When I woke up in _Disco Elysium_, I found that I was an amnesiac drunkard detective who couldn’t even remember his name. But what really shocked me was the voice in my mind — there were 24 personalities speaking at the same time. Logical thinking is analyzing the case, the talent of drama is inciting me to recite poetry, and the inland empire insists on falling in love with the ceiling fan. This game uses a dialogue tree to let me experience what is called “the demon dance of thought”.
The game opens in a dilapidated hotel room. The detective Harrier, who I play, woke up with amnesia caused by alcohol and needed to investigate a bizarre hanging case. But the first test is not to investigate the case, but how to put on the pants hanging on the ceiling fan without being driven crazy by your own personality split. When I spent 20 minutes and successfully got the pants through more than a dozen skill checks, I suddenly realized that the biggest mystery to be solved in this game was actually myself.
The most shocking experience happened in the first conversation with Karaje. The cynical inn manager was extremely mocking of me, and my response options were from “professional questioning” to “kneeling and begging for mercy”. When I chose to improvise a sonnet about his baldness with the skill of “Drama Level 5”, this tough guy actually gave me a key clue with moist eyes. At that moment, I realized that I was not playing games, but writing my own film noir.
The beauty of the game’s character shaping is that each skill point will completely change the direction of the dialogue. If you click “Erudition”, you will find yourself suddenly talking about the mechanical principle of the Gothic arcade when analyzing the architectural style; if you click “Strong Body”, you can’t help showing off your biceps to every NPC. The craziest thing is that after clicking “psychic”, I actually began to discuss political economy with the victim’s body — and it answered more insightfully than most living people.
As the investigation deepened, every corner of Revachol City was telling me. The abandoned fishing boats told the failure of the revolution, the graffiti wall recorded the anger of the workers, and even the air was filled with the rotten smell of ideology. In this war-torn city, I had to choose between communism, free market, moralism and even fascism — and these choices not only affect the solving of the case, but also shape a brand-new Harrier.
The most profound moment of the game happened when I finally found my memory. In the face of my past of alcoholism, out of control and ruining everything, I must choose between self-blame and rebirth. When the former lover said, “You scare me”, and the 24 people in my mind were silent at the same time, the kind of mental tremor was never given by any game.
Late at night after customs clearance, I looked at myself in the mirror. Suddenly, I found that the people in the mirror seemed to be a little more strange — those bold choices made in the game, those aspects of personality that have never been shown in reality, are reminding me that everyone has 24 voices in their heart, but we usually only dare to listen to one of them.
If you are also willing to take a spiritual adventure, _Disco Elysium_ will be your most dangerous mirror and the warmest therapist. After all, when you can redefine who you are, solving the case has become the least important part of the game.
