Disillusionment and Alienation in Disco Elysium
Disillusionment and Alienation in Disco Elysium
CW: Rape/Sexual Assault, Suicide, Heavy Spoilers for Disco Elysium
Disco Elysium is one of those games that had a surprising emotional impact on me, and it's probably one of the most well-written games I've played - something where one of the game's best qualities is the way that it probes introspection in the player to how they would react to the events in it. It's one of those games that feels very revealing, uncomfortable, has a level of dark comedy where it's both absurd but also clearly attempting to interrogate subject matters in a way that works with the absurdity - what's more it's also something that seems to work so well in involving the player into it. The writing is tantalising, it's effortlessly readable and it's acted out with such character; it's very colourful, the prose work in this is something that feels very intimate and gets you directly involved in the action. There's a million words of dialogue in this game, playing somewhat like a novel where there's a prescience towards what the player chooses to do with what's shown to them.
Probably one of the most prescient things in this game comes from the juxtaposition between the very personal experiences that Harry Du Bois goes through, compared to how he's seen by people he interacts with and the world at large - something that becomes a large part of the dramatic impact of the game. It also becomes clear that there are a bunch of things that only make intrinsic sense to Harry - ranging from dream and nightmare sequences, miraculous and intuitive discoveries, and much more personal things that exist as abstractions in the back of his mind. Right from the get-go we're given this opening scene where Harry straight-up passes out drunk and is later revealed to not have his clothes on (also launching one of his shoes out the hotel window), he loses his badge, his gun, his car appears missing for whatever reason, and initially we're never given any sort of reason as to why all of this happens.
What's effective about this game is how it depicts Harry as someone who has done a lot of wrong, often indefensible things, something that we're directly clued into - and as the game goes on it very much reveals that Harry still has the capability to do so much wrong. You can confront some of the things in Harry's past, that can lead to embarrassing and revealing results - but it's also something that the game seems to sneak up on you anyway as it goes along. There's a lot of things where you need to have an explanation for something, which you don't quite have - and it's this discovery about who you are that's quite compelling. The game starts off very inexplicably but then that's also very fitting. You don't know anything about Harry and seemingly neither does he.
Harry also has a partner named Kim who seems to juxtapose Harry as this very straight-laced no-nonsense detective - also seemingly acting as a lifeline for Harry, and also seems more interested in grounded details rather than far-reaching ones. They have a very interesting relationship because it's clear that Kim is both fascinated by Harry but also finds him in some capacity to be exacerbating and annoying - and there are very clear ways you can either strain or upset this relationship or get him to really trust you. Kim responds both with this sense of understated accomplishment and compassion for people and this sense of exacerbation at points - his character is very clearly defined as someone who doesn't want to get too involved in other peoples' person manners, someone who once identified as a moralist but now sort of aligns himself more with his work as a detective more than anything else.
Moralism is one of the four main political factions in this game. The way it presents politics is also very interesting because a lot of it is very open, and some of the outlets of it feel very propagandistic in how people talk about it, people feel very self-interested in wanting to indoctrinate you into their cause. Near the start of the game you can talk to this fascist named Measurehead to help with a bunch of important quests, yet also one of the requirements is the way he wants you to 'internalise his Advanced Race Theory' and he seems to talk about his views in these fantastic terms, almost in the abstract; grandiose but also kind of nonsensical and evidently stupid in terms of how it's revealed. It's scathing towards the subject, but it also simultaneously interrogates the underlying allure that goes behind it. It's also very possible to read up on communist literature with heavily idealist goals, or become enamoured by the allure of money and wealth and hustling and working your way to the top (ultraliberalism), or about just not feeling like you should get deeply involved in politics where you lie somewhere much closer to the centre. (moralism).
