Esoteric Ebb

More disco than a parade full of dead spies

Being man - bad. Being woman - good. Author is so full of himself. If you think men are so in advantage go to Ukraine, join the army and enjoy the 'equality'. The game propaganda is kind of tiresome and it alone is enough reason to give this game a negative review. Buy this game with huge discount or even better - get for free. Give author a pleasure of enjoying his own ideology. P.S.: I wonder what will author do with 'excess' wealth he gets from this game (according to his interview he was thrown money at)? Will he donate it? Or maybe will he share it with those who helped him create the game? Or... will he just keep all the geld to himself?

Apolitical response...

the only good version of "what if disco elysium was about a witch trying to find her lost cat in the alps." esoteric ebb has similar mechanics to DE and politics are a major theme of it, but it is a lot lighter and has a more optimistic view of human nature, while still being deeply affecting. also the music is so good that i bought the soundtrack. i mostly played (and finished btw) this game offline when i was on vacation in a place w/out wifi so the hours played isn't accurate.

I was really into this game for the first few hours. The world and characters are charming, the tone is funny, and I like the D&D ability types and dice rolls. The set up to the story is interesting and I just liked exploring the environment and chatting with people. However as the game went on, it felt like the world kept getting smaller. These types of choice-based roleplaying games usually feel like I can do any number of things at any time , and what I do (and do not do) really makes for a unique experience. There's definitely a lot of that here, but relatively early on I kept getting into situations where I felt like I had talked to everyone already and the game wanted me to go back into one specific place to continue the story, the exploration aspect was mostly gone. The story itself centers around the different political parties vying to win the first ever election in the city of Norvik. This starts off as kind of just a silly satire, but eventually gets into the weeds of their systems in a way that just made me skim the dialogue at a certain point. There's good, clever writing throughout, but the story points on the most part failed to hook me. I feel like this sort of game should really work for me, but I also didn't really care for Disco Elysium. I'm hoping the next Disco-like hits!

The biggest problem with playing this game is constantly comparing it to Disco Elysium. It is remarkably similar and considerably weaker than Disco Elysium at multiple points throughout the playthrough, though this comparison says more about how exceptional Disco Elysium is than it does about any specific critical issues with this game. Having said that, appreciating it on its own terms provides a much more pleasant and enjoyable experience, as it has many unique and interesting mechanics, as well as plenty of great and memorable moments.

i'm having so much fun and i sometimes feel smart with my skillz

I pick up an apple