I went into this game expecting something pretty good, a Disco Elysium-like but not quite at the writing level of Disco. Something D&D-coded but not quite at the level of Planescape: Torment.
I was NOT expecting brilliance. This game can proudly stand in the company of Planescape and Disco. While the games that inspired Esoteric Ebb had a lot of gravitas, but a few moments of levity, Ebb decided to make it more light-hearted, but certainly not afraid to be deep. It treats the political choices remarkably thoughtfully. Your internal dialogue pares down 24 voices from Disco to six "chimes," representing your D&D stats (and also parts of your body.) It allows for much more personality to shine through. If you don't want to speak to yourself, there's Snell, your goblin Kim-analogue. Snell and Kim are both there as foils to prevent you from getting too unhinged (at one point, Snell scolds you like you're a stupid dog for attempting to jump down a hole, in a hilarious exchange,) but Snell is different in that he serves a goblin tribe at odds with the group that sent you on your mission. Suffice to say, the characters and the writing are all incredible.
The graphics paint a lovely world, and the dungeons are expertly drawn (you can actually miss passages that are drawn to be hidden.) The ruins give just enough of a hint about the history of the world to satisfy your world-building appetite without dropping into "telling instead of showing."
Combat is reduced to a series of checks. You receive dice rolls for damage, but it doesn't appear as though your opponents do. Some may find that disappointing as it doesn't feel like D&D, but I feel it's a decent compromise between Disco (which only had one combat encounter of sorts,) and Planescape (which had WAY too much combat.) If I could nitpick at one thing I didn't like, it's how it handles death. If you drop below 0 hitpoints you get saving throws. If you fail them, it's game over. If you succeed them, you get a negative on all your rolls until your next long rest. On day 1 I ended up with 5 negative points and failed just about everything for the rest of the day. Dying and getting a game over is actually the preferable option, because you'd be save scumming! (There is a way to make succeeding a death saving throw a good thing, but I didn't receive it until late in the game.)
Overall? I loved it. Maybe even a hair better than Disco. Still not quite as good as Planescape Torment, but your mileage may vary. I really hope this one stands the test of time... and the game does tease a sequel. I would buy that in an INSTANT if it came out, but Esoteric Ebb would work just as well if it's a franchise of one.
