>>716369413
Bits like talking to the corpse and phasmid were big highlights for me

>>715227346
>4 or 5 different projects from former devs
>3 or 4 indies that were extremely obviously influenced by DE
Even for games that aren't doing something similair, or even in the same genre, plenty of devs have said they were at least partially inspired or enjoyed DE and it's still held up as the gold standard for good writing in videogames.
>why is it culturally irelevant?
it isn't, but if you mean why aren't more people trying to do something similair, there's good reason. The setting and characters are a huge part of the appeal but you can't just rip those off and expect to succeed. The thing that really carried it was the writing, and the main writer for the game was a published and succesful author. Very, very few people are talented enough writers to write an entire novel that becomes succesful, and only a fraction of a percent of those that do will get a videogame made after their work, much less be directly involved in the writing of the videogame. Most people writing for games just aren't on that level. Even in terms of raw talent, it still takes lots of time and investment to write that much, and in ZA/UM's case, they had to cut a bad deal with a shitty business man to ensure they could get the funding to even make the thing, and it ultimately flopped when they lost the rights. DE is a miracle of the universe and we will not see another one anytime soon.