Disco Elysium is an incredibly unique game, let me just say that right out of the gate. It’s a game with brilliant writing, a fantastically built world, and plenty of memorable characters with a just as memorable sea of dialog options, and with all these factors and more put together it makes for, in my opinion, one of the best Role-Playing Games ever created. If you haven’t played or heard of it, listen to me when I tell you this, you sincerely should go and give it a try as soon as you can. It’s a story any RPG fan should experience at least once.
But I’m not here to talk about Disco Elysium, to try and sell you on the game if you’re on the fence about buying it yourself. Instead, I’m here to talk about a slew of games that are similar to Disco Elysium in various factors.
If you don’t know, Disco Elysium is a game where you play as a detective who wakes up with amnesia after a night of drinking on a world-ending scale, lost in a town he doesn’t remember, tasked with solving the case of who killed the man who’s been hanging from a tree behind the local hostel for a week. Thanks to Harry’s amnesia, the detective who doesn’t even remember his name is Harry at first, you can mold him to be any kind of detective you want through an expansive variety of dialog choices, actions, and internalized thoughts that speak to you as if they were their own people that seek to help you solve the murder.
So now with that brief idea of what Disco Elysium is about, I’ll shift your focus to the list of 10 games we have prepared for you here today. I’ll also say this before we begin, no game out there is exactly like Disco Elysium, it’s just too unique of a strange, beautiful, and sometimes sad sort of animal to be that much like anything else. However, if you are a fan of Disco Elysium, then chances are you’ll also notice similarities big or small across this list of games, as well as notable differences that help make these games amazing all on their own.
Now, I think we’ve had enough of the preamble. So let’s get right onto this Top 10 list of games that are similar to Disco Elysium, while still being great all for their own reasons. Starting with…
#10: Clam Man 2: Open Mic (PC)
Clam Man 2: Open Mic (2020) LAUNCH TRAILER
We’re starting this list with a relatively small indie game that’s full of charm and heart, Clam Man 2: Open Mic. Clam Man 2 is the story of a man, who is a clam, who’s stuck in a dead-end office job and decides to change his fate by becoming the one thing a man like him can become: A standup comedian.
The first Clam Man game was more of a point-and-click style adventure game, but Open Mic takes a new path by being an RPG whose inspiration from Disco Elysium bleeds through into the gameplay in delightful fashion. In Open Mic, you play as the titular Clam Man as he journeys through his life in a perfectly average city at the bottom of the ocean, working at your unsatisfying office job while trying to achieve your dreams of being a stand-up comedian by completing quests, having strange conversations, lying to children and more. Every quest, every conversation, and every joke you tell has multiple branching paths to uncover, with certain actions being performed by classic RPG-style dice rolls to determine your success in the world, meaning that depending on your skills and a bit of luck, you could either kill it with your comedy set or end up bombing for forty minutes and embarrassing yourself.
Open Mic is a game that’s being made entirely by one developer, so when you take that into account you will be blown away by the amount of heart, passion, and talent that’s been put into this charmingly weird little game about just one small clam trying to find his way in a massive ocean. This passion project unfortunately doesn’t have the biggest of followings at the time of writing, so I hope that in some small way putting Open Mic on this list could help possibly present it to new potential fans. Because a game as charming as this certainly deserves to have as many eyes on it as possible.
To sum it up, Clam Man 2 is a unique entry in the RPG genre, since instead of solving crimes or fighting off magical villains, you’re just trying to get through your week while looking for inspiration for new jokes. Whether you choose to play as an improv savant or a nervous wreck, Open Mic offers you plenty of ways to play through this thriving world under the waves. And you know what else? Open Mic is a free prologue for the full Clam Man 2 game still in development, so this is only the beginning glimpse into your budding future career in comedy! So long as you have the nerve not to faint during your time in the spotlight.
Faint to get out of public speaking. Cause an earthquake. Lie to children. Do whatever it takes to break out of the mundane day-to-day routine and become the best stand-up comedian you can be in Clam Man 2: Open Mic.
#9: Baldur’s Gate 3 (PC/Mac/PS5/Xbox Series X/S)
Baldur's Gate 3 Official Launch Trailer
I’ll admit right off the bat that I had some trouble deciding which of the Balder’s Gate games I should have put on this list. Perhaps you can call it a case of recency bias, but as you can see I decided to settle on the latest release of Baldur’s Gate 3 which was released just this year. A game that I think has done a fantastic job of giving players a wide variety of in-depth role-play scenarios to seek out and experience, a staple that players have come to expect and love from the franchise and the genre as a whole, and thus has already earned its spot in any discussion about RPGs, this list included.
