My first reflection will begin with Disco Elysium, which is my favorite game.
Disco Elysium offers players multiple layers of gameplay. DE goes beyond being just a murder mystery and provides a look at the society of Revachol, the setting of the game, and also a philosophical discussion on the failure of ideology and past memory.
Unlike Football Manager, DE is not mechanically complex. Its main mechanics include dialogue trees with many choices and skill checks, the Thought Cabinet, the ability to customize clothes and character statistics, and the map for exploration. These mechanics fundamentally allow players to investigate a murder by asking questions to suspects or witnesses, collecting and analyzing clues, and ultimately piecing together the events that took place. However, the investigative process transforms from being simply about finding a killer into an investigation about the history of Revachol. Through the interactions and conversations with different NPCs in the game, the players can gradually discover that Revachol has experienced revolutions, been occupied by foreign countries, suffered from poverty, and experienced a great deal of disillusionment with politics. All of these experiences give the player a sense of discovery because the player develops a desire to find out what happened to Revachol, why it happened, and how the history of Revachol continues to impact the present-day lives of the citizens of Revachol.
Players also enjoy the narrative of DE as they make their own decisions and paths through the narrative of the game. The challenge of DE comes from attempting to make sense of the limited information available, dealing with unreliable characters, and confronting ideologies that can be somewhat persuasive while also being broken.
The deepest layer of DE reveals itself through the amnesia of the protagonist, Harry, and also through the internal dialogue of Harry and the Pale. It is within these elements that fantasy and expression become important. The player can engage in the fantasy of playing a detective; however, this is not the typical image of a heroic and squeaky-clean detective.
DE is able to provide players with both an Easy Fun and a Serious Fun experience. Due to the fact that DE is both entertaining as a murder mystery and also provides an avenue for players to examine society, identity, and memory through the mechanics of the game, DE creates both Easy Fun and Serious Fun for the player.
