The game begins like this. You have to raise your character's attributes. These attributes increase your HP/mental.

It's a joke. Your guy is such a pathetic wreck that he died to a lamp. I thought it was pretty funny, myself. But it's riffing on those old '80s rpg/adventure game deaths, yeah. If it's going to bother you that much, you might not be in the right headspace for this. *shrug*

There's not actually that many deaths, and you do have hit points (Health and Morale, tied to your Endurance skill/Physique stat and Volition skill/Psyche stat respectively), but there's no combat so any damage is going to happen in dialogue. It's the one death in the first room, and it's possible to survive with luck or if you want to start with higher Psyche and Physique.

Basic tips: save often and in different slots. F5 quicksaves, F9 quickloads. Same old same old for old adventure games. You don't have to take every dialogue option because it's there, especially if your Volition and Endurance are low. You can increase your stats pretty quickly, though, not everything damages you, and once you start getting healing items, there's a brief moment where you can use them (the orange and blue + buttons under your health and morale bars) to save yourself.

Okay, I'll give it some more tries. Yes, I'm going the super-nerd, super-weak route. I'll give it the old college try again, as they say. Thanks. I laughed myself, lol. 'thumbs-up'

Originally posted by Du-Vu:

Basic tips: save often and in different slots. F5 quicksaves, F9 quickloads. Same old same old for old adventure games. You don't have to take every dialogue option because it's there, especially if your Volition and Endurance are low. You can increase your stats pretty quickly, though, not everything damages you, and once you start getting healing items, there's a brief moment where you can use them (the orange and blue + buttons under your health and morale bars) to save yourself.

I rather disagree with that. It's one of the few games that I feel is enhanced by not saving at every opportunity as unlike most CRPGs is does a good job of letting you fail forward. The only time I saved was when I finished playing a session and exited the game.

Each to their own as always.

It's a humorous way of teaching you the game's health systems. Once you get an extra point of health (via the Endurance skill) and morale (via the Volition skill), then you won't die every time you take damage. It makes a huge difference. There's plenty of healing items in the game, and you heal when you sleep at the end of the day. You shouldn't be dying all the time. Once you understand the game and get even 2 points of health and morale, you shouldn't die at all after that.

Originally posted by GuffBall:

It's one of the few games that I feel is enhanced by not saving at every opportunity as unlike most CRPGs is does a good job of letting you fail forward. The only time I saved was when I finished playing a session and exited the game.

Each to their own as always.

Yeah, it's less about avoiding failure and more about being able to explore the available options, including failure, without playing through the game any more often than the half dozen+ times I already did. I lived with my choices and rolls during my first run, but on later playthroughs I still left myself saves so I could come back and experiment. I don't think the game was lesser for it. On the contrary.

That and I've been burnt too many times by corrupted save files to be willing to have only one in a game like this, and I wouldn't have wanted to lose the fragile weave of specific outcomes, success and failure, that I had.

Also the game is kind of buggy again now, with the last few updates.

Yeah, the game doesn't really feel like a *detective game* - those you're supposed to be able to progress through with logical deduction, playing through one time -this is more like one of those puzzle games from the 1990's like Myst, Monkey Island, Grim Fandango or something, where you're supposed to fail and try again learning by trial-and-error.

It also means you can't really role-play, as you're too concerned with picking the "right" response to not die, rendering all conversations pointless.

I hate this type of game design so I despise this game and just can't enjoy playing it at all really, wish I could give it away to someone else.

I have no idea why people rate this game or like it or anything like that.

So, not really trying to convince you to love these games if you don't. That's fine, the genre did die out for years because not everyone liked it. But that's not really how Monkey Island or Grim Fandango were meant to be played, not originally.

It's not really about trial and error, though that will work if you keep plugging at it. It's about lateral thinking -- and certain cultural reference pools that were specific to the time and place the games came out in, which has made them more cryptic in the years since. But some of those puzzles were a lot more obvious in the context they came out in. Looney Tunes-esque cartoon logic. Variations on puzzles from other games in the medium which are even more obscure today than the games they inspired.

Myst is somewhat logical, though, I'd say, once you find the clues you need. But of course it's finding them and parsing out what they mean that's the problem. But I don't think you could solve the game with trial and error alone, is all.

Disco has more in common with Lucasarts than Myst, but if you're trying to avoid dying, that's missing the point. Seeing what the dialogue says when you screw up, that's part of the entertainment value in and of itself. And you're playing as a suicidal, half-dead failure cop -- avoiding doing things that are obviously going to tank your health and morale *is* roleplaying, given that setup. As is building up your stats, or just popping pills nonstop.

But yeah. If you don't find the game funny or the mood engaging, then it's probably not gonna do a lot for you. It's great for people who like this genre. I don't think it's going to convert people who don't.

Originally posted by Wizard_Tea:

It also means you can't really role-play, as you're too concerned with picking the "right" response to not die, rendering all conversations pointless.

What? I've played through the game three times and I don't remember that many dialogue options doing damage, and if you have more than one point of health and morale and some healing items, you should almost never die.

The only time I remember repeatedly taking damage was my Fascist playthrough, which requires a ton of fascist replies and then getting the Revacholian Nationhood thought and internalizing it.

I've never, ever come close to even thinking about picking the "right" response, much less to avoid dying. I've almost always been able to roleplay pretty much any way I wanted.

I'm wondering how far you made it into the game. Maybe a disproportionate amount of these damage dealing options are early in the game.

Originally posted by GuffBall:

Originally posted by Electro Boy:

I've never, ever come close to even thinking about picking the "right" response, much less to avoid dying. I've almost always been able to roleplay pretty much any way I wanted.

I think that's one of the real strengths of the game. Unlike the your average CRPG you don't get put into situations of where you help the old lady recovery her husband's ring from his body in a nearby cave because you do you'll get a reward but instead it's one of the best in being able to get into the proper mode of doing what the character you've created would do and not what you would do. It's still not up with actually RPG's but does a good job of it.