It’s official. Disco Elysium is coming to mobile, but not in the way you’d necessarily expect. While it aims to keep the spirit of Disco Elysium as alive as ever – despite the whole solving brutal murders thing – developer ZA/UM wants to bring the Android-exclusive reboot to new players and hopefully serve existing fans with a fun alternative.
Rather than getting stuck into hours of sleuthing, ZA/UM adapted the mobile reimagining to suit a ‘TikTok’ style of play, with quick hits of its compelling narrative and short bursts of engaging gameplay. Like with most of the best mobile games, this new era of Disco Elysium embraces the ‘as and when’ mentality and can be picked up whenever you get a spare moment to squeeze some gaming into your day.
It’s no surprise that ZA/UM’s dark murder mystery suits the concept of a visual novel, with its highly stylized artwork and immersive dialogue options. While it probably won’t offer a sprawling open world like the original, it will likely focus on the characters and their stories. Which, ultimately, was always at the heart of Disco Elysium.
Plus, it’s not just going to be a copy and paste job, because the mobile reboot is getting brand-new scenes and new voiceover audio that only serve to heighten the importance of the narrative. It shows that the devs are keen to do right by the source, putting our minds at ease, knowing that it’s catered specifically to mobile audiences as opposed to just porting the original game and hoping for the best.
ZA/UM is giving us the first two chapters for free, so you can get a taste of the new Disco Elysium and decide how you like it before parting with your money. And if you do buy the full game, it’s a one-time purchase with no ads to disrupt the story. With the mobile gaming industry haunted by microtransactions and a pay-to-win mentality, it’s refreshing to see where ZA/UM’s priorities lie with Disco Elysium.
You can sign up for pre-registration now, but if you can’t wait until the game launches on Android in the summer, you can check out our picks for the best open-world games and the best adventure games to tide you over. Or, if you’re after some handy freebies, we have plenty of gacha game goodies for you, including the new Genshin Impact codes and Honkai Star Rail codes.