The year 2019 saw the release of Disco Elysium, a role-playing game in the vein of 1999’s classic Planescape Torment. Like Torment, the game featured an isometric perspective and an amnesiac protagonist (a detective), who was tasked with solving a grisly murder in the dystopian city of Revachol.
Made by Estonian studio ZA/UM, the game had a deep plot, lots of amusing dialogue to read and plenty of involved decision making, also tackling issues like racism and drugs in its story.
Disco Elysium was a deep RPG for those who were craving for a Planescape Torment-like experience, then, so it’s no surprise that it became a hit last year – it definitely was a Game of the Year contender, no doubt.
Those yet to take the plunge and play Disco Elysium, or those who’ve already played through the game will be glad to hear that studio ZA/UM is working on a definitive edition of the game.
Titled “Disco Elysium: The Final Cut”, it will be coming out in March 2021, and will be a free upgrade for current owners of the game on PC. The game will also be hitting the PS4 and PS5 in March, and the Xbox Series X (and S) in the summer of 2021. It will also be playable on Google’s cloud streaming service Stadia.
Taking into account the game’s debut on consoles, Disco Elysium: The Final Cut will feature full controller support, letting you solve the mysteries of the game’s city of Revachol from the comfort of your couch.
The original release of Disco Elysium was criticized by some for having too much text to read – playing through the game felt like reading a novel at times – so it’s also a good thing that the Final Cut edition features full voice acting. That’s it, every single line in the game’s script will be voiced in the Final Cut, meaning console players won’t be squinting to read a ton of text on their TVs in order to follow the game’s plot.
How good the new voice acting will be, though, remains to be seen, but if the limited voice work in the original is any indication, then it’s bound to be very good (except some annoying kid voices featured in the original game, which I hope they improve).
Also welcome is the fact that Disco Elysium: The Final Cut will feature new characters to interact with and an entire new area to explore, plus new “political vision quests” to deal with. This means those who’ve already played through the original will have new content to look forward to, even if it would be a disappointment if these new additions are not up to the standard of what was seen in the original, which was praised for its writing, some of the best ever in a video game.
Additionally, the game will run at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second on the PlayStation 5 (and presumably on the Xbox Series X too), meaning those gaming on new-gen consoles will likely enjoy a version of the game that looks as good as the game does on PC.
Hopefully, then, Disco Elysium: The Final Cut will be a worthy upgrade of one of last year’s best RPGs, and one which console gamers with even the slightest interest in the genre will surely be looking forward to playing next year.