Like previous games in the series, Baldur’s Gate 3’s gameplay is heavily inspired by the mechanics of the widely acclaimed Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game, specifically the 5th Edition of D&D in BG3’s case. In BG3, you have the choice of either selecting a pre-made character with an already-made array of looks and backgrounds, or you can create your own character however you see fit, before venturing forth across the Forgotten Realms. Picking one of 12 classes to play and one of 11 selectable character races, if you’re running a custom character, you will experience a vast original story that, while the overall mainline plot remains generally the same, can branch out and change in hundreds of different ways thanks to the choices you and your party will make.
While you aren’t a drunken detective warning of the coming apocalypse or contemplating bringing back Communism(though you may pretend you are if you wish), Balder’s Gate 3 does offer a wide variety of ways for you to present yourself when making a character to roleplay as. You can be a heroic knight fighting for righteous justice, a villainous warlock using dark magic to defeat your foes, a wandering nomadic ranger who can traverse any biome, and anything else that comes to mind. Your character will also meet a wide range of enemies to face off against, along with a selection of unique companions who will join you on your adventure, becoming your close friend in the process, or even perhaps your lover.
Baldur’s Gate 3 was released to critical acclaim from reviewers and players alike. Reviews praised the game’s high-quality writing, the detailed bringing to life of the D&D setting of Faerûn, the amount of player freedom the storylines offered, the performance of the voice cast, and much more. Along with reviewer praise, the game reached an all-time peak of 875 thousand concurrent players on the second weekend after release, if you can imagine that, cementing Balder’s Gate 3’s status as a roaring success in pretty quick fashion.
While yes, the world of Baldur's Gate differs greatly from that of Disco Elysium, the core of both games remains quite similar. In both games, players are put into an expansive world to explore while shaping their characters by using brilliantly written dialog and actions, providing near-limitless replayability through many branching narrative paths and character interactions that keep players coming back for more. These are the elements that you can expect out of any brilliant role-playing game, and Baldur’s Gate 3 is no exception to this. If you somehow haven’t joined the millions of other players who have already ventured forth into Baldur’s Gate 3 yet, then you might just be missing out on your new favorite RPG.
Whether you play as a hero or villain, a knight or a wizard, a fighter or a lover, this is your story to be told, and the world of Balder’s Gate 3 will be shaped forever through your actions.
#8: Wasteland 3 (PC/Mac/Linux/PS4/Xbox One)
Wasteland 3 - Official Gameplay Trailer
The first Wasteland was released back in 1988, developed by Interplay Productions, who would later go on to develop the original Fallout games as well. The series returned in 2014 with Wasteland 2, and again in 2020 with the game featured on this list, Wasteland 3. The game mixes RPG elements like making drastic decisions that affect various branching narrative paths and combines it with tactical turn-based gameplay in a campaign that can either be played alone or in co-op with another player.
Played from an isometric perspective, a staple for plenty of RPGs, Wasteland 3 is set in the frozen wastes of a post-apocalypse Colorado, where players begin by controlling a duo of Arizona Rangers who survived an ambush that wiped out the rest of their squad mates, leaving them as what’s left of Team November, and subsequently leaving them forced to work for a local ruler known only as ‘the Patriarch’ if they want to gain his support for the Arizona Rangers, who are struggling with supply shortages.
The player’s squad is tasked with reigning in the Patriarch’s three heirs, who have become too focused on fighting each other in hopes of succeeding the Patriarch. This quest will lead them face-to-face with deadly enemies, be they human or machine, as they travel across the frozen Colorado wasteland, slowly uncovering the vicious extent of the Patriarch’s brutality, ultimately forcing the player to make decisions that will change the wasteland forever.
Wasteland 3’s dev team inXile used crowdfunding from their fans, as they’ve done before, to fund the creation of the game, and even though the campaign only lasted a month the game managed to raise over 3 million dollars, which ultimately led to another highly praised game in the Wasteland universe that’s been praised by reviewer and fan alike. Though Wasteland 3 doesn’t hold many similarities to Disco Elysium overall, it does share the fact that it’s a well-made RPG with a fascinating story and a cult following built over thirty years ago.
