PLAY GAME OF THE YEAR 2021

PLAY 1 DISCO ELYSIUM

What kind of disaster of a detective will you be?

While a text-heavy RPG about a drunken detective trying (and mostly failing) to solve a murder might not have the grandeur  and visual flair of some of the other entries on our Game Of The Year list, Disco Elysium: The Final Cut’s world is far bigger than most. Not in breadth, but in depth.

Part noir story, part psychodrama, the ability to mould your amnesiac detective into whoever you want is the backbone of this RPG. You can create a highly empathic, drug-addicted fascist who talks to objects, a smarmy libertarian disco enthusiast with a love of flared jeans, or a bloody-knuckled, loose-cannon cop who’s also a devoted feminist. Whatever persona you adopt, Disco Elysium accepts them for who they are and creates an intricate story around them.

Your detective is the eye of the storm, the focal point in a turbulent world whose people have been ravaged by revolution. You decide how to react to the chaos around them, whether as a hero or a total disaster of a human. It’s incredibly deep roleplaying, with the result that everyone who plays has a vastly different experience. You could play the game ten times over and it be totally different every time. Flip the page to see just a few of the reasons why we love Disco Elysium, and why you voted it the PLAY magazine Game