There’s a new game mode in Disco Elysium, and it’s available to play right now. Free to anyone who owns the base game, Collage Mode is a creative effort by developers ZA/UM that gives you access to nearly every asset in the game and allows you to create scenes and even character dialogue.
This isn’t the first time Disco Elysium has received a seemingly out of the blue update; The Final Cut version of Disco made minor tweaks to the already stellar story and added voice acting to nearly every line in the game. It was a surprise, to say the least, but a welcome one.
ZA/UM is releasing a free update again, but this one puts the creativity in your hands. Collage mode might be the last thing I expected to come out of Martinaise, a blank canvas from one of the most detailed games I’ve ever played. However, it does give us something we didn’t know we needed: the ability to let a giant Kim Kitsuragi kick Harry’s ass.
Collage mode can be accessed via the main menu, and once you start you’re presented with Harry, just in a blank space. There are an incredible number of assets and options you can tweak on your journey to disco perfection: you can choose any scene in the game, from Whirling-in-Rags Bar to Pawn Shop, and include any character model in any pose. . you like. These models can be moved, rotated and scaled to create the Disco Elysium themed diorama of your dreams.
Depending on the location of the scene and the characters, it is also possible to change the weather, time of day and add various filters. If you’ve always wanted to create a “Greetings from Martinaise” postcard, now is your chance. The various objects you place in any of these scenes snap together easily, and once you’re done, they may seem indistinguishable from the actual game.
With the characters positioned and posed, the scene staged, the weather adjusted, and a retina-scorching filter added, there remains the simple matter of creating drama. Collage mode has plenty of tools at your disposal to create a story, with every object in Disco Elysium available to paste as a sticker, and a surprisingly robust dialog builder.
Harry argues with himself a lot, sometimes making the most of his base impulses and sometimes being forced to do things that just aren’t disco. Using the game’s FELD dialogue reel, you can create your own conversations, complete with character portraits, and even add skills to things like stamina, or if you get weird, conceptualization.
All of these blend together perfectly in Collage Mode, and while it’s not something I needed in my life, I’m really glad it’s there. Collage mode is easy to get used to, and I’m sure there will be people infinitely more talented than me who can create beautifully cursed scenes.
Unfortunately, there’s no built-in community feature at the moment, so there’s no way to discover other people’s creations other than the various social networks. Feel free to send us anything Disco Elysium themed – bonus points if your creation includes karaoke, and Garte finally relaxes.