Disco Elysium: The Final Cut

Disco Elysium – The Final Cut is something rare. It’s a re-issued version of an already-beloved game, that manages to eclipse the source material through clever and thoughtful additions that maximise one of the game’s most beautiful assets: its prose. But more than that, it’s the only CRPG that can truly claim to emulate the tabletop experience—not through adherence to statistics or rules or character sheets, but through the simple act of asking questions, and thoughtfully incorporating the answers.

Enhanced with fantastic and fresh content, Disco Elysium: The Final Cut is a game that dances through the vulgar and the sublime in an experience that excels in delivering superb storytelling with compelling gameplay mechanics; it’s a hallmark of the genre that deserves every ounce of credit attributed to it.

A fully voiced cast and new content of comparable quality to the original game are welcome additions, although The Final Cut isn't quite yet the definitive edition we were hoping for due to the nagging issues it suffers from. But it speaks to the high standards developer ZA/UM Studio set with Disco Elysium's original release that these are the only blights on what remains one of the best games of recent years.

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut doesn't shy away from its problems, but each one just cements how interesting those flaws are. Minor technical issues can be fixed, but what the game does, how it does it, and how the player responds is something that no other medium, no other game has achieved.

The Final Cut update to Disco Elysium elevates this masterpiece of a game to the status of perfection.

Disco Elysium is a unique blend of noir-detective fiction, traditional pen-and-paper RPGs, and a large helping of existentialist theory. Its twisting plot, cast of memorable characters, and sheer depth of choice combine to create an experience that begs to be savoured. It hits on every single one of the marks it sets out to achieve and left me yearning to spend more time in its world. Removing any of the minor gripes I had with the original by adding new quests and a full cast of well-voiced characters, The Final Cut elevates Disco Elysium from an already phenomenal RPG to a true must-play masterpiece.

Disco Elysium has a distinctive quality to its narrative, whether it's the interesting history of its world, or the mysteries surrounding the investigation, not to mention the depth and uniqueness of the many characters. It's one of the greatest story-driven experiences we've ever seen.

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut is the definitive version of an already brilliant game. It’s a melding pot of eccentric characters, thought-provoking social commentary, and a staggering sense of world and place within its setting. Its main narrative might fumble in its conclusion, but everything you’ll experience before that is some of the best stuff you can find in this kind of RPG.

Disco Elysium’s dense, authored, yet player-driven storytelling uses the bones of RPG gameplay to deliver a truly modern piece of interactive political art.