Disco Elysium is an excellent game, but it doesn't stand out all that much in the sea of text heavy video games. It could be the best story ever told, but Nier: Autoamta would still be the better video game, because it itself tells a very compelling story, undeniably in the upper echelons of the medium, while also, and this is the most important part, actually melding gameplay, plot, and real life interpersonal relationships in a way no other game has done. Every single aspect of Nier: Automata hinges on and is uplifted by it being interactive. What Nier: Automata does is wholly unique, it could only be done because it's interactive, and everything it does is great or better. That is why it's possibly the greatest video game ever made. No other games has reached those heights.
Also I have to say that "upper echelons" of video game writing is a _very_ low bar. Most of the best video game writing reaches the level of average genre fiction.
Somewhat. But the first zone, where dying resets everything, is by far the most unpleasant in the entire game. Talk about putting your worst foot forward.
It's a game that also requires a lot of patience (too much patience) to actually get to the truly good parts - especially the baffling decision to make you run the initial campaign twice with very little variation, before opening up more.
But it does have excellent moments and is excellent at invoking emotions from places you would never expect - especially with the final ending.
Edit to add: the gameplay quite frequently switches between button-mash combat and bullet hell (especially, but not exclusively, in the hacking mini-game), with various camera styles mixed in for both. It actually has quite a lot of variation on these two themes, and possibly a few more I'm forgetting.
Thanks all--I've added this back to my wishlist, I'll probably give it a try next time there's a sale. I agree that, if there's better stuff ahead, it seems weird to lead with the dullest part, but everyone makes mistakes.
It occurs to me also that I now have a much beefier machine and bigger monitor than I did back then, so perhaps it'll be more impressive and make a better impression.
Playing at higher difficulty will make just button mashing less feasible. The combat was much more fun when I raised it close to the max. Just don't raise it until after the first save location.
I can state definitively that it is not, mainly because it has the misfortune to exist in the same world as Disco Elysium.