, that will give you better or worse chances of passing the dice roll. And so sometimes you're just purely playing for function. And so you're equipping like a Japanese kimono jacket, but then I'm wearing, you know, just these crazy outfits that do not fit together at all. And you look like a complete maniac. And this is just what you see. And sometimes other characters will even comment on it. So you've got like a partner who comes out to meet you and he asks you for

your name. I didn't know my name. So I made one up on the spot and I was like, like Raphael Aquarius or something like that. And later in the game, you end up discovering your real name. But my partner thinks that I'm a lunatic because I am. And he even makes comments about my strange fashion sense and things like that. I really am enjoying it quite a bit. It's not necessarily a game that I like to sit and play in long chunks because it is so much reading. And a lot of the game is just like a lot of dialogue or a lot of inner thoughts of the main character. So I do definitely plan on finishing it at this point. I think I'm far enough in that I'm probably not too, too far from finishing, but I really have no idea. So I'll probably do another

quick take down the road. I know a lot of you guys out there have probably picked up Disco Elysium and have gone through it. I will say in playing through, I feel like I'm barely scratching the surface. I probably played for like a good eight or nine hours and then got my first achievement. And I saw that I had achievement one out of 64 or something like that. And it was because I apologized to 10 different people in the game. So as my character, you know, does stupid stuff, I just because this is how I am in real life, I apologize for it. Well, now the game has given me the achievement sorriest cop in the world. So even that kind of made me chuckle. I think this game probably is incredibly rewarding on replays. So anyway, I'll maybe talk about it a little bit more with the endgame content later on,

but well worth checking out. Just know that there's no combat. All of the game is dice rolls and exploration and dialogue and even arguing with yourself with your inner thoughts. Definitely well worth checking out, but incredibly unique and very disorienting in the very beginning. If you guys have played it, if you have any funny stories, I'd love to hear it. I can't wait to finish the game and just I'm either going to replay it or I'm going to go straight to YouTube and start watching funniest moments because I feel like there's got to be great stuff. I'm just trying to avoid spoilers for now. All right. So that's it here for today. We'll see you guys next time. Hope you're all doing great. Thanks so much for listening.