The post-apocalypse setting has served as the setting for many fantastically made RPGs over the years, with the Wasteland series standing high in those rankings among many other giants. If you haven’t played any game in this iconic series yet, you can either jump back to the 80s with the original or check out the latest entry and its three DLCs today. Whichever game you choose, if you’re a fan of RPGs, you’ll be a fan of Wasteland too.
The only thing more difficult than surviving against the deadly robots left roaming the world’s ruins is surviving the frozen cold of the post-apocalyptic Wasteland.
#7: Sunless Sea (PC/PS4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch)
Sunless Sea: Launch Trailer
Set in a victorian-gothic alternate universe, it’s been 40 years give or take since the city of London fell from the surface of the Earth and found itself in an enormous underground cavern called “the Neath”, becoming the fifth of the “fallen cities” that now reside under the planet’s surface. Operating out of Fallen London, you are a steamship captain seeking out fame, fortune, adventure, or anything else that your heart desires as you travel across the “Unterzee”, a massive saltwater ocean of black waters cascaded in darkness, where islands never stay in the same place for long and treacherous zee-beasts await to consume your crew. In Sunless Sea, your death is all but guaranteed, so it’s up to your captain to leave behind a notable enough legacy for those to come after them as you travel across or below the surface of the Unterzee, seeking out glory, fending off sentient icebergs, and most importantly, trying to retain your sanity and avoid having to eat your crewmates.
Sunless Sea is a game about discovery, adventure, mysteries, loneliness, and frequent death, where you can own and upgrade numerous steamboat vessels of varying sizes, seek out intriguing people to join your crew and lose your mind to the zee. The main gameplay is about exploring a vast world filled with mysterious places, people, and monsters, where you will encounter just as vast an array of stories to read about and live through yourself. Such stories you can encounter are from your very own crewmates, from people like the Haunted Doctor, the Irrepressible Cannoneer, and many more. Every one of them has a story to be drawn out of them if you’re persistent enough, just as how every island you encounter in the dark has a tale to tell.
This game stands out uniquely on this list for being one of the few here that isn’t technically an RPG in the traditional sense, as the gameplay falls more under a roguelike umbrella with exploration and survival elements, where you will either be piloting your ship across the dark ocean or fighting ship-based battles using cannons and torpedoes against seafaring foes. However, the ability to immerse yourself in this world and roleplay within it is very much there, as you will be able to choose the background and future ambitions of your captain, such as being able to make them a former street-urchin seeking to gain immortality from the ruler of the Elder Continent, or a Veteran seeking his father’s missing bones.
Sunless Sea, at its heart, is a game about stories. Stories about islands where hamsters and rats wage war, stories about the drowned sailors who now live under the zee, stories about discovering a God of the Unterzee, and ultimately a story about your death. Sunless Sea doesn’t have an overall narrative beyond your captain’s ambitions per se, but what it does have is a wonderfully crafted world full of scattered bits of fascinating lore to uncover across your adventures.
If going mad in the dark while seeking out riches beyond your wildest dreams and bringing your ship and its crew to an untimely end, only to then do it all over again in a world rich with masterful storytelling sounds like your cup of tea, then Sunless Sea is a game that deserves a lookover. Take it from me, I’ve put dozens of hours into it myself, and I haven’t even gotten to its space-faring sequel yet either!
Carve out a life for your captain in a cruel and unique world, straying from the gas lamps of home and into the dark where madness and cannibalism await in this Gothic Horror RPG.
#6: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (PC)
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines - Official Trailer
Set in mid-2000s Los Angeles, the human world is shaped in secret by various supernatural creatures, the most notable group among them being the Camarilla, a secret government of vampires spread across several individually unique clans. You are an ordinary human who is killed and subsequently resurrected as a fledgling vampire, an act that puts you on a path where you will meet many strange characters of varying supernatural status, from fellow vampires to werewolves, to demons and more. You will grow stronger over time, developing your vampiric powers and fighting humans and the supernatural alike as you progress through a story with many different branching paths and outcomes in this cult classic RPG based on the popular Vampire: The Masquerade pen-and-paper RPG series.