Your mind and your impulses are also depicted as this variety of characters as well, each with their own distinctive voices and traits, and a lot of how this game functions comes from the interaction you have with Harry's various thought processes and nerves and the intuition it brings towards the crime. You don't know how to approach the crime and the game seems dedicated to building up this sense of regaining yourself, and there's a lot of things this game does where you get clued in on stuff - and in effect you get involved with this sense of rediscovery; thoughts and potential actions fleet around and often the temptation of certain options becomes unavoidable; but there is a great deal of which you can interact with these options. I think there's a lot of fun this game has with the absurdity of confabulating intrusive thought processes; where there's just so much that goes in in Harry's mind which is kind of funny in nature. But it's also just the way it interrogates how the mind can trail towards thought processes that are funny or amusing or come across like either some sort of miraculous epiphany or the unholy thought processes that thrust themselves into a panic attack. Intuitively, this game is very psychological but it's psychological in a way that connects deeply with Harry and his surrounding environment and the contradictions that lie therein.
When Harry is revealed to demonstrably be a skilled detective, it almost seems to come as a surprise, considering the fact that you spend so much of the early game just basically being pounded on by your own failures. There must be something about Harry's life, whether it's the case that's eating away at him or his own personal life circumstances, or there some sort of inexplicable thing that built up to this moment culminating in him drinking himself into a black-out state. Harry's skill-set and his ability to get things done that no other people can do is also juxtaposed with this potential for it to spiral into this massive ego complex, seeming way too proud of his achievements. What's more is that you can not change what Harry did in the past, the game is pretty much set within these current events and in this isolated area - although you do get this intrinsic feel of what the past was like as the game goes on. Inadvertently, the murder itself is implied to be heavily political - so politics is something you simply can not avoid; it is of course a function of how the world works here.
Something this game has been criticised over is that there's seemingly no strictly "correct" politics the character can pick up and it seems to chastise you over anything you pick, although I think it's way more interested in interrogating the limitations and the allure behind each of the options. Heck, this game even seems to indict you if you decide to pick the centrist option (moralism) and decide not to get too involved with it. The game is much more broadly revealing about political alienation and also this sneaking suspicion about the limitations of what people believe in - which I feel fits nicely into this game's central character study. But then I think the game is much more focused on these moment-to-moment circumstances with this political backdrop seemingly resting on top of it, although it is definitely a significant part of the game. The underlying politics of this game also seem to fit neatly into today, and there's also something about the pen-and-paper RPG elements that also seem to reflect how political discussions occur with modern communication, in that things seem a bit more direct and confident than they would be in-person.
Something that I thought was very revealing was the juxtaposition between the two characters Joyce Messier and Evrart Claire. Joyce Messier is an ultraliberal (really a conservative) negotiator, presented as the spitting image of Margaret Thatcher, who seems very insightful and well-spoken with what she says, seems very kind, friendly and approachable whilst also admitting that she works for some very bad people, but she also seems comfortable in that position. She's well-versed, eloquent and compelling to talk to, but at the same time I eventually walked away thinking she was friendly but also not a good person. It felt evident to me that a lot of stuff she was saying is stuff she sees a wrong but not necessarily indefensible, and there's also something interesting to lines like "Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who would *critique* capital end up *reinforcing it instead." Out of context that sounds like a criticism of capitalism, but in context it is coming from someone stating that it's directly just how capitalism runs.
Compare that in juxtaposition with someone like Evrart Claire who is right out of the gate is depicted as this openly corrupt union leader who cares about status and wealth, but who also seemingly has interests in rejuvenating the surrounding areas. He can do favours for you, but then in accepting some of his favours, you are therefore indebted to him, and Claire talks in this fashion where on one hand he can be very helpful, but it's underscored by this pervasive ego-complex. You know he's slimy right away, seemingly juxtaposed with him doing "good things" which may or may not just be because of realistic compromises, but either way he's certainly not what you'd call "idealist." He's a vital source of information, at the same time you also do a bunch of work for him; later down the line you do get these bad, suspicious vibes about who he is and the nature of the work he's making you do. What's fascinating about both of these characters are very interesting because it shows how unsavoury characters can seem to have a sympathetic side to them, whilst also some characters who you are initially sympathetic to begin to grow more and more indefensible as the game goes on, but I think moreover that they represent attitudes pervasive with political cynicism. I didn't like either of them, but my reaction to them definitely felt like something that was reflective of myself and what I bought to the game - in that they just kind of rubbed me the wrong way.
