10 Most Underrated Recent RPGs

3. Disco Elysium

From a delightfully dense RPG lacking in polish to a delightfully dense RPG defined by its polish, we’ve got the revolutionary Disco Elysium, the first game from UK studio ZA/UM.

While Elex brings that delicious old school complexity into the modern era of RPGs, Disco Elysium does something we’ve not really seen before. While this game is critically acclaimed, I’d argue it hasn’t been picked up as much as other RPGs because it’s admittedly pretty odd so it’s still underrated.

On top of that, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to talk about this slam dunk of an RPG. I bought the poster and everything.

Disco’s amnesiac alcoholic cop protagonist is shaped by the way you decide to roleplay him, extending to a Thought Cabinet system where you can choose what personality traits you’d like him to internalise. The game has no combat, but you’ll be rolling digital dice against your personality traits to try and pass various mental and physical challenges throughout the game. The personality traits that define you will also pipe up during conversations you have in your attempts to solve a murder in the city of Revachol. There’s a lot going on here and an incredible amount of lore to uncover and if you don’t mind walls of texts and non-traditional gameplay, this is the RPG for you.