One Million Incredible Words

Visually Stunning
Nov 5 · 3 min read

In 2017, three years into the development of the indie RPG Disco Elysium, Rock Paper Shotgun’s Alice O’Connor wrote, “I don’t know what this game is, but I want to.” O’Connor wasn’t alone: nobody knew what this game was, but everybody wanted to. It was being developed by a team of Estonians who called themselves “ZA/UM,” after a World War I-era Russian poetry movement, presumably to discourage people from approaching them at parties. At that time, their game’s title was No Truce With The Furies, and it was receiving breathless previews on the kinds of websites that do that sort of thing, fueled by the developer’s own hype-filled blog posts. RPG fans will ignore the reddest of flags, like a pretentious title with too many words and not enough meaning. Or a team of thirtysomethings blathering about their first-ever, as-yet-unreleased, game. That’s right — ZA/UM had never made a game before. Can you imagine a half-dozen middle-aged Latvian neophytes whipping real-time strategy players into a frenzy by dropping a few blog posts about their debut RTS, Not A Detente With The Norns? Definitely not, right? “Call me when the Steam reviews are Overwhelmingly Positive,” we’d yawn, if we even heard about it, which we wouldn’t, because Rock Paper Shotgun would not be writing about it. No one expects any developer’s first-ever RTS to be good. No one expects anyone’s first-ever anything to be good. Of course, sometimes a debut will be a masterpiece and surprise everyone, but “surprise” is the key word. Until proven otherwise, we know to be wary of first-time efforts. Except, for some reason, when it comes to RPGs. “Tell us a story,” RPG players beg. “We’ll buy anything.”

In October 2019, No Truce With The Furies came out, renamed Disco Elysium. The gaming press was delighted to announce that their pre-release enthusiasm was now vindicated. Ninety-four percent of the game’s Steam reviews are positive. Its Metacritic “Metascore” is 90, defined as “universal acclaim.” And perhaps no one is more pleased with Disco Elysium than its lead developer, Robert Kurvitz. “Our goal was to make a world to end all worlds, and that’s what I’ve been doing,” he told The Escapist’s Samantha Nelson a few weeks after release. After swallowing a statement that DJ Khaled might have called “a bit self-aggrandizing,” Nelson truly outdid herself. “Kurvitz said ZA/UM is less a studio and more a cultural movement in the vein of Dadaism or Fluxus,” she wrote, flaunting a truly epic ability to keep a straight face while credulously parroting a bombastic declaration that would make the most stoned freshman drop his Fountainhead. Nelson continued, “The group shares a passion for ambitious humanitarian culture and a hatred of elitism.” OMG, same!

Everyone agrees that the primary attraction to Disco Elysium is its writing. According to IGN, the game is “sharply” and “meticulously written.” The Washington Post proclaimed Disco Elysium’s writing “gloriously rich” and “evocative.” PC Gamer called the writing “incredibly good, with an anarchic literary flair that makes even the most matter-of-fact conversation hugely entertaining.” But something that calls itself “The Indie Game Website” went even further. “Disco Elysium’s writing is its lifeblood. Dialogue and exposition is written with such effortless flair and genius.” “Its world and characterization are brought to life by artistry and writing that are nothing short of astounding.” “There’s a total of one million words written across its branching dialogue trees. More importantly, those one million words are incredible.”

I had never thought about describing words as “incredible” before, but now I couldn’t help myself. Upon extensive reflection, I now realize that I’ve spent countless hours slogging through games filled with words that are decent at best. Occasionally I’ll find a pretty good word. In the very best-written games, I might come across six to seven great words. But one million incredible words? All in one game? This I have to see.

Visually Stunning

Games Are Fun.

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