Speaking of which, one of your very first encounters is with this seemingly quite nasty 12-year-old boy named Cuno who starts swearing at you, and it also being goaded into a lot of his behaviour by a 10-year-old girl named Cunoesse, and he's seen pelting small rocks next to the hanged body of the murder victim. Cuno is eventually revealed to be one of the more sympathetic characters in the game, but then the game also has this option where you can just beat the crap out of him - which you then have to answer for a lot later in the game, but there's also something very interesting about how it shows Cuno as being a product of an environment filled with addiction and very precarious life circumstances. He's not a pleasant figure, but he never struck me as someone who was outright evil - so much as he just felt reactive, and as the game puts it "pure unfettered id." Cuno can be kind in his own way, expressing a gleeful foul-mouthed fascination at some of the stuff he sees, and you never get the impression that this is an entirely different character.
Another thing about this game is that it quite explicitly features this fantasy realist setting where it's quite explicitly anachronistic. The game is set during "The Fifties" but then the predominant setting seems to mostly fit the early 1980s, then there's also other details like its very explicitly post-war setting, or how the firearms consist of 19th century style bolt-action rifles and pepperbox pistols; a lot of this game seems to consist of an amalgamation of modern and old things being treated as current and as an active part of this world. Which is kind of fitting, considering that this game takes part in the decaying area of Revachol - once this very booming city with a lot of rich history, reduced into this area where alienation abounds. Nuclear war and the idea of the apocalypse also worms its way into the narrative, much more on a conceptual level than anything, but seem to fit nicely into the themes of alienation. Stylistically, the graphics are modelled after an oil painting - both where it's obsessed with mundane details, but then where magical stuff can also seem to weave its way into the world - and you'd be convinced of it.
But there's also something to the lived-in element of the world that's really fascinating, and especially the sort of pre-rendered style backdrops that go from confusing and befuddling to something that's just engrained in your mind after a while. Places that were once of conflict or revolution begin to settle down, and the same sort of thing happens currently, where there's very easily stuff you can miss out on, and this underlying surrealism to when you walk back to an area that was once a place of bloodshed, everything settles back down again. You take a body down from the tree and it's like the body wasn't even there to begin with when you walk back to the area. Lots of things stuck out like that to me, and the game itself plays with this sort of strangeness in dream sequences or apparent moments of the supernatural with ghosts talking to him and haunting him and so forth.
A lot of the gameplay mechanics in this game run off of a dice-roll mechanic where certain actions require certain skills, which can be increased directly through experience points, wearing different articles of clothing, ruminating on various deep thought processes, or through the use of illicit drugs which temporarily improve your stats. It's built in a way where even the most skilled person can fail easy tasks and even the most inept person can succeed in seemingly impossible tasks, and also a lot of weird side-missions that are tangentially related to the case and possibly might be useful in revealing details about it. A lot of stuff does make sense, but then there's other missions that seem more like a novelty, or reveal way more about the underlying politics of the area more than the actual case.
Part of what I love about this game is the way that it tools you into the various little tasks you have to perform and what they reveal about the characters and the environment and how you're meant to approach them. Probably one of the most revealing moments of Disco Elysium comes from a quite uncomfortable moment where you're confronted with evidence that supposedly paints the murder victim as though he were a rapist, and the evidence you're given certainly sounds convincing with the victim outright declaring intent to rape someone. You're given this elaborate, detailed story and this very explicit audio recording - yet the way it's handed to you feels quite suspicious like they want to humiliate you with this evidence, yet also the alleged victim outright declares that the rape was untrue. However, you also can find out (as an optional side-quest from the 'Scab Leader') that the Hanged Man gang-raped someone to death along with other soldiers whilst on duty, with an apparent explanation that the soldiers did it because "if they don't see action soon, the girl... she was nice, a little too fat but not too old" told in these ostensibly obfuscating terms - and it's that sort of thing where it kind of makes you feel sick for really continuing with the investigation. It builds up this rough narrative that the victim did indefensible things in his life, and also maybe tempting the thought processes that he probably ultimately deserved to be murdered. It's hard to feel sympathetic for him knowing that (however, it also does reveal wider systemic problems leading onto incidents like that), yet the entire thrust of the game depends on investigating who exactly murdered him.