You start a playthrough of Bloodlines by creating your soon-to-be vampire, where you can either directly choose from one of several unique vampire clans and choose which points to spend in your Attributes, Abilities, and Discipline(vampiric powers) skill areas, or you can instead answer a series of questions and let the game make a character for you. The available clans range from the decadent Toreadors, who are closest to humanity with a passion for culture, to the monstrously deformed Nosferatu, vampires condemned to live forever in the shadows away from humanity, and several more to select.
Bloodlines delivers on a promise of being a “new type of RPG experience”, as it combines both traditional RPG elements with the brutal elements of a first/third-person shooter. The game plunges players headlong into the dark and embarks them on a journey filled with story-driven quests that can be completed multiple ways, where they will be able to utilize skills such as lockpicking and computer hacking or charismatically charming certain characters, alongside hard-hitting combat that ranges from brawling melee battles, blood-pumping shootouts, and most exciting of all, a wide range of vampiric powers at your disposal, which vary depending on your clan and can grow in unnatural power throughout the game.
It must be said that upon release in 2004, Bloodlines was viewed by many critics as a “flawed masterpiece”, for the game was heavily praised for its daring story, balanced character creator, and overall unique presentation that made many see it as one of the best RPGs of the 2000s, while also gaining negative criticisms for sometimes clunky or unpolished combat, general bugs and errors, and a handful of other technical problems. But even with the flaws, IGN named it the best PC RPG of 2004, and in more modern retrospectives the game is viewed by fans as a cult classic. With its uniquely told story using themes of the supernatural, combined with adult themes like sex and death used in a no-holds-barred fashion that was generally unheard of until Bloodlines came along, nowadays this game is viewed by many as being one of the best standout games among all PC role-playing games.
In more recent years, fans of Bloodlines have rejoiced with the news that a sequel to this beloved game is in development, which after some bumps and hiccups along the way is finally being set for release in 2024. So, if what you’ve read here so far is at all intriguing to you as a fan of brilliant and bloody RPGs and you find yourself excited at the prospect of becoming a vampiric power player in the World of Darkness, then Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is a game you should sink your fangs into as soon as you can. It’s only $19.99 on Steam today, and I think that price is a heck of a steal for the content and replayability you’ll get out of this game.
Work your way up from a newly resurrected fledgling vampire to one of the most powerful vampires in the whole of Los Angeles in this beloved cult classic RPG about Vampires, sex appeal, and death.
#5: Gamedec (PC/Nintendo Switch)
Gamedec - Official Narrative Branching Trailer
Reaching our halfway point on this list, anyone who is even remotely a fan of Disco Elysium should try to get their hands on Gamedec, a single-player isometric RPG set in a Cyberpunk future. In Gamedec, you will be able to select from multiple appearances and character backgrounds, with your selectable personality type being just one of the many factors that will affect how your story unfolds in your role of a private game detective, or gamedec for short, who is hired to solve mysteries across a variety of full-sensory-immersive virtual reality worlds.
Gamedec prides itself on having a vast range of branching narrative pathways for players to discover and experience. Your character’s custom background and personality types, combined with decisions you’ll be forced to make during your cases can result in any given quest beginning and ending in a diverse number of ways. The cyberpunk setting of the game provides an interesting take on being a detective, as in the game you will travel into a wide range of virtual reality worlds to track down criminals hiding within them, either by doing more standard detective work like asking around for leads and gaining the trust of the locals or by turning your virtual avatar into a cat and sneaking into the room you need to investigate.
Being a detective who's working on various cases, the game features a “deductions” system based on finding optional pieces of evidence to be used to help solve any mystery you’re trailing. Your deductions, along with the many, many dialog choices present in the game are permanent choices that can affect how the game progresses depending on what choices you make when trailing a criminal. Your dialog choices, the evidence you choose to pursue, and the deduction you choose to investigate are all major decisions that will ultimately determine what kind of detective you truly are capable of being.
Gamedec is heavily inspired by a collection of short stories by Polish science-fiction author Marcin Przybyłek, and though the game itself had been lightly criticized for the in-game terminology being a bit confusing at times, overall the game has been praised for its immersive setting, beautiful art design and for having decisions that truly do matter to the story, making for a highly replayable game.
If you’re a fan of being whatever kind of detective you desire to be, solving or failing cases however you see fit, and the beautifully crafted Cyberpunk setting that this game is wrapped up in, then Gamedec is a game that’s worth your attention.
