They are going to support some workers, but at the cost of others. They are building a youth center for the children of Revachol … by paving over a poor district in town. They are striking for workers to have an equal share in their company … and so that Evrart can gain more control. They provide physical protection to the less-fortunate … through an extralegal squad of vigilante goons. Throughout the game you see many examples of how the Union is helping the workers and the people (though, always at some cost). That’s not to say that Evrart or the Union are all bad. Evrart is a smooth-talking, overly-congenial snake who quickly asserts his social dominance over you and who runs the whole town with his knowledge, resources, and man-power. In the case of the communist viewpoint, this political force is the Union, run by Evrart Claire. Instead, your political choices are rooted in the struggles of the various political forces at work within Revachol. You are rarely just spouting a context-less political opinion (if there is such a thing). Workers rights! Equality! Revolution!īut that’s where Disco Elysium throws a wrench into the works. In a vacuum, my left-leaning beliefs would leave me picking the communist philosophies the vast majority of the time. Looking at the options above, I know pretty clearly where I fall in my personal politics. In Disco Elysium however, the combination of the amnesiac blank-slate, and the laid-bare nature of these political ideologies pulls the player towards reflecting their own ideologies in their character, and I definitely found myself doing that. When playing most RPGs, you are not being asked to make these decisions personally, but on behalf of a character that you are shaping to be their own kind of person, separate from yourself. Your possible opinions fall into four broad political categories:Ĭommunism - socialism, power to the people You have your “copotype” - a representation of your personal philosophy and approach to life and your job, and you have your political alignment, which is primarily what we’ll be discussing here.Īt many points throughout the game, you will be prompted to take political stances on various issues. As with other games of this type, Disco Elysium has an alignment system that, through your actions and choices, categorizes you into certain groups. The game leans heavily on the text, and the vast majority of content comes out of your conversations or introspection written out in a text window. In fact, I suspect it mostly arose from a limitation imposed by the rigidity of the digital RPG format.ĭisco Elysium plays much like many other isometric RPGs or point-and-click adventures. I’m not sure if this is a lesson the developers intended for anyone to learn from this game. However, today I wanted to touch on a small takeaway that felt especially relevant to something I’ve seen in modern political discourse on social media. At some point I might dive into some of the more deep and heady takeaways from this game about politics in our broken world, personal discovery, and existentialism. It will leave all the biggest plot points unspoiled - but if you want to go in completely blind, you’ve been warned.Īs I mentioned, this game left me mulling over a lot of different themes and lessons. This article will go into the lightest of spoilers. I highly recommend you play the game for yourself. It is a game with a lot of lessons, and left me thinking about what it had to say for days. It sees you bumbling around the fictitious city of Revachol, solving a murder, hunting cryptids, opening dance clubs, and becoming entangled with the political forces at work in the city. Disco Elysium is a beautiful and bizarre game that puts you into the boots (or stolen ceramic military sabatons) of a complete trainwreck of a human being and amnesiac who claims to be a cop.

Disco elysium communism