Characters in this game are often hidden behind layers of deception, either with hiding information, trying to trick you into thinking something else, or self-deception - as well as the contradictions with how people perceive themselves, versus how they actually are. Which also makes it all the more involving and human - where much of the game is spent interrogating characters through conversational trees and dialogue. Either they spill out the truth because you've proven everything else to be impossible, or they don't explicitly state something but spell out enough details that it can seem pretty obvious to you - even if it's clear some of the stuff is flying over their head. Sometimes details can also be fuzzy, things don't come as clearly to peoples' heads as you'd expect and a primary component comes from getting people to remember things - and it's never always as it seems with what is literally told to you. Similar problems also exists with Harry - where his colleagues outright mock him for not knowing details that are obvious to them, or personal and investigational revelations that seem bizarre and absurd to them - you get both a sense of outright explicit details and implied details that worm their way into your mind, and in the process trying to get him to remember who exactly he was.
The game also features two separate health mechanics, one regarding your physical health and your morale or your mental health and how you cope with the world. Both of these things can be increased through sleep, the completion of various tasks, or more directly through the use of prescription and illicit drugs. Harry's health is also quite precarious, something that exists as a result of years of heavy drinking, and it's very possible for him to suffer a heart attack by turning the lights on in his hotel in the wrong way, or sitting on an uncomfortable chair at a union office. Harry is both incredibly resilient but also quite brittle in a lot of ways - sometimes he can take severe physical and mental punishment and sometimes he can't, often times he can underestimate just how vulnerable he can be - and other times he can be wallowing in some often pathetic but very personal despair.
To me, one of the most painful sections of this game comes from a subplot where Harry tries to figure out why he was estranged from his wife. The reasons are discrete but something you can probably infer from who Harry is at the moment, and this is something you can pursue to an excessive degree. It's something where you definitely get little clues that build and build towards what happened, only it's something that's very explicitly demoralising and can send Harry into this spiral. You can phone your ex-wife, you can do this over and over again; and eventually the act itself is revealed to be something of a compulsive self-harm ritual you can tempt Harry into - deliberately priming his mind into taunting himself with his past mistakes.
That sort of dichotomy with the past and the never changing nature of it seems like a pervasive theme in this game, and it's that sort of thing where there's this explicit focus on how you would deal with past regrets. Do you mull over them and allow you to be consumed by them, or is it something you use to gain perspective over yourself, and there's something about this game and how it's presented that's simultaneously painful and devastating but also liberating in a way. Also feels like one of the more explicit elements ripped from Planescape: Torment (one of the clearest inspirations of this game), except here I feel it's a bit more grounded and psychological in terms of its approach compared to the rich metaphorical nature of Planescape.
Life regrets go from unspeakable crimes condemning the planes to die, to someone managing to push his wife away in ways that he doesn't really know how to comprehend and so on and so forth - a lot of the politics in this game wind up matching much closer to reality as well. That, and there is the possibility your character can still badly screw up and have all these regrets - and a lot of the game does simultaneously tease this possibility like it's an inevitability. The various game overs this game has certainly conveys that aspect with characters remarking that it juts seems to make sense that it would end this way, noting Harry's mental state or his health and his alcoholism and drug abuse and so forth. That simultaneously it makes sense that Harry would suffer an inevitable fate, but then the game itself doesn't present that sort of fatalism as a given - in fact it largely contests it. But like also there's Harry's demeanour where he can come across as unbelievably cocky and in-over-his-head, yet at the same time there's flashes of brilliance with him. With the latter, there are moments where it feels like you're undoubtedly right about something, yet you are chewed out on it regardless. Is there an element of truth to it, or is it something that's goading you based off of self-esteem issues and would-be self-conscious elements?
