msElboim 最近的评测

A love story between Megaman Battle Network and Slay the Spire, but with the speed dialed up to 11. If you want to play this properly, you're gonna have to make thousands of crucial decisions in milliseconds. And once you do your brain explodes, but in a good way.

A great sequel, with a little bit of Hollow Knight inspiration.

A great game and a great soundtrack.

Fun, fast paced and addictive. This is a really nice game to pass the time.

Almost 3 years ago I went into this game blind after it was praised in reviews, was disappointed and left a negative review. But this game has been bothering me since, like an annoying perfume that for some reason you keep sniffing.

I played the game on and off, watched YouTube videos about it and tried to figure it out, but just couldn't. When "The Final Cut" came out, I gave the game another chance, and like in my original review I enjoyed the first few hours, but then characters started talking too much and I caught myself skipping text. I figured a game so heavy with text is tiring for me, and I must rest between short playthroughs.

I uninstalled the game after the second day; You run multiple times between two locations that have about 4 loading screens between them, and even though I have an SSD drive, every loading screen took 15-30 seconds. I found myself on my phone while my character walked between rooms, and I just broke. Some of the rooms took shorter time to get through than the time it took to load them.

I kept following updates, hoping some of the issues I have will be solved, and for some reason while making a top 100 list of my favorite games of all times, Disco Elysium had been in the list as the 100th game, no matter what. But why? I left a negative review. I HATED the game! Why did I want to go back to it? I found myself talking to 24 voices in MY head just like the protagonist of the game, and wrote a review almost as long an average NPC answer in it.

Two days ago, Steam told me about a recent update. Nothing was too exciting, until the very last line: "faster loading". 2.5 years and only NOW they fix the loading times? This couldn't be. I went into YouTube and found someone playing live, I waited for them to go through a door and my mouth was wide open. Loading took less than 2 seconds for every screen. I immediately installed the game. This could NOT have been the real barrier. I was inclined to give the game a third chance, and 26 hours grew to 42, in which I decided to review the game again.

Let's start with the good:

+ The graphics are as gorgeous as a painting
+ The music is cosmically mixing my soul
+ The story has twists and turns that surprised me even the third time
+ The world building, the characters and the voice acting are perfect

But the game holds itself from showing its true form:
- The walking speed is horrendous, and the maps unnecessarily are huge
- Characters talk slow and have a lot to say. It's enriching, but I was in such a hurry to "solve the case" that I couldn't bear wasting my time.
- Fast travelling, although finally added, is confusing to use. More locations should be added, and it should be available regardless of where you are.

Once the slow loading was patched the game is slightly more playable. I'm saying slightly because there is still a lot of text. Like The Lord of the Rings, this game is a test of patience that only a player who has committed to invest everything they have and drown into it can truly appreciate. Once I went in with that mentality things changed. I'm a brute cop, smoking and dancing my way through Disco, and although I already know the ending, the journey towards it is very different from the first time. And you know what? It's not as disappointing as I first concluded.

In my first review I said this is a point and click adventure game and not an RPG. I felt cheated, especially since everything leads to the same ending. But the more I put it in my thought cabinet, the more I realized that most RPGs lead to the same ending. Diablo, Witcher 3, Final Fantasy… You beat the final stage, you win. And just like these games, Disco Elysium also has clothes and items that change your stats, and if you fail a "text battle" against or hurt yourself you die. Your choices and approach matters, you need to build your character and equip the right items on it, heal yourself when you're wounded and choose the right path to victory. I just couldn't see it, and I don't know why.

Slowly, I began to understand that I was just not able to get into the game properly, and I still can't. I understand the potential this game has – if only I could muster the patience to drown in its weird and peculiar narrative. Now that I'm completing it for the second time, still skipping a lot of text but also allowing myself to get sucked into a few conversations and discover what this complicated world has to offer, in the future, maybe 10 years from now, I believe I could love this game. In its current state it's too slow for me, even with short loadings time. I wish I could increase the speed of the game (animation and speech) to x1.5 or x2. Yes, I can speedwatch a playthrough on YouTube, but I want to enjoy the RPG elements and mechanics, picking up items and using them to adjust my stats to perform better against the game's challenges. Yes, I need game speed accessibility. It's the curse of our generation.

Don't take this away from me.

Conclusion: This game is an RPG combined with a VISUAL NOVEL. It has the most unique text mechanics I've ever seen and is brilliant in its execution. But you should know what you're getting into, take breaks when it's too much and forget about the plot. You're intentionally drowning yourself in a fantastic world, jump on any shenanigan or weird opportunity, save often but never load – embrace your mistakes, and enjoy the read, it's like the entire Harry Potter series combined. If you find yourself skipping text or loading after a failure, if you're wondering why you're having a conversation about a topic completely unrelated to the plot, if you want the game to "get on with it", you're playing it wrong. Maybe we're not ready, maybe we never will. Take a break and come back later.

I applaud the developers and apologize for not understanding the game, I truly want to. I promise I will give it another shot in the future, once I'm either able to drown myself enough in it, or once they add a way to increase the speed of the game by x1.5 or x2, movement speed and speech. As for you, if you can enjoy all of that, I can finally recommend the game and leave a positive review, bearing a big IF in mind.

***

Original review, 28.12.2019 (summary):

I was hyped. People praised it and it looked just like my thing. After 26 hours, enjoying the first 6 hours, I'm extremely disappointed. Try the game when it's on sale - but don't expect a masterpiece. Brilliant text-heavy game with some unique mechanics, But a fraud. I felt like my choices mattered, but at the end it felt like everything led to the exact same place and was scripted. I went online and was surprised to see that the ending and all major events leading to it were the same. I didn't like how the story resolved, it felt rushed, anti-climactic and out of nowhere.

Dice based conversation mechanic are meaningless since you can freely save and load before attempting to roll the dice and make sure you succeed. The 24 voices in your head is the one good part of this game. This is not an RPG; this is a point-'n-click adventure game. Prepared to read a lot of nonsense unrelated to the story, many trackbacks because there is no fast travel or any ability to skip animations and prepare to be disappointed by the ending. This is a cute game that I would recommend for 10$, a short point-'n-click adventure with some expanded dialogue-maze mechanics.

YES. With 4 players, four yeses.

Fun, sophisticated, very challenging and a unique equipment=cards system that I haven't seen before. Very recommended for those who seek a challenging card game fused with a space adventure RPG.

Fun game, although can be a bit repetitive and demanding at times. If you want to win you're gonna need to get deep into the rules and know your cards very well, and taking your time making decisions is crucial to your survival. But when you want a fast paced action card game, activate Fast Mode and you can go VROOOOM!

Best couch multiplayer on Steam. Pure fun with friends.

Great metroidvania with very fun platforming sections. Highly recommended if you like the genre.