Disco Elysium

Disco Elysium is an isometric role-playing game first released in October 2019, later rereleased as a free update as Disco Elysium - The Final Cut in March 2021.

Synopsis[]

Setting[]

See also Elysium

The world of Elysium was first created as a high fantasy setting for use in a pen-and-paper tabletop RPG spanning several campaigns, having started as a collection of ideas and a "paracosm" by Disco Elysium lead writer and designer Robert Kurvitz and his friends when they were teenagers in the early 2000s. They would eventually get rid of the pseudo-medieval and pseudo-renaissance trappings typical of the fantasy genre as well as a industrial revolution version (at some point, Elysium was a steampunk setting inspired by the French Revolution^[1]), turning them into historical periods within the setting,^[2] and replacing it with a modern fantasy world, a fantasy world in its modernity, which roughly corresponds to the middle part of our 20th century.^[3] A genre that can best be described as "modernopunk".^[4] Kurvitz would publish the first official work set in Elysium in 2013, a novel titled Sacred and Terrible Air (Püha ja õudne lõhn in the original Estonian), set after the events of Disco Elysium.^[5]

Set in a universe of "fantastic realism",^[6]^[7] Elysium is a world with a six thousand years of history, spanning from its own version of the early Bronze Age (Perikarnassian period) to the early Middle Ages (Franconigerian period) to the Renaissance (Dolorian period) right up to a decade called the "Seventies".^[7] Elysium is made up of seven known landmasses of matter called "Isolas" (from "isolation") separated by vast stretches of literal nothingness called the Pale, an anti-reality mist-like mass in which the laws of reality break down and can drive a human insane. The isolas are made up of various states, nations, and continents such as Meteo, Vesper, Graad, and Vaasa.^[7] Another feature of Elysium is the innocentic system, a legitimate and operative "religion of history",^[3] in which an exceptional person is elected and declared to be the highest category of historical personage in the world, an embodiment of the World Spirit and literal personification of History.

Disco Elysium is set in the district of Martinaise, in and around Terminal B of the Greater Revachol Industrial Harbour, both located in West Revachol, in the Insulinde isola, and taking place in the year '51 of the Current Century.^[8]

Plot[]

SPOILER WARNING: Plot details for the main story follow. (Skip)

Harrier Du Bois, a detective with Precinct 41 of the Revachol Citizens Militia, wakes with no memory of his life or the world around him. He and his temporary partner from Precinct 57, Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi, solve the murder of The Hanged Man and many smaller Tasks along the way.

SPOILERS END HERE. (Return)

Features[]

A massive, open-ended case you can solve however you choose.
An utterly unique urban fantasy setting where bell-bottoms meet muzzle-loaders.
Set-piece combat sequences you can avoid or dive into at your peril.
Develop your own cop persona with 24 colourful skills.
Ditch your cop uniform for real disco threads to impress, intimidate, or seduce.
An inventory for your thoughts where you can research clues and then put them to use in the game.
Original score by the British rock band, Sea Power.

Releases[]

Disco Elysium - The Final Cut[]

Disco Elysium - The Final Cut is the definitive edition to the standard Disco Elysium experience. The Final Cut was released on March 30th 2021 as a free upgrade to the original game.

Free upgrade for all players
New Political Vision Quests
New Characters
New Clothes
New Cutscenes
Full Voice Acting
An additional 150,000+ words
Full Controller Support

Disco Elysium - The Final Cut: Collector's Edition[]

The Collector's Edition comes with several collectibles, including a premium unfolding box, an illustrated, two-sided fabric map of the district of Martinaise, an art book, ‘Mind Totem’ resin sculpture, as well as a physical edition of the game for Playstation 5 inside a slipcase.

Soundtrack[]

Disco Elysium's soundtrack features twenty-eight tracks from the British rock band, Sea Power. It was given a limited physical release via iam8bit on CD and vinyl, with the latter having a second limited edition origami variant cover.