I finally played through Disco Elysium. Brilliant game that is almost exactly what I hoped it would be. I've been using it as an example for a while of what I wish games like Outer Worlds could be, but aren't since they're juggling too many gameplay types. In Outer Worlds, talking through situations is very shallow and not built to be as engaging or fun as the combat (though the combat is pretty dull, too, compared to dedicated action games and has its own problems). By focusing on dialogue, dice rolls and decision making, Disco Elysium is able to build a more robust and interesting gameplay system that compliments the story it's used to tell. It has this great tone somewhere between apocalyptic and silly that it pulls off in a way where each part compliments the other. The writing is phenomenal and had me engaged from beginning to end with trying to unravel what's happening in the world and to what extent I could even effect it.
Minor ending spoilers (nothing specific, but general impressions):
! The ending was a little anti-climactic, but in a way that makes sense for the game. I get it and think it's fitting for the story, but I wish there was maybe one more short act to better pay off the character you've been building and his reactions to the plot's different turns. I think something like that would better pay off the gameplay.
I had a few issues with the game that are minor in the scheme of things, but I wanted to express. Sometimes the game isn't very transparent about when it will lock you out of something or hurt you. It normally does a great job of letting you know, but occasionally I found myself getting locked out of interactions or dying because it wasn't clear either of those things would happen. Some puzzles have solutions that are too narrow, and if you fail a dice roll enough times you can get potentially locked out of completing a quest altogether. I had that happen once and it was not a good feeling, because I was invested in the quest and it would have died there from a bad roll of the dice. That leads me to maybe the biggest issue I have, which is that for those reasons and more, cheesing the game is very attractive. I do want to play with the consequences of my actions, but I found myself resetting dice rolls a few times until I got a success. I ended up resetting that last puzzle I mentioned because there was no other solution, I couldn't access a reroll and I had invested a lot into that subplot. In another interaction, I died unexpectedly after failing a roll behind a difficult check I had passed, and wanted to get back there more prepared with health items so I could make it through the conversation. In a few more, I thought that what I was missing was just too interesting to miss, and I feel justified in cheesing. Some of these issues are hard to avoid, but I think if they wrote in some more alternate solutions to puzzles with different levels of difficulty, made the conditions for dying clearer (most of the time it's fine, but there were some exceptions) and saved after each decision you made, then the game could be even better than it was.