“Disco Elysium stated that they no longer wanted to be this type of creature, to which Sovereign Syndicate replied, ‘Do you want to be a minotaur instead?’

Recently, Tyler Colp, our associate editor, mentioned that the future of Disco Elysium 2 is unclear. Thankfully, however, there are other games that are aiming to fill the gap it would leave. For instance, Sovereign Syndicate may be the perfect game for this purpose. This is a role-playing computer game located in an alternate Victorian London. The fact that the menu screen has zeppelins certainly gives away its alternate reality, along with the presence of minotaurs.

The current demo of Sovereign Syndicate only allows players to play as Atticus Daley, a minotaur with a drinking problem. Atticus is a down-on-his-luck illusionist wearing a top hat who starts the game with a hangover. This is quite similar to the beginning of Disco Elysium, in which the character wakes up with a splitting headache and a stomach full of alcohol. Eventually, the full version of the game will offer three different player-characters: Clara the corsair, Otto the automaton, and Atticus the minotaur.

The interface for this game is the same, with dialogue on the right-hand side of the screen, which is associated with Wit and Spryness providing their views. One difference is the incorporation of an external voice called the Crone, that the other chatterers have an issue with living in your brain. The first task to do is to identify who the Crone is and why they are present.

A mysterious figure, concealed behind a mask, abruptly rouses me from slumber, declaring that we had matters to attend to. We wander through some shabby roads of London, examining debris that lay strewn about. I pluck a pair of missions from a signboard and a blown away pamphlet, one to track down some vanished youngsters and another to root out a secret murderess. In the mix of litter I also locate my useful sword walking cane, as well as a few cogs and machines that I can put up for sale in the future, immediately bringing to mind my days of earning money by recovering bottles in Martinaise.

An electrified fence is standing in the way of any way out of this street, and beyond that is the Werewolf Containment Zone. The mere mention of those three words filled my mind with excitement and creativity, sadly however, exploring this area is outside the limits of this demonstration. Moving on, we come to the Red Lotus, a place I visit often which is an opium den.

There are two options open to me: using an illusion to make myself appear more human-like or keeping my bull shape and confronting the discriminatory centaur at the main bar. For each ability I have, there’s a chance that I might need to attempt a skill check, but this will mean sacrificing Nerve - a resource that is lost no matter if I succeed or fail. The tarot cards act as a guide, as each of them has a correlation to one of my four abilities; though the rules might not be apparent, I manage to make sense of it.

By choosing dialogue options and making decisions important to certain abilities, you will be rewarded with points related to each one. For example, Animal Instinct is associated with yellow bile, while Self Discipline is connected to phlegm. These points act similarly to experience points. Every 10 points allows you to either raise an ability by one point, raise one of the linked skills by three points, or take a card from the major arcana that provides a unique benefit.

A card I pull from the major arcana in a game highlights that the facedown card I draw with the lowest number during a skill check will be favorable to me, while a separate card brings me three Nerve points every time I reveal a face card. This is an imaginative concept, and the character sheet resembling a phrenology exam is especially apt, since with my bull’s head it kind of looks like an illustration of how one would cut up a cow.

By hiding my horns successfully, it has made the upcoming interaction easier, however if I decide to play it differently, the game displays conflicts in comic strips, with every step broken down. This could be an attempt to pay someone off to prevent trouble or hitting someone with the handle of my sword. The black and white pictures used in the game almost look like they are from old-fashioned newspapers or like those of Kevin ONeills art in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. These sequences of events interfere less than if there was an entirely new combat system with limitations and modifications.

The Sovereign Syndicates demo showcases a few extra activities within the Red Lotus. It will be quite a while before the final game is ready for a holiday 2024 launch. As of now, there is no way to shift the camera view and the ending is unexpectedly abrupt. Although I’m not drawn to steampunk, especially since I’m not a big fan of Arcanum, it is still on my radar since I’m interested in story-heavy, Disco-style CRPGs that integrate unusual sections such as the Werewolf Containment Zone. You can try out this demo on Steam.