In games, it usually takes a few years to find out if a masterpiece was actually influential or just a gleaming anomaly.

When The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild launched in 2017, its many fans took for granted that the open-world adventure would inspire other developers. But, outside some small concessions — like Assassin's Creed Odyssey allowing players to turn off waypoints — and a few short indies like A Short Hike, it took three years before we saw the full-fledged results: Immortals: Fenyx Rising and Genshin Impact in 2020, Sable in 2021, and Elden Ring in 2022.

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Now, three years after its release, the influence of Disco Elysium is becoming apparent. In 2022, the inspiration of ZA/UM Studio's RPG masterpiece was visible in a trio of games: Citizen Sleeper, Betrayal at Club Low, and Pentiment.

Pentiment

Citizen Sleeper, like Disco, is an RPG with ample text, dice-centric mechanics, and no combat system. Developer Jump Over The Age's cyberpunk adventure follows the Sleeper, an android who escapes indentured servitude to make a life for themself on a massive space station that has fallen into disrepair. As they do, their ability to act is determined by dice which are rolled at the start of each day. If you roll boxcars, the space station will largely be open to you. If you end up with snake eyes, the day ahead will be a struggle. Citizen Sleeper shares Disco Elysium's use of dice as the determining factor of how each action will go, but frontloads the die roll to the start of the day. You have a general idea of how each action will go as you head into it.

Betrayal at Club Low is much smaller than Citizen Sleeper or Disco Elysium, likened by solo dev Cosmo D to "a one-off tabletop session." The gameplay in this one also revolves around dice. But, taking a cue from Cosmo D's past games set in his Off-Peak universe, they are ‘Pizza Dice’ with different effects depending on which toppings you put on them. Like Disco, the game offers expansive role-playing (you can tackle actions in a wide variety of ways using a wide variety of skills) and a single, contained setting. Disco Elysium is set in one town. Betrayal at Club Low is set at one dance club.

Citizen Sleeper Refuge 2

Pentiment, which judging from my few hours with it might be the best of the bunch, seems to take the deepest level of influence from Disco Elysium. It opens with protagonist Andreas speaking with several influential historical figures and fictional characters in his dreams, and they occasionally show up to advise you as the game goes on. There are other background choices, like what your Andreas studied at university, where he spent his time as a practicing artist, and more, that influence the responses you have access to. It's a lot like Disco Elysium's Thought Catalog mechanic, which gives you the option to think about certain ideas over the course of the game, gradually unlocking new beliefs and abilities.

Why is Disco Elysium influential? In large part, it’s that Thought Catalog. One of the difficulties in making non-violent games is that combat has been iterated on endlessly since the medium’s earliest works. 1962’s Spacewar!, the first game to be played on multiple computers, is a space dogfighting game; it even has “war” in the title. In the 60 years since, games have represented combat in countless ways. Developers know how to make slashing and shooting fun.

If you remove combat from a game in a genre that traditionally has it, you have to fill the vacuum with something. Disco Elysium, with its dice rolls, and Thought Catalog, and endless capacity for roleplay, provided a worthwhile alternative. It made thinking as interesting as fighting.

NEXT: Disco Elysium Plus Pizza Equals Betrayal At Club Low