Uncover the truth and hunt down criminals across a wide array of virtual reality worlds in Gamedec, the detective RPG where every choice changes the entire landscape of your case.
#4: Pillars of Eternity (PC/Mac/Linux/PS4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch)
Pillars of Eternity Release Trailer
Developed by Obsidian Entertainment, the team behind the award-winning Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity takes place in the fantasy world of Eora and predominantly within the country of Dyrwood, where the means of science have discovered that souls are fact rather than fiction, leading to both great scientific advancements and great strife between different religious communities, marking this point in history as a time of great turmoil.
At the beginning of PoE, your character gets caught up in the ritual of a mysterious group of cultists and becomes what’s known as a “Watcher”, a being who has the knowledge of and can access past incarnations of their soul, a magical transformation that curses ‘The Watcher’ with waking visions and an inability to sleep, which will inevitably drive The Watcher mad. This leads them to set out on a quest to find the cultists and make them reverse the curse, a quest which will lead your character across Dyrwood and beyond, facing dangerous enemies and finding new friends along the way, and in the process uncovering the truth behind why the infants of Dyrwood are being born without souls…
Pillars of Eternity offers players six races and eleven player classes to choose from when making their character then sets them loose into an award-winning RPG world, where their class and race type can affect dialog decisions made across the world as well as uniquely changing your abilities in combat. Your character can meet and recruit companions to make up a party of six total characters as you venture across the world of Dyrwood, each of whom having their own backstory and associated quest, personality, and appearances, and each being able to help on your quest in their own ways. Gameplay-wise, you can expect the standard of an isometric RPG with real-time-with-pause tactical combat, an experience point leveling-up system, and all the other bells and whistles that make an RPG an RPG, but what makes Pillars of Eternity shine is the masterful story, well-written characters, and beautiful world that the game is set within.
Though Pillars of Eternity and Disco Elysium are two very different types of RPG, they both share the distinctions of having won multiple Best RPG awards at multiple award shows along with many additional nominations, both being highly praised for their engaging and fantastically crafted stories and most importantly, both being highly enjoyable games to sit down and get lost in for hours.
If you were more specifically a fan of the ‘detective doing detective work’ aspect of Disco Elysium then perhaps our #4 isn’t exactly what you’re looking for, but if you are willing to open up to something different, the world and story Pillars of Eternity presents to you is something that more than makes this game another must-play for fans of RPGs everywhere.
Track down the cultists responsible for cursing you with visions of your past lives and help save the world in the process in an RPG that’s both visually and narratively beautiful, courtesy of the team behind games like Fallout: New Vegas.
#3: Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game (PC/Mac)
Fallout 1 - Trailer
Speaking of the critically acclaimed series about surviving a world ruined by nuclear devastation, it’s only natural that somewhere on this list we feature the game that started the whole thing with a megaton-sized bang. Leading us into the Top 3 games of this list, we’re now directing our gaze to Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game. Or just Fallout for short.
On October 23, 2077, the world was destroyed in an all-out nuclear war between America and China, with a small amount of the population surviving by hiding in commercialized underground nuclear bomb shelters called Vaults. Nearly a century later in 2161, the protagonist character known as the “Vault Dweller'' emerges from their home underneath the Southern Californian mountains, Vault 13, after the Overseer of the vault tasked them with finding a replacement Water Chip after the current one broke down, leaving the vault with only 150 days of reserve water left and threatening its continued survival. From here, the Vault Dweller sets out across the wastelands of California and Nevada, searching for a replacement Water Chip and getting caught in the struggles of the survivors, mutants, and everything else that lives on the surface world, a series of events which will ultimately lead the Vault Dweller to change the history of the wastes forever.
When Fallout was first released back in October 1997, it released to critical acclaim across the board that dubbed it as one of the best role-playing games at the time, with the post-nuclear apocalypse setting being called refreshing for an RPG, the character aspect being praised as the best part of the game, and further praise was given to the turn-based combat and its wide array of usable weapons. Though the game did not gain as much popularity as other games of the time like Diablo and Baldur’s Gate, it was still commercially successful enough to warrant a sequel, and the game gained a notable following for its brutal gameplay difficulty, well-written and entertaining story, and its unique take on the RPG style of games at the time.
