Games Like Disco Elysium: 8 RPGs Where Words Matter

Nothing truly replaces Disco Elysium, but Planescape: Torment, Pentiment and Citizen Sleeper come closest: RPGs where you fight with words, where every conversation matters and the writing is the real star. For the detective side, The Case of the Golden Idol will work your brain like nothing else. According to players on IGDB, Disco Elysium takes about 19 hours, and you will want to stretch that feeling out.

What makes Disco Elysium unique

You wake up in a wrecked hotel room with no memory, then learn you are a cop assigned to a murder case in the city of Revachol. There is no regular combat: everything happens through dialogue and dice rolls. Your skills are voices in your head that advise you, argue and sometimes betray you. ZA/UM wrote a game where failing a check is often funnier than passing it.

Under the jokes, it is a game about politics, philosophy and how people put themselves back together. Every playthrough changes with the kind of cop you decide to be. Expect about 19 hours for the story, 33 hours with side content and 44.5 hours to see everything, going by IGDB. The games below do not copy its formula, but they share its love of text.

How to choose your next narrative game

Loved the RPG side and the long conversations? Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate 3. Loved the investigation? The Case of the Golden Idol and The Forgotten City. Want something strange and literary? Kentucky Route Zero and Pentiment. For a harsher, more anxious experience, Pathologic 2. And for more powerful stories, see our story games guide.

1. 

   1. Planescape: Torment

   1999 · Main story 50 h

   Disco Elysium's spiritual ancestor. You play an amnesiac immortal, the Nameless One, in the strange city of Sigil. Here too, almost everything is solved by talking, and you can finish the game while avoiding most fights. There is a mountain of text, wild ideas and questions about identity. A classic worth discovering if you love reading.

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2. 

   2. Pentiment

   2022 · Main story 15 h

   Obsidian puts you in 16th-century Bavaria as an artist, Andreas Maler, caught up in a murder case. The game looks like an illuminated manuscript, and the text even changes style depending on who speaks. You never get absolute proof: you have to choose who to accuse. For players who loved the investigation and the moral dilemmas.

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3. 

   3. Citizen Sleeper

   2022 · Main story 5.5 h

   You are a human mind in an artificial body, hiding on a run-down space station. Each day you roll dice and assign them to actions to survive, work and help the people you meet. The writing is restrained, touching and very political. The closest to Disco Elysium in the idea that dice can tell a story.

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4. 

   4. The Case of the Golden Idol

   2022 · Main story 6 h

   A detective game where every scene is frozen at the moment of a crime. You search, collect words and rebuild what happened by filling in the blanks of a text. There is no hand-holding: get it wrong and you go back to thinking. For players who preferred Disco Elysium's detective work to its tangents.

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5. 

   5. The Forgotten City

   2021 · Main story 7 h

   You end up trapped in an ancient Roman city caught in a time loop. A strange rule threatens everyone, and you have to work out who will break it by talking to residents and cross-checking clues. Almost everything can be solved through dialogue. A clever mystery with real moral questions at its heart.

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6. 

   6. Kentucky Route Zero

   2013 · Main story 12.5 h

   A delivery driver, Conway, looks for an address nobody can find on a secret road in Kentucky. What starts as a delivery turns into a journey through magical realism, told in five acts. The writing is literary, the dialogue poetic and the mood timeless. For players who loved Revachol's melancholy and its quiet, suspended moments.

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7. 

   7. Pathologic 2

   2019

   A doctor arrives in a small town hit by an epidemic, and every day counts. It is a harsh, strange and anxious game, where survival is a constant struggle and characters talk as if they were on a theater stage. Not for everyone, but if you loved Disco Elysium's boldness, this one will stay with you.

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8. 

   8. Baldur's Gate III

   2023

   Bigger, more epic and with real turn-based combat, but Larian shares Disco Elysium's love of dice rolls and conversations that change everything. You can persuade, lie or intimidate, and both successes and failures create memorable scenes. If you want a more classic RPG with just as much room for roleplay, see our games like Baldur's Gate 3.

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FAQ

Is there a game like Disco Elysium?

Nothing is identical, but Planescape: Torment is the closest in spirit, with an amnesiac hero and a world where talking replaces fighting. Citizen Sleeper uses dice in service of the story, and Pentiment delivers a very well written historical mystery with choices that matter.

How long does it take to beat Disco Elysium?

According to players on IGDB, Disco Elysium takes about 19 hours for the main story. With side quests and long conversations, plan for around 33 hours. Seeing everything takes about 44.5 hours, not counting replays with a completely different kind of detective.

Does Disco Elysium have combat?

Not in the usual sense. Confrontations happen through dialogue and skill checks with dice. You can end up in a fight, but it is resolved by your choices and your stats, not your reflexes. It is an RPG built almost entirely on text and conversation.