Videogame skill-trees are usually there to gate off complexity, to prevent player overwhelm while offering an illusion of expressive freedom. Disco Elysium innovates by adding them into what is otherwise a point-and-click adventure. Players construct “builds” based on cop-fiction archetypes; with each skill providing a unique narrative device (they “speak” to you as internal voices; intuitions and biases).

This begs the question; what other profession has enough fictional archetypes associated with it to form the basis of an entire 6×4 grid of skills? The game’s politics are a bit all-over-the-place, but I love inhabiting its strange world and (over/)identifying with its broken protagonist.