Over twenty years later in our modern times, we can now see how Fallout was the launchpad for a multi-million dollar earning franchise. From the first two Fallouts and to a lesser extent Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, to the numerous games released since Bethesda Softworks purchased the franchise rights and released Fallout 3 in 2008, along with a handful of tabletop board games and even an upcoming television series, the Fallout brand has come a long way from its humble launch in ‘97, and rightfully so in my opinion.
In truth, trying to just jump into Fallout nowadays could be frustrating for some players due to the difficulty it can present if you don’t quite know what you’re doing. But if you can take the time to learn how to jump over the game’s hurdles, you’ll find yourself with a deeply written story, a uniquely structured world, and an overall entertaining game that many have called one of the best RPGs ever made. You can buy the game now on Steam for just $9.99, or if you wait for one of the annual sale events, you’ll be able to get it for as low as $1.99. And with the amount of content you’ll find in Fallout, a price like that is practically theft.
It’s up to you to save the people of Vault 13 by venturing out into a hostile wasteland full of friends and foes alike, where your choices determine whether you save the wasteland, or become just another one of its victims.
#2: Kentucky Route Zero (PC/Mac/Linux/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X/S/Nintendo Switch/iOS/Android)
Kentucky Route Zero | Official Game Trailer
As the sun lowers in the sky and twilight sets across Kentucky, it’s easy to find yourself getting lost as you travel strange and unfamiliar roads, meeting the strange and unfamiliar folk who live alongside them, and soon finding that they feel quite familiar after all. Kentucky Route Zero is a point-and-click adventure game with a heavy-handed “magical realist” narrative about a truck driver named Conway, who is trying to make a delivery for an antique shop owned by a woman named Lysette, a delivery which requires Conway and his canine traveling companion to travel along the mysterious Route Zero, a secret highway that travels underground. Kentucky Route Zero’s story is told in five narrative acts and tells its tale with themes of unpayable debts, the tragedy of forgotten people, and the human drive to find community, all of which and more will leave a lasting impact on those who experience it.
Though Disco Elysium and Kentucky Route Zero are two different styles of game, they both stand shoulder to shoulder with one another due to both games possessing deep, mysterious, and highly enjoyable stories that grip hold of the player and don’t let them go. Route Zero will draw players in with its charming graphics and odd, yet unique setting, then keep them there thanks to its fantastical musical score, its non–surface–level themes of poverty, the strange folks who live in forgotten corners of the country, and a beautifully crafted story that makes a point of showing that who a person is on the inside is just as if not more important than their actions on the outside.
It should be pointed out that this game’s pacing can be on the slower side at certain points, which may be a putdown for gamers who enjoy more fast-paced, in-your-face stories from their games. But for the more patient types who can stand to slow down as they travel along the path of this journey, you’ll be taken through a story that has helped Route Zero earn high praise from both reviewers and fans. Such praises include Rock, Paper, Shotgun naming it their game of the year in 2013, IGN calling the game "a damn fine example of what makes the medium of video games so special", and both Paste Magazine and Polygon putting the game in the top 5 of their top 100 games of the 2010’s lists.
For any gamer out there who loves to let deep and enriching stories wash over them, Kentucky Route Zero is a must-play. This strange tale of the weirdos you might meet in the forgotten backwoods of America has deeply moved many players over the years, some even to tears. If you’ve played Disco Elysium and fell in love with its odd, humorous, and tragic story to any degree, then you should definitely give Kentucky Route Zero a try at some point.
Kentucky Route Zero evokes the familiar feelings of being with old friends around a campfire, leaving you longing for unknown roads and an invitation to let your emotions out as you play through this bizarrely beautiful tale.
While this is already a fairly impressive selection of story-rich games filled with impactful decisions and amazingly crafted worlds, we’re not quite out of the woods yet. So let’s get right into our #1 item on this list and cap things off with yet another masterfully made game, which goes by the name of…
#1: The Wolf Among Us (PC/Mac/PS3/PS4/PS Vita/Xbox 360/Xbox One/iOS/Android)
The Wolf Among Us - Trailer
Based on the comic series “Fables” written by Bill Willingham, The Wolf Among Us is a neo-noir mystery-adventure game set in 1980s New York City, where fairytale characters from stories of old, known as Fables, have since made a community for themselves named Fabletown after the Homelands of their original worlds had been taken over by an enigmatic tyrant known as the Adversary many years in the past. Now, in the present, Fables are being murdered in Fabletown, and there is only one man who’s up to the task of tracking down the culprit or culprits responsible and putting a stop to this sudden spree of violence. Bigby Wolf, the sheriff of Fabletown, formerly known as the one and only Big Bad Wolf. Yes, THAT one.
