The spiritual successor of Disco Elysium cannot escape its miracles

Zero Parade: For Dead Spies He wants you to ask about the price of forgiveness. After leading a team of spies in a failed mission, the protagonist Cascade is willing to pay any price necessary to reestablish contact not only with his fellow agents, but also with the friends he has let down. After being “cold” for five years and forced to work a desk job, Cascade is sent to the city of Portofiro with a job and a chance to redeem himself.

Zero Parades they are very similar Disco ElysiumA classic RPG of 2019 featuring a detective detective who experiences heartbreak and dizziness that split his psyche into many voices in his head. On paper, this makes sense – both games were developed by the same studio, ZA/UM. But ZA/UM released it Disco Elysium and the one that exists now is a completely different studio.

This is because, for the past seven years, ZA/UM and the other founders, who were removed from the studio in 2022, have been in constant conflict. It has affected the decision of the court, saying that ZA/UM stole Disco Elysium IP from people who were very important in its establishment, the alleged wrongdoing by senior members of the group, the results of what is described as a difficult development driven by overtime, and public anger at seeing people still in ZA/UM as scabs, he says to receive death threats.

Because of this, Zero Parades they carry heavy loads. It is also impossible to divorce it from the shadow of Disco Elysium. From a design point of view, it takes almost every feature and familiar mechanism of its predecessor as a basis. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that this fiction, whether intentionally or not, seems to reflect the reality of the world. The load is getting heavy Zero Parades to the point where it cannot match its predecessor, or make a name for itself.

It all starts with asking what kind of spy you are. You can choose from pre-selected archetypes or put your own points into 15 skills. More like in Disco ElysiumThese skills not only help to inform your dice by talking and doing real things, but also live in the mind Cascade as different organizations sporadically chiming in. Depending on your choices, your Cascade can be a spy who has skills and abilities, who is better when reading the room and catching a little change of mind or metaphysed words.

Zero Parades you’re balancing Cascade’s fatigue, anxiety, and fainting, which are exacerbated by what he sees and any mistakes