Disco Elysium - The Final Cut

absolute cinema

saddest man alive gets radicalized: the game

:D

9/10

本来想吐槽文案太掉书袋了，屁大点事都得整点意识流不肯好好说话，恨不得挖鼻孔都得写成 “进来了！那粗壮结实的黑色实体行使着他主人的意志，高傲地穿透一切肮脏与潮湿，像拿破仑回到了他的帝国，以不可抗衡之力犁庭扫穴”，然后再问自己一句“拿破仑？也许我内心深处住着一个保皇派” 不过玩完了又感觉还行，音乐美术文案都充满自己的风格，沉浸其中后有完整的自己的味道和节奏带着你飞，在商业游戏外希望有更多这样的作品。越是老登越不容易被感染，要对上他的电波，你得跟蹦迪似得清空你的现实理性加点，最好再喝点小酒，最好跟磕大了似得能跟自己鼠标键盘唠两句的时候，哎，就适合玩这游戏了

It's been a few days since I've beaten this game, so I've had some time to let it marinate in my brain. One, apologies to the person who bought me this game [i]last year[/i] that it took me so long to play it. I think I just needed to wait for the right moment, which was, I suppose, this current time in my life. Two, it's extremely tragic this world will never be expanded on due to the actions of a greedy, corrupt company more focused on generating profit than the beauty of art, connection, and humanity. It's a bit on the nose, isn't it? With the themes in this game. I hope the original developers are okay. To lose your passion project that was formed over decades with your friends to corporate greed must be soul-crushing. Were this game not gifted to me, I would have found other ways to play it. Onto the actual game: For reference, I played with a high Psyche build, Inland Empire signature skill, Shivers maxed out. Communist, and Superstar cop. There is a lot to be said about this game dropping you into the middle of everything, where you know just as much as our protagonist apparently does... which is not much of anything at all. No name, no rank, no information on your past, no idea why you're here. You learn all the bits and pieces alongside this man. This man whose first impression is: an out-of-shape drunken addict who threw his shoe out a window, trashed his hotel room, and has an unsettling grimace stuck on his swollen face. He can die trying to get his tie off a ceiling fan. The first NPC you can interact with, you can proposition for sex. Off the bat it's like... okay, who is this guy, and am I really supposed to root for him? Is this really the kind of guy I'm meant to play? Then you learn more. And the more you learn, the more... well, in my personal experience, the more you sympathize. I won't get too personal in a public Steam review, but many of Harry's issues resonated me in a way I never expected they would. I'm not an alcoholic, or an addict, but that's not the full extent of his issues - his mental health is in the gutter, worsened by his job and the world around him that does not understand. He acts strange and erratic and so, so sad. He is the type of mentally ill person that requires so much more patience and understanding and accommodation than most people aren't willing to give, which creates an unending loop because he cannot form connections and continues lashing out, and is scared and alone. Even in his worst moments, he's treated so sensitively. I think the first time the game made me shed a tear was this one, simple moment: with the working class woman, and hugging her outside of the bookstore. She could have pushed you off, but she didn't. INLAND EMPIRE - So tell me, how does it feel -- to be close to someone, skin to skin? YOU - It all comes together now. I was built to be close with other beings. Playing this game coming off the tail end of a pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ year where I did some pretty stupid, ♥♥♥♥♥♥ things due to my mental health reaching an all-time low (for multiple reasons, namely not having access to care) I think made so many things hit so much harder. Harry could be erratic, he could say weird things, scary things, have outbursts and cry and threaten to kill himself, even, and he still ends up treated kindly in the end. He has a partner through the whole game who treats him with patience, who will vouch for you at the end, and who, if you play your cards right, [i]truly[/i] trusts you. Is it not the dream of every severely mentally ill person to have someone there that will support and care for them, even in their worst moments? It makes me appreciate those that have stuck beside me so much more. The entire game's desperate melancholy atmosphere, the soundtrack, the prose, the voice acting - I think I could sing praises for all of these things. It's a story that's deeply affected me, I think, in ways that I didn't think it would, especially considering most of my online exposure to it has been via memes and the occasional ship art. Endgame spoilers below: [spoiler] Something that will stick with me is when you find the killer and you learn that it is no one connected to anyone you've met this entire game. It is someone who is so stuck in the past and his own extremism, a soldier fighting a war long over, but also a lonely, ailing old man who is desperate for human connection like any human would be. The way he breaks at the end, hugging himself, panicking, rocking in place - I really couldn't help but feel bad for him. It reminded me, in a way, of the old woman you can meet at the abandoned fish market to get your gun back. And it reminded me of Harry himself. These are the kinds of people left behind in societies like ours. These are the kinds of people societies like ours creates. I've seen people debating whether or not the conversation with the Phasmid at the end really happened, or if it was just a figment of Harry's imagination, like many other things. I don't have a real opinion on that (although we do get insight from Shivers that in 22 years Revachol will be hit with a nuke, something that is confirmed in Sacred and Terrible Air; which, along with the mere existence of the Pale, leads me to believe some of the more fantastical things could very well be happening) besides the fact I don't think it really matters. We don't need an answer for that. It was something incredible, something lifechanging. I have friends who have compared it to (drug) trips, or religious experiences, that they've had that ended up causing them to turn their life around and get it on track. The conversation doesn't need to be "real" for it to be worth something, for it to change something fundamental within him. I hope the experience is that wake-up call Harry needs. I suppose we'll never know what becomes of him after the game, but I hope he'll be okay. I hope they'll all be okay. They have 28 years left together, and surely that means something. [/spoiler] [i]I NEED YOU. YOU CAN KEEP ME ON THIS EARTH. BE VIGILANT. I LOVE YOU.[/i]