A game that kept me guessing, but came together beautifully
Review
The elephant in the room has to be addressed first. Disco Elysium does dive into politics. It even keeps track of how many times you responded with something that aligns to a communism, fascism, ultraliberalism, and moralism. If you know the actual underlying aspects of these systems then you can certainly pick the responses to follow what you want. However, the game in my opinion doesn't pick sides. If anything, it sarcastically demonstrates why all of these systems have their own strengths and flaws. There are also antagonists that follow each and every one of these beliefs. At the end of the day, what you leaned towards most is just mentioned off handedly during the end because what ultimately matters is how well you did your job.
That job is solving the murder of the hanging man behind a hotel. You wake up hungover in a hotel room that is completely trashed having no clue who you are. From there, you are tasked with figuring out the answer to the classic questions of "Who, what, when, where, why, and how." You will have side quests you can partake in. You can investigate other crimes. Some people have to be convinced to help you. How well you perform ultimately comes down to a dice roll using the stats you started with and how you build your character from there.
I do want to say that how you start your character honestly doesn't matter because you can get enough stat points to raise up everything to a decent level especially if you unlock the thoughts that give you XP for certain dialogue choices. You can also augment you character with various clothing items that give you stat boosts. Finally, you can also enhance, and hurt, your stats with various drugs plus alcohol. I will say that for the most part any build can ultimately work. You will naturally fail some checks and pass others, but you will make your way through the story one way or another. There are exactly two instances though that I at least don't see a way to get a good result unless you have the specific skill high enough to pass the check.
I don't want to ruin what those skills are. The best I am willing to do is just say they are late game, but they do matter. There are ultimately three endings you can get for actually beating the game. There are many other game over endings you can get along the way. In those instances, you get a newspaper article about what happened to the poor detective. However, the endings you can get really comes down to what you do, how you do it, and how well you do it.
The game does ultimately take into account each side quest you did. How you talked to people. If you decided to take any drugs or drink any alcohol. Your decisions can even affect what happens to those that help you out. It all matters. Even the most absurd quest that I did expecting it not to really mean anything had perhaps the biggest payoff in the end. I was at least shocked how it came into play.
Closing / Recommendation
If you made it this far or just skipped to the last paragraph to get the conclusion, you might have noticed that I was vague on a few things while saying they're important. I didn't even mention the names of the main character nor anyone else. That's because I do think experiencing the game without any major hints on what you should pick is for the best. The name of the main character in fact is one thing you're supposed to figure out as it is. It's a game that truly builds up to the conclusion taking into account your actions and the one big surprise you wouldn't believe me if I told you anyway. ZA/UM Studio truly created a masterpiece. I strongly recommend it to anyone even if it basically being a visual novel isn't the style of game you normally go for. The payoff is well worth it.
Image / media credit: Image Credit: Gamerant.com