I do think a lot of this game works because of its black comedy and its understanding of the absurdity of some of these situations. A lot of what I've described sounds rough when objectively described, but then there's an absurdity behind a lot of it which makes it all the more convincing and devastating - you're never sure if you're meant to laugh at or be disturbed by the material, and it finds some sort of impossible synergy between the two, which also does a great deal to make it feels more convincing in terms of its emotional impact. It makes use of that sort of tension where you do get a sense of someone's thought processes in great depth, contrasted with the unreasonableness and this idea of missing out on these underlying issues that just stick out like a sore thumb when confronted with them. Another strong example would be a scenario where Harry decides to point his gun into his mouth as a 'joke' in front of a group of people which then leads on into these actual suicidal thoughts, and neither you nor your partner knows if you were playing a sick joke or note or if it were a genuine attempt - even when your partner says that it is just a sick joke. I think a great deal of why this game works is precisely because of its moralistic edge, and how it's unafraid to dig into these very controversial and uncomfortable elements.
What I largely gained from this game is that it feels like this indictment towards rumination and how people fall down extremely unhelpful thought processes, whilst still showing a great deal of empathy and even sympathy towards it. I like how there's this central dichotomy put in place where there's your own thought processes, what actions they wind up inspiring, and what the follow-through result of it is. Some of it can be quite befuddling, and there's also something quite terrifying about being presented this array of options of all these potentially awful things to say or do, yet more importantly there's this aspect where you can choose what to act on, and in some cases interrogating what seems unavoidable to you. Like yeah, you always have had these thought processes to beat the everlasting crap out of a 12 year old boy, yet you can also choose to not act on them, and in fact you can actually become friendly with him in spite of that. Even when you have these thought processes, you choose not to act on them, and I think this game in general is quite good at displaying the sort of nightmare situations that occur with intrusive thoughts - either where you feel trapped inside your own head, or you are just totally disinhibited and off the wall with pretty much every aspect of your work and basic functioning. Likewise, you can also choose to be a total egotist, especially revealing with how you can solve the game without ever searching the body, something which might seem like an oversight; but Harry can then also boast about it like it's an achievement anyway.
I think what's most fascinating about this game is that there's something ultimately moralistic about the way that it's told, and it's something where the RPG mechanics and what you bring forward to your role as this detective play a large part in it. In many ways, Harry is this absolute wreck of a human being, but he's also very talented and has all this underlying potential - but then with that potential is Harry doing any good with it? The ending of this game in particular feels very fitting because of how it takes two very devastating and revealing but very contrasting scenes (one of deeply personal introspection about the world and the case, and the other where you're chewed out and heavily mocked for what you describe during your experience) and ultimately an open ending where all these loose ends abound - it feels quite bleak with how there's so many dire things out of your control, but then ultimately there might be some redemption behind it.
Disco Elysium is one of these games where it feels incredibly detailed, but also kind of (intentionally) incomplete in terms of its storytelling - in that it eventually ends, but it's the sort of thing that leaves you wanting more. Looking back at this game, there were clearly details that I missed out on, but it almost seems like it's designed for that to be a distinct possibility, especially on a first playthrough. At the end of the day, it's something where most of its effects are about what you bring to it - those sort of feelings of queasy, unanswered questions, and the sort of thing where you kind of have to decide for yourself what the answers are, with what you come out of it with. Maybe I'm just way too analytical, but there's a lot of things in this game where I can just keep writing on and on about it. This piece, whilst I feel it's comprehensive enough, is about as truncated as I can make it. There is just so much to go on about this game, and really a lot of it is just what you bring to it.
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