Musings on the collapse of the Soviet Union and the legacy of communism might not seem like the best premise for a hit video game. But it worked for Disco Elysium.
The PC game, which won Best Narrative Game at The Game Awards 2019, is only now catching on in China thanks to a recent translation. But ironically, the country literally ruled by a communist party has a translation that deliberately disguises references to communism, among other things considered politically sensitive.
Disco Elysium is a point-and-click adventure game in which you role-play as a hard-boiled detective trying to solve a murder case in the fictitious city of Revachol. The city is meant to reflect a post-Soviet Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, and is shown to be a hotbed of class conflict, racism and even fascism.
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Disco Elysium includes some sci-fi and fantasy elements in the game, but its aesthetics are largely based on 1990s Eastern Europe. (Picture: ZA/UM)
The story of Disco Elysium, written by Estonian novelist Robert Kurvitz, is deliberately ideological. The game’s creators even gave a shout-out to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their victory speech, citing The Communist Manifesto as an inspiration for the game. But it’s not a complete endorsement of communism. It appears to take aim at ideologies of all stripes, which seems to have struck a chord with many Chinese gamers.
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“Very impressive. Maybe this is a game that only countries that went through the communist revolution can fully understand,” one Chinese Steam user wrote. “It’s a poem for both despair and light.”
Another Steam user said that he appreciates how the game appears to have looked beyond the various isms of the world. “It depicted an age where isms fell apart, greatness drew its last breath and various tribes that looked to profit or save people tore our society apart,” he wrote. “People are still people, stupid and restless, fragile and gentle all at the same time.”
