Esoteric Ebb Review – A Disco Elysium-Style RPG That Rewards Chaos and Roleplay

I am known for my position that Disco Elysium is the best game ever, and I’m not sure if Esoteric Ebb is going to dethrone it, but it’s definitely going on the medal podium. This is Disco Elysium by way of Planescape: Torment, but with the humor of Discworld, a detective roleplaying game that’s less about killing monsters and leveling up and more about the joy of screwing around in a fantasy world.

You’ve got all the expected tropes, stats, skills, spells, and levels, and you’re even a cleric…but…but you got shoved in a river and woke up in a morgue. Your stats all talk to you in conversations, with different voices based on the ability score within them. Strength pushes you to be A REAL MAN at high levels and is a sniveling little bootlicking weenie at lower scores. Wisdom is an insane wizard at high levels and stupid as hell at low levels. You also may be a cleric, but if you insist hard enough, you’re not and do enough not-cleric things, you can become some kind of shitty-ass version of another class, like a crappy rogue or arcane spellcaster or, well, something else. It’s more like guidelines.

The framing is loosey-goosey: Five days before a big election, there was an explosion at a tea shop; nobody wants to deal with it, so The Cleric gets to investigate. Or not. See, this isn’t one of those games where you feel constantly shoved and railroaded to investigate the main story. This is more one of those games about the joys of screwing around: checking every dialogue option, doing what the voices in your head say, picking the dumbest choices imaginable, all of that is much more fun than trying to play it “right.”

For example, in talking to one lady, I managed to get a quest to get a real date, so I approached a hot orc lady and attempted to flirt with her. I did so poorly that I almost died, so it really is just like real life. But I later encountered an actual Biblical-style angel, attempted to flirt with her, rolled a natural 20, and got to tell her how beautiful her many eyes were. I still didn’t land a date, but I survived the encounter, which was an accomplishment all its own.

If games like Dragon Age are meant to replicate the feeling of playing an epic heroic tabletop game where you are grim-faced heroes saving the world, Esoteric Ebb captures the way they often play out: you screwing around, asking the dumbest questions imaginable to antagonize the DM, who is often antagonizing you back. “I want to talk to the dwarf. What is he doing?” “He’s, uh, protesting ahead of the election.” “Great, I want to ask about all of his political positions. Who is he voting for?” “…you know what, fine, I’m going to make you roleplay it.”

Esoteric Ebb Features a World That Rewards Dumb Decisions

In fact, Esoteric Ebb rewards, above all else, committing to the bit. If you’re making a big dumb lummox, making the dumbest lummox imaginable has funnier dialogue options and outcomes. Failing a die roll leads to a funnier outcome. For example, another time there was a windmill, and I attempted to climb on it, then nearly died several times trying to get back down because I kept whiffing on it, all while screaming hysterically at the top of my lungs. Picking the stupidest dialogue option is often the funniest.

If there’s a flaw to it, and I don’t know if I’d call it a flaw, it’s that I didn’t care that much about progressing or completing the game or seeing what happened in the story. I enjoyed starting the game and wandering around talking to people, talking to myself, seeing what happened when I do this, and doing the dumbest shit imaginable. Can I go down that pipe? Can I climb up the tree? Can I go up on the windmill and almost die? Can I hang out bullshitting with my goblin buddy? Can I flirt with the angel to get a date? Can I just tell everyone that I’m voting for myself in the election? Sure, man, but you’re gonna have to roleplay it.