https://x.com/JamrockHobo/status/1799090939966947689 Bonus question: what game would you consider as COMMUNIST as disco elysium?
I dunno, maybe the Pathologic games or something like Outer Wilds. It’s just so incredibly rare in the videogame business that people with real interest in the world and things other than videogames come together and are able to make a game like Disco Elysium on their own terms, which probably also explains why the studio imploded so fast after it released. It’s simply not compatible with the industry. And really, even classic “rpgs with good writing” like Planescape Torment feel like pathetic nerd scribble in comparision. Disco Elysium really is the only game that I’d consider to actually have writing that’d stand up to actual literature.
That’s a good point. All of my other examples, save maybe parts of Morrowind rely on visual or thematic storytelling over literary. Elden Ring sneaks it in via like…wierd correspondences between lighting and a statue you saw on the other side of the map 5 hours ago that combine to make a meditation on Hemingway.
As good. Morrowind, Elden Ring. Homeworld, The Longest Journey.
As Communist, Red Faction Guerilla.
As good (writing): Morrowind, Fallout New Vegas, Shin Megami Tensei II, Deus Ex
As communist: none.
If by “as good” we mean the writing? Nothing. The closest I’ve played is probably Witcher 3, and that’s still a distant second. The other game everyone brings up is Planescape: Torment, but I haven’t played it.
Other than DE the most communist game I’ve played is probably Victoria 3.
I dunno about the second one but the only other game I’ve ever played where the writing wasn’t absolute drivel is Pillars of Eternity. It’s quite good IMO
I liked pillars for the story but I found the combat extremely boring and repetitive. Once you’ve found the buffs and debufs that works it’s just a matter of applying them by rote. Sadly there is loads of combat. If pillars was more like disco with less combat and more interesting dialogue checks I think it would be a much better game.
Same problems that BG2 has - they kinda bound themselves when the Kickstarter was “we want to make a modern BG2”
Not as Communist, but I am really getting back into Alpha Centauri. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m0aEO7CrxM
Alpha Centauri is a great game, but the way the Chinese faction is portrayed is racist as shit. Human Hive
Yeah, I always had a problem with that faction. Because that faction is supposedly “Maoist”, but it is really just “authoritarianism” for the sake of “authoritarianism”. No greater goal than repression and no freedom.
The free Drones are explicitly socialist and also explicitly opposed to and by the hive. Which has its own implications.
This game absolutely deserves a remaster, but the IP is split up in a way where it will probably never happen
I have that game on CD somewhere at my parent’s place. My dad never throws anything away, so I’m very sure of that.
I used to replay it over and over as a kid/teen.
Red flag as a kid: I ALWAYS picked the fascist faction. Kid logic “why cooperate when you can dominate?”
I always ALWAYS hunted the religious weirdo lady down and made sure to exterminate all of them. Nothing feels better than telling that self righteous piece of shit whatever the comm line is something like “Bible thumpers like you have no place here” right before you send a nuke and cause the UN and everyone to condemn you. But at least I owned Jesus lady
An atheist fascistic utopia 🥲
Outer Wilds
Honestly to get something “as good” in the same way you have to leave the realm of games.
In the domain of shows, I think Andor was not really as good but at least in the same ballpark. The domain of books has a few more possibilities: Babel by R. F. Kuang, October by China Mieville, Iron Council by China Mieville, The City and the City by China Mieville (the setting is very similar to Revachol), and The Dispossessed by UKLG.
Disco Elysium fans are always like “it’s like literature” yeah so what you’re looking for is literature, motherfuckers
The City and the City by China Mieville (the setting is very similar to Revachol)
I think there’s an interview somewhere that the DE creators cited this book as an inspiration (among other cool things). Great read!
It’s hard to directly compare games like this unless they’re in the same genre, but Outer Wilds is what came to mind immediately.
Grim Fandango is similarly strong on the writing and vibes
Not particularly communist, but the only other old-school-CRPG-genre game I truly enjoyed is Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. Not as meta-comedy, but the astounding writing and voice acting has lived on in my mind for decades. There is one quest where you can kill a billionaire factory owner and side with factory the unions, and a couple other quests to disrupt explicit capitalist conspiracies.
On top of the astounding writing, they also overcommitted and re-wrote every single dialogue for if your character is drunk or otherwise exceptionally bad at speaking… I may go attempt a full low-Int re-run, now.
Outside the genre, there are games I prefer, but probably largely specific to me. Victoria 3 is great and exceptionally communist if you play it correctly.
I don’t know man, the gnomish conspiracy still wigs me out. The fact that they made antisemitism correct in this game is a choice.
I don’t think they “made antisemitism correct”, but I admit the game is strongly based on generic fantasy tropes of the time, and they do fail to scrutinise the problematic part of gnome tropes. That minor part could’ve been handled more tastefully.
Still, almost every race in that game is shown to partake in exploitative conspiracies. It’s a largely equal-opportunity conspiracyscape.
The protocols of the elders of zion are literally true except worse in the game. It’s by no means equal. The gnomes are fully in a conspiracy that fully runs the industrialized world, and to maintain their power they engage in stuff that is right out of an antisemitic pamphlet.
The elves are not a stand in for an ethnic group for which they inhabit all the worst stereotypes. The closest is a read of the orcs as stand ins for exploited ethnic groups under capitalism and colonialism, which given the orcish depiction as stupid but strong is itself racist. But at least the Orcs aren’t universally evil.
I don’t really know how to respond to this, other than that I disagree. I do not see the link.
They’re a big nosed race that run the banks and the government secretly who funds revolution to get rid of the traditional order that threatened them, they subvert other races specifically using lesser races to threaten the otherwise dominant racial group. They’re all, universally, in on it, it’s all planned, it’s all a big conspiracy those who find out are silenced and made to look like fools, those who oppose them are clandestinely gotten rid of.
All of that is 100% canon, it’s in the game, it’s not an interpretation. It’s just there. The most openly antisemitic shit I’ve seen. Now you can say its satire, and I would tend to agree, but I also think the fact that it isn’t even played as a little bit funny sort of undermines that.
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Undertale, BG3, World of Warcraft sometimes, OSRS, SM64, OoT, FF7. They aren’t like Disco Elysium, but DE doesn’t have a monopoly on devs who worked really fucking hard to make something hand crafted and awesome.
It’s not as good, but sometimes when I play the original Dishonored game it feels like I’m in Revachol.
While there’s issues with dishonored 2, the option to play without powers means that the level design needs to accommodate it, and so I find the level design of 2 fantastic compared to 1
I played the original for the first time recently, like a year or two ago, and I loved how fun it was and short. I ended up replaying it as evil after doing a good, stealth run. I almost completely forgot I still have to play the sequel.
Dishonored is like DE with much simpler plot writing, but the effort to really make the setting feel alive is on point. Atmosphere in that game is something else.
I stan Pathologic 2