The Wolf Among Us comes to us courtesy of Telltale Games, the same team behind the 2012 Game of the Year The Walking Dead, and like such they bring TWAU to life with their signature “choice and consequence game mechanics” and with a beautiful art style that perfectly encapsulates the feeling of a gritty 80s noir cop drama. When playing as Bigby, players will be given multiple dialog options to choose from when conversing with other characters that can affect how the story unfolds, and they will have to put their detective skills to work when exploring Fabletown to uncover clues to help you zero in on your target.
Like The Walking Dead, Wolf Among Us tells its story over five episodes, where Bigby will be tasked with uncovering the truth behind a brutal and bloody murder, which ultimately is revealed to be just a taste of things to come. Along with Bigby, you’ll meet various other characters from classic fairy tales such as Snow White, the Magic Mirror, and even Beauty and the Beast, as well as old foes like the Woodsman, or old victims-turned-friends like Colin, one of the Three Little Pigs. All of them and many more will wind up being crucial pieces to Bigby’s investigation, whether or not he sees them as friends, as culprits, or even as victims to avenge.
Bill Willingham’s original Fables comic book series has won many awards over the years since it was first published in 2003, courtesy of the Eisner Awards, from awards like Best New Series in 2003, Best Anthology in 2007, and Willingham himself winning the Best Writer award in 2009. Though The Wolf Among Us hasn’t won nearly as many awards itself, it did win the ‘Direction in a Game Cinema’ award at the 2013 NAVGTR awards along with six other nominations at the show, and currently sits at an Overwhelmingly Positive score on Steam along with a score of 85 on Metacritic, cementing it as another well-made story experience from Telltale Games set in the Fables universe.
I will admit, this game is a bit of an outlier on this list due to the fact that it probably has the least relation to an RPG, gameplay-wise I mean. But I still think the game is a worthy #1 on this list, as while you won’t be creating a character however you see in it, The Wolf Among Us still gives players a wonderfully crafted story experience set in a unique world with memorable and lovable characters all centered around solving a gripping murder mystery with nothing but your detective’s wit and a bit of potential violence along the way. In that regard, fans of Disco Elysium’s story will definitely be able to find just as much enjoyment in Wolf Among Us’ overarching story, characters, and world.
In The Wolf Among Us, you’ll be faced with a darker spin on all of the classic fairytale characters of old in a story that you can really immerse yourself in, and find yourself wanting more of this world the longer you end up playing. For fans of imaginative worlds filled with magic and fantasy and fans of the more grounded and gritty worlds of cop dramas alike, The Wolf Among Us delivers the best of both worlds all wrapped up into one. If you haven’t played the game for yourself yet, I more than recommend that you get your hands on a copy of this gem from 2013 so you can experience the hype for yourself. And speaking of hype, the sequel is set to finally be released sometime in 2024, so there’s no better time than now to start catching up.
Bigby Wolf must overcome his past as the Big Bad Wolf as he finds himself intertwined in a string of murders across the Fable community, a place where familiar fairytale faces reside and where everyone has a motive.
Conclusion
And that’s the end of today’s list. With it only being a Top 10, there are a few games that I want to give a quick shoutout to here as other great examples of games with excellent stories, excellent worlds, and excellent characters. Games like The Witcher series, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Outer Wilds, Detective Grimoire, and Detroit: Become Human, among others.
These games and those listed above are games that can be both easy and hard to compare to Disco Elysium for different reasons, as none of the games we’ve talked about here are quite the same as one another. But if you ask me, that is a brilliant thing, as it just proves that the gaming world has a wide selection of beautiful and unique stories to be told in many different fashions, allowing us as fans of these games to be able to have plenty of experiences that are both similar and not for all the right reasons.
But still, all good things must come to a close, and this post is no exception. So I hope all the fellow fans of Disco Elysium who gave this post a click enjoyed what they read. And if you did then hey, maybe give your thoughts in the comments below. I would be very happy to hear what you all have to say about the games listed above, or some of your favorite story-based games that maybe missed the cut on this list!
Whatever it is, if you’ve got something to say then feel free to say it. Otherwise, I’ll hopefully see you in the next post.
