Disco Elysium - The Final Cut

Disco Elysium is a masterpiece of writing, worldbuilding, and storytelling. Placed in the role of an amnesiac cop in the middle of a murder case, you must interrogate the residents of a small town on the brink of political turmoil to figure out what's happening, who was involved in the murder, and why you're there at all. Using the wittiest writing I've seen in a game and a Baldur's Gate-esque skill check system, this game strings along a twist-filled trail of breadcrumbs that I found thoroughly entertaining for the 25-ish hours I took to complete it. In a word, Disco Elysium is raw. It does not hold back with depicting brutal descriptions of crime scenes, almost unbelievably crass language, the nihilistic thought processes of isolation, and showcasing the worst parts of humanity that politics brings out. It depicts unadulterated reality in its ugly entirety. That being said, its rawness makes the game such an amazing depiction of humanity- it realizes that every person, regardless of political belief, age, and gender, is flawed, but that you as an individual can still make personal decisions and find meaning in the reality you find yourself in. This game is not for everyone. As I said earlier, its writing is extremely witty, but there is a lot of writing here. If you're not a fan of visual novels or reading in general, you will likely get bored; for most of the game, there's not much else going on besides text and voicelines. Along the same lines, every character in this game has an innate understanding of every political ideology and the nuances surrounding them; while I found following the heady dialogue and looking up specific political terms throughout my playthrough interesting, it can certainly be exhausting if you're not prepared for following it going in. The skill system can also lock you behind certain checks sometimes; I found myself needing to save and restart the game at least once in order to progress past a mandatory check. This aspect wasn't as annoying, but it was certainly present. Finally, and this is the most important caveat here, the people who currently own and are selling this game are not its original creators. There is much more information available to research online regarding the controversy, but I highly recommend at least waiting for the game to go on a drastic sale if you really want to play it legitimately.