Nearly 7 years after the release of the critically acclaimed indie game Disco Elysium, developer ZA/UM is set to release its follow-up title. Zero Parades: For Dead Spies looks like the successor to Disco Elysium that fans would expect from the surrealist political RPG developer, even if it isn’t a direct sequel. With Zero Parades: For Dead Spies releasing on May 21, there’s only a short time before interested fans can see what ZA/UM has in store for its next game.
New RPG on Steam is Like Dungeons & Dragons Meets Disco Elysium
This new CRPG on Steam blends the best of Dungeons & Dragons and Disco Elysium: narrative depth, dialogue-driven gameplay, and lots of D20 chaos.
Zero Parades: For Dead Spies’ Features at a Glance
- A grand spy RPG with psychological depth, surrealist undertones, and a rich world to explore.
- Recall your training to customize your operant as you decide what skills are right for the job.
- Freeze time in Tactical View and determine the best path to overcome the impossible.
- It pays to listen to your inner voices for advice but be careful to fully trust them.
- Push yourself to your physical and mental limits to force the dice in your favour.
The Story of Zero Parades: For Dead Spies
In Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, players take on the role of operant Hershel Wilk under the codename Cascade. She has been sent to the city of Portofiro, and like Disco Elysium‘s Harry Du Bois, has lost her memory along with any semblance of what her mission is supposed to be. Fans of Disco Elysium will be all too familiar with this premise, and unfolding the mystery surrounding the game’s narrative at the same time as the protagonist.
Following in the footsteps of Disco Elysium, Zero Parades: For Dead Spies continues the tradition of competing political ideologies and factions that players can choose to align with as they progress through the story. Rather than exploring the run-down city of Revachol like in Disco Elysium, Zero Parades gives players a much more vibrant city of Portofiro to experience. Zero Parades promises a clash of factions that sees everything from international bankers, foreign techno-fascists, psychic doppelgangers, a paranoid TV presenter, and a man with a box for a heart inhabit this world.
A major part of Disco Elysium‘s appeal was its cast of colorful, off-the-wall characters that players would meet throughout Revachol. The fan-favorite partner of Harry Du Bois, Kim Kitsuragi, is a particularly notable character who contributes to the buddy-cop dynamic of the game. However, Hershel quickly discovers her partner, Psuedopod, is alive but unresponsive when she awakens at the start of Zero Parades, leaving it unclear whether players will see the same dynamic throughout the game or if Cascade will have to go it alone.
Zero Parades: For Dead Spies’ Gameplay
The gameplay of Zero Parades: For Dead Spies follows Disco Elysium‘s point-and-click investigative segments mixed with skill checks that require players to invest in different stats and listen to different parts of Hershel’s fractured psyche when the situation calls for it. The Dramatic Encounter system turns certain dialogues into turn-based bouts of decision-making, where players will need to strategize the best path forward using the Tactical View feature. Building upon the foundation of Disco Elysium‘s Thought Cabinet, Zero Parades allows players to shape Hershel’s personality with the Conditioning mechanic, allowing them to reinforce certain ideas to permanently shift Hershel’s disposition.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
Like Disco Elysium, Zero Parades relies on dice rolls for determining whether players succeed or fail at a skill check. Modifiers play a role in addition to stats, such as discovering a piece of information increasing the chance of a successful skill check in an interrogation situation. In classic tabletop RPG fashion, even the checks that seem guaranteed due to stats and modifiers have a chance to fail with a flash of bad luck, keeping the game interesting regardless of how players choose to shape Hershel’s character. Zero Parades also features new mechanics called Pressures and Exertions, which allow players to push the dice roll of a skill check in their favor, but doing so too often can take a toll on Hershel’s psyche.
How Zero Parades: For Dead Spies’ RPG Mechanics Compare to Disco Elysium
Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is obviously going to draw comparisons to ZA/UM’s previous title, Disco Elysium, but it’s clear that this upcoming game is taking big strides when it comes to questing and storytelling. While Disco Elysium was largely seen as an immersive theater, a linear story that players could affect the outcome of via dialogue choices and ability allocation, Zero Parades seems to be leaning more into a divergent quest approach akin to a game like Baldur’s Gate 3. The way a player approaches a quest can lead them down multiple different routes depending on how they have built Hershel’s character, creating unique scenarios for each playthrough.
Do You Need to Play Disco Elysium to Understand Zero Parades: For Dead Spies?
Technically, Disco Elysium and Zero Parades: For Dead Spies are entirely separate games taking place in separate worlds. However, it might be a good idea to play Disco Elysium before Zero Parades: For Dead Spies releases to get a feel for the gameplay mechanics in a more straightforward setting. The more linear approach to storytelling in Disco Elysium can help new players understand how skill checks are affected by the stats of Harry Du Bois, or how investigating certain areas can give them an advantage via modifiers before Zero Parades asks them to think more abstractly about how they approach their mission and the game’s branching quests.
- ESRB
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Rating Pending
- Developer(s)
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ZA/UM
- Publisher(s)
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ZA/UM
- Number of Players
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Single-player
- Steam Deck Compatibility
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Unknown
