Introduction
VOLITION: This is a bad idea.
Oh, absolutely.
Disco Elysium is a revolutionary role-playing game from the fine folks at ZA/UM, written and designed by some European dude.
ENCYCLOPEDIA: His name is Robert Kurvitz and he’s an Estonian novelist.
Yeah, that. Anyway, Disco Elysium puts you in the role of a detective trying to solve a murder. Everything else, however, is up to the player. You can be whatever kind of cop you want—from fascist pig to sympathetic fascist pig! Wakka wakka amirite
AUTHORITY: Watch your tongue, hippie.
For real, though, the possibilities are enormous: preach laissez-faire capitalism! Sideline your investigation to sing karaoke! Do lots of druuuuuugs!
ELECTROCHEMISTRY: Drugs?!?
Yes, drugs! Disco Elysium is a true role-playing game, one that allows the player to do pretty much whatever they want (within reason, of course, and often outside of reason as well). But what makes this game truly revolutionary is the way it simulates thought. The game lacks combat--
PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT: Boo.
--but instead, your skills have the benefit of giving you more dialogue, in the form of various aspects of your personality. The more skill points you put into an aspect, the more often it will activate. Your thoughts can interact and bicker with each other, or just try to steer you along the right path. These thoughts can be used to unlock dialogue options, pass skill checks, or just provide loads of flavor. This is the part where I mention the game is incredibly funny, too.
Now, the problem with LPing this game is that it’s absolutely massive and incredibly modular, with tons of writing that will change based on your decisions. I’ll try to show off some alternate decisions, but seeing everything is impossible due to the sheer scale.
This game’s still pretty new, so I’m gonna ask that we not get too deep into spoilers. I might relax that policy in the future, but for now, just don’t.
I'm going to warn now, this game features the use of (censored) homophobic slurs, as well as depictions of racism and mentions of rape (both real and in the form of false threats). In context, I do not believe the writer is invoking this stuff without thought or being a shithead about it, but I'm telling you now. If you don't like that I'm putting this warning up, too bad.
Chapter 1: 8:07-8:21: Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There
Chapter 2: 8:21-10:18: Buddy Cop
Chapter 3: 10:18-11:40: Cuno Don’t Care
Chapter 4: 11:40-13:38: Radio Chatter
Chapter 5: 13:38-15:18: Cop Discovers One Weird Trick To Recover From A Hangover In Just Thirty Minutes
Chapter 6: 15:18-16:48: Copologies For My Misconduct
Chapter 7: 16:55-19:06: Racists Of All Stripes
Chapter 8: 19:07-20:36: These Pants Are A Burden
Chapter 9: 20:36-21:45: Crane Games
Chapter 10: 21:45-23:17: Big Boss Man
Chapter 11: 7:30-8:44: Cryptid Chat
Chapter 12: 8:44-11:12: Cuno Witnesses An Autopsy
Chapter 13: 11:12-13:08: Crime, Romance, And Biographies Of Famous People
Chapter 14: 13:09-14:14: The Death of Capitalism
Chapter 15: 14:14-15:31: Missing Persons
Chapter 16: 15:31-17:13: Let’s Get Wild
Chapter 17: 17:13-17:58: Show Me The Goods
Chapter 18: 17:58-19:22: Why Won’t These Cops Go Away? A Hardie Boys Mystery
Chapter 19: 19:22-21:08: Apartment Complex
Chapter 20: 21:08-23:34: Roll Playing
Chapter 21: 7:30-9:24: Detective Tact
Chapter 22: 9:25-11:43: Dark Pinball Secrets
Chapter 23: 11:43-13:56: Sign My Petition To Save The Rec Center!
Chapter 24: 13:56-15:19: Bullying Works
Chapter 25: 15:19-17:01: Drama King
Chapter 26: 17:01-19:38: The Death of Raphael
Chapter 27: 19:38-20:55: Accidentally Doing A Centrism
Chapter 28: 20:55-22:46: Racism And Death
Chapter 29: 22:46-1:28: Karaoke For Spirits
Chapter 30: 1:28-Around 2:00: Incrementalism In The Night
Chapter 31: 7:30-9:14: A Little Light Mail Fraud
Chapter 32: 9:14-10:49: The Despair At The End Of The Rainbow
Chapter 33: 10:49-13:23: Building Bridges, Burning Buddies, And Being Boring
Chapter 34: 13:23-13:50: Supply-Side Economics
Chapter 35: 13:50-16:00: Ceramic Hornets
Chapter 36: 16:00-17:02: Beyond The Pale
Chapter 37: 17:02-18:21: War Stories and Boxing Trivia
Chapter 38: 18:21-20:09: Anodic, Anodyne
Chapter 39: 20:09-21:39: A Sobering Conversation With The Crab Man
Chapter 40: 21:39-23:00: The Sound Of Silence
Chapter 41: 23:00-1:09: Error Undefined
Chapter 42: 7:30-8:23: Long Lonesome Road Home
Chapter 43: 8:23-9:09: Lieutenant Bumblefuck
Chapter 44: 9:09-15:09: The Grand History Of The Fuckatoo
Chapter 45: 15:09-17:28: The 2mm Hole In the World
Chapter 46: 17:28-19:45: Dancing With Oblivion
Chapter 47: 19:45-23:47: Game Night
Chapter 48: 23:47-0:23: Descent Into Madness
Chapter 49: 00:23-Around 2:00: Cave Story
Chapter 50: The Tribunal
Chapter 51: 9:06-10:18: Aftermath
Chapter 52: 10:19-11:38: Fire Guy
Chapter 53: Someday The Dream Will End
Chapter 54: 13:10-13:31: Island Time
Chapter 55: 13:32-15:09: The Final Missing Piece
Chapter 56: 15:09-16:52: Nihilism, And What Comes After
Chapter 57: 16:53-17:59: The Spectre
Chapter 58: 17:59-19:56: Denouement
I also did a parallel run of the first day to show off some alternate paths through the game. Behold, the glory of Botchcop:
Addendum I: Botchcop Begins
Addendum II: Botchcop Is Terrible On Levels Even I Was Heretofore Wholly Unprepared For
Addendum III: Botchcop Tries Again
Addendum IV: Botchcop Knows Karate
Addendum V: Botchcop Begs For Money
Addendum VI: Botchcop Does A Night Autopsy, Desecrates A Corpse (Again), And Dabbles In Fascism
And the last update's just a brief bonus list of stuff I didn't show that you should check out for yourself:
Addendum VII: The Disco Elysium Home LP!