Despite multiple playthroughs, apparently I never dared to write a review. In the hopes of catching one of my friends looking at this game tentatively over the upcoming Steam Sales, here goes...

This is the best narrative-driven CRPG in the last 25 years.

The writing feels so alive, every word of it. The art is evocative, as if Hieronymus Bosch reincarnated and painted a triptych depicting our modern broken world. The soundtrack by British Sea Power fits the game perfectly. The story and characters pull you in right away. The combined vibes are just off the charts. This is a real work of art.

The game gives you tools to shape your character with a one-of-a-kind skill system. In addition to typical skill checks it provides additional internal dialogue interjections and options. Thought Cabinet gives you further bonuses and maluses as you choose what kind of thoughts to internalize. These systems are mechanically perfect for this style of game. As in any good RPG, you roll a lot of dice. The failed rolls are often funnier than the successful ones. If you can't accept the outcome, most of the rolls can be retried later. Trying again fits the theme of the game perfectly. There are tons of hidden modifiers unlocked by exploring the world and engaging with the game. The game consistently rewards exploration and engaging with it.

The game lives and dies by its script. Over one million words, now fully voice-acted in The Final Cut, with delightful acting throughout. The game doesn't hesitate to be real -- it isn't at all afraid of confronting and calling out the player. Some of the topics it deals with are incredibly heavy, and not often encountered in games. There is a lot of black humor weaved in. It's very Estonian in character, something I bonded with right away as a Finn. The failures of communism, socialism, capitalism, fascism and centrism are all explored here in depth. The game gets crushingly sad at times, yet nonetheless it is permeated with a sense of vague hope. It can be a journey of healing.

The only reason to skip this game is if you're not a reader or suffer from attention span issues. The full voice acting only helps up to a point. It demands attention and rewards patience.

The only relevant point of comparison is to Planescape: Torment, an obscure CRPG from 1999 that was previously my uncontested favorite CRPG of all time. It is a similarly word-heavy story, with a similarly amnesiac main character, but if we are being real, Planescape suffers from its Dungeons & Dragons engine and combat. The setting is completely different and the story being told hits completely different beats. Clearly Planescape: Torment served as a faint inspiration, but the comparisons don't do Disco Elysium justice.

I'm frankly surprised that five years after release, this style and the mechanics haven't been copied by other games. Perhaps that is for the best. This is a unique masterpiece, and unluckily for us the studio that made it has disintegrated since, in a very Disco Elysium fashion. (Most negative reviews you see are kneejerk reactions to what went down.) Life imitates art.