I played Disco awhile before ToW came out, can't say I empathise with people's desire to mention it in same discourse surrounding ToW. Maybe it says something about how desperate people are to validate their petty agendas; we may as well be pointing towards great books now by virtue of text density and using them as a sort of pulpit to demerit any attempts at differentiating subgenre. It's a textbased narrative CRPG and it's somewhat rigid in it's story and 'play dress up' progression based rolls - it tells an excellent story though and is quite unique. I have criticisms for it personally, I may prefer Planescape (barring combat) as well but that's neither here or there. I sit down to play something like that passively and to be absorbed in a way, that first playthrough especially in Disco's case.
ToW is classic player/character first person ARPG, where every skill has a distinct curve and function and each of your choices must be rewarded relative to investment. It consistently accommodates a wide range of character types by opening up unique opportunities and giving the player clear choices. I think for what it is, it's [redacted] brilliant, even if like anything it could be bigger and better. I love it all though.. every skill, the great perks, characterised attributes, the leaner character derived loot system, leashed mobs, equal support of generalists and specialists, the level design(skill based, not arena shooting), the dialogue, the characters, the art....I could go on.
It seems too, like a lot of the internal logic that went into faction and quest progression was clearly designed with the same level of comprehension that was behind New Vegas even if it's deftly muted in the interest of presentation. ToW to me, is a masterstroke for the argument that less is more in having a no frills highly reactive handcrafted adventure. I do hope we get DLC, that's more narrative focused though with less emphasis on dungeons, has longer quests and that has more task based skill checks like the work order in Amber Heights.
I'll get back to my nth playthrough of jsawyerNV eventually but I've been happily distracted by ToW since it's release and continue to replay it aggressively.