Harry Du Bois
The amnesiac RCM detective the player controls.
Disco Elysium is a role-playing video game set in the fictional world of Elysium, featuring an open world and dialogue-heavy gameplay mechanics.[1] The game received critical acclaim upon its release and has sold more than five million copies.[2]
Geography and history
The Pale outnumbers the isolas' coverage of Elysium 2-to-1, and will eventually swallow all of Elysium.[3] There are seven known isolas: Mundi, Seol, Samara, Graad, Katle, Iilmaraa, and Insulinde.[3] Revachol was founded about 380 years before the game's events during the early colonization of Insulinde in the Dolorian Century.[3] The game's world includes over six thousand years of history, and the genre is described as "fantastic realism".[4]
The narrative of Disco Elysium is set in the Current Century, specifically the year 51, on the isola called Insulinde, which is referred to as the "New New World".[5][6] The planet Elysium consists of "isolas", which are separate land and sea areas divided by the Pale, a mysterious, fog-like substance described as "connective tissue" where the normal rules of reality do not apply.[3][5] Being in the Pale for an extended period can lead to mental breakdown and fatality; because of these risks, travel through the Pale is subject to strict controls.[5]
What the cited sources add
The Game Rant account explains that Elysium is not a sphere but something akin to a disc, surrounded by a gray corona of light.[3] The Postimees article states that the plot of Disco Elysium plays out in the fictional city of Revachol.[7] The GamesRadar article describes that the game's crumbling city and compromised characters reflect Estonia's history, though they do not depict it.[8] The O'Keefe article explains that "disco" is Latin for "I learn," making the game's title a double entendre meaning "I learn Elysium"[9]
The same source notes that the game opens with the first stanza of "Reflections," a poem from the collection No Truce With The Furies.[9]
References
- Wikipedia, "Disco Elysium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kelly, "Disco Elysium Review", PC Gamer, 15 October 2019; Cohen, "Ambitious open-world RPG Disco Elysium lets you take on the role of a mentally unstable detective", Techspot, 16 October 2019; Williams, "Disco Elysium Review: The Voices in Your Head Are Real, and They'll Get You in Trouble", USgamer, 16 October 2019; Lang, "Disco Elysium Review – Stayin' Alive", Critical Hit, 17 October 2019 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Disco Elysium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Slant Staff, "The 100 Best Video Games of All Time", Slant Magazine, 2020-04-13; I. G. N. Staff, "The Top 100 Video Games of All Time", IGN, 2021-12-31; "Best Games on PC", Metacritic (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Trahan, "The World of Disco Elysium Explained", Game Rant, 24 January 2020. facts only, no text reused. gamerant.com
- Wikipedia, "Disco Elysium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Metsniit, "The Hungarian Interview", Studio, 31 March 2017; Gordon, "The materialism and magic of the surprise RPG hit 'Disco Elysium'", Inverse, 2021-04-25 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Disco Elysium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Trahan, "The World of Disco Elysium Explained", Game Rant, 24 January 2020 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Disco Elysium" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kelly, "Disco Elysium Review", PC Gamer, 15 October 2019; Trahan, "The World of Disco Elysium Explained", Game Rant, 24 January 2020 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Altküla, "Kaur Kender on new computer game: It's like 'Truth and Justice'", Postimees, 22 October 2019. facts only, no text reused. news.postimees.ee
- Wiltshire, "The making of Disco Elysium: How created one of the most original RPGs of the decade", GamesRadar, 9 January 2020. facts only, no text reused. gamesradar.com
- O'Keefe, "The Invisible Art of Game Titles", 20 January 2020. facts only, no text reused. egmnow.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Disco Elysium (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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