Dyscourse – Review
Dyscourse is an interactive survival simulation developed and published by Owlchemy Labs, creators of Jack Lumber and Shoot Many Robots as well as co-creators of AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome. In Dyscourse, the player can choose their own adventure, based on choices and the consequences each choice may bring with them wrapped up in neat stylized visuals.
Story
You’ll play the game as Rita, an art school graduate who became a barista due to some unfortunate choices in life. Being a barista in life, she was invited to join a coffee art contest which is her reason to fly with Dysast Air. However, her flight doesn’t exactly go as planned and the plane crashes on a deserted island. When she wakes up in the middle of the beach with debris around her, she barely remembers what happened during the crash. This is where the adventure truly begins as Rita meets fellow survivals and joins their group.
The main narrative is that of the protagonist who you’ll be playing from the very beginning in the game but there are several storylines that come together as you’ll learn more about the members of the survivalist group you’ll end up with. Each of these characters have their own wicked personalities which you will need to deal with somehow.
Besides Rita, the main protagonist, there’s Garrett who’s depicted as the lazy but animal-loving gamer, Teddy who truly is the world’s most paranoid person, Steve who has a dark personality yet seems fairly loveable and George and Jolene who are a ‘happily’ married older couple. The interaction between these characters, their personalities and the various branching paths the game offers makes up for a large part of the experience of the game.
Graphics
The art style of Dyscourse is hard to put into a certain category as it’s a mixture of cartoon styled illustrated visuals with body proportions that don’t seem to match. Both the characters as the landscapes are comprised of geometric figures which is just another piece of the large mixture. However, the visual style is neat and the entirety of the game’s visuals are simply easy on the eyes – allow the player to fully focus on the narrative and tough choices.
The menu UI is also simplified with only a few options but what makes it worth talking about is the fact that the menu UI is interactive. The game has several achievements, a lot of them hidden. Once you unlock an achievement, they will appear as a post stamp on one of the four postcards which serve as the background of the menu UI.
Sound
At first I was dismayed that the game did not have voice-acting but the incoherent muttering of the characters does grow on you. In the end, the jumbled dialogues are part of the charm. The ambiance sound is a casual instrumental sound – a good choice for the game.
Gameplay
Control wise the game is simple to play and can be played with keyboard or controller. Moving around is done with WASD or the left D-pad while taking any kind of action – from continuing dialogues to choosing an answer or action – is done with the spacebar or A. This allows the player to become fully immersed in the narrative and the casual, laid-back gameplay.
Not only are the controls simple, the gameplay is as well. The player is allowed to walk around freely in certain areas and discover secrets but the main feature of the game are the choices one can make. Each choice has a different outcome and certain choices will unlock new areas you’ve never ventured in before. The choices you are given don’t seem to be so heavy but they can change the outcome of the next day or the day after that. It will become much more clearer once you’ve played the game a second time.
Each playthrough, provided that you choose differently than before, not only unlocks new areas but it also unlocks secrets about the island, the crash and your fellow survivals. With so many choices, the game has a high replayability rate. All of this tends to lengthen the game because without replaying it, the game is extremely short. If you don’t wish to replay the game from the beginning, you can always use the feature “day rewind” which allows you to rewind to any of the played days. You can than chose differently to see what the new outcome will be.
The game has some hidden Easter Eggs, mostly in the dialogues. As a fan of World of Warcraft, I did enjoy the dialogue where Garrett questions the group if perhaps the island isn’t just on the back of a giant turtle or when he calls a bottle of water mana potions. I’m sure there are many more to be found so I’ll leave those for you to find.
Conclusion
Dyscourse is a short game if played only once but the game offers many hours of replayable content. It’s a casual survival simulation with pleasing visuals and audio design where each choice will alter the ending of the game thus it also alters the gameplay experience to some extent. All in all, the game is a great game to play through but it’s best played by players who love to create their own adventure.
Dyscourse - Review,
No Comments