Disco Elysium is a flashpoint in adventure games that will be talked about for years while to come. Bold and unapologetic, it carved its way into the videogaming psyche with a distinctive blend of RPG, mystery, and adventure game that’s simply overflowing with dialogue choices and character development possibilities. In the wake of a studio fallout at developer ZA/UM, numerous spiritual successors have sprung up, several with ties to the original. Now, one of those, Hopetown, has a new crowdfunding pre-launch campaign.
Hopetown comes from developer Longdue, with contributors including Disco Elysium developer Piotr Sobolewski and veterans from Bungie and Rockstar. It’s pitched as a psychological RPG that “invites players into an unforgettable world where stories are weapons, choices ripple through the environment, and light and darkness collide.” It aims to take the lessons learned during the creation of Disco Elysium and further the format into a new breed of narrative-led adventure game ripe with player agency.
In a mining town halfway between slow decay and revolutionary transformation, you take on the role of a rogue journalist described as “a chaotic, self-destructive provocateur who sees humanity as inherently selfish and cruel.” That certainly sounds like a successor to Disco detective Harry Du Bois, albeit with perhaps a more inherently negative bent – Longdue says its lead “thrives on poking at bruises, pulling at loose threads, and watching what unravels.”
Building on the established ideas of Disco and similarly influential RPGs such as Planescape: Torment, Hopetown makes use of a ‘psychogeography system’ that turns emotions, memories, and conversations into your core progression tools. You’ll have to navigate your own fractured psyche while deciding how you’ll use your role as a journalist to shape the world around you.
Perhaps you’ll act as an agent of chaos, drawing eyes with wild, attention-grabbing headlines. Or maybe you’ll become a conspiracist, twisting the reality of events to suit your own view of the world? It doesn’t have to all be bad, though. You could be a calculated investigator, seeking out truth and exposing bad actors. Whatever your choices, every decision will impact the world around you.
In total, the Longdue team includes seven former contributors to Disco Elysium’s development, and members with credits on the likes of Cult of the Lamb, The Witcher, and Yes, Your Grace. Now, the studio is seeking funding to help it build “an all-star ensemble to deliver a narrative-first RPG that will further the genre,” and promises surprises “including some very familiar voices that will resonate deeply” with Disco Elysium fans.
“Having overseen the team of 15 that was credited with ‘saving’ Disco Elysium and that worked on it for nearly six years pre and post release, I’m excited to work with the Longdue team to create a rich RPG experience to serve fans of the genre,” Sobolewski says. You can register to join the pre-launch crowdfunding campaign via the official website.
While we await the upcoming crop of successors, here are the best story games to play in 2025, along with the best PC games of them all.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or join our community Discord to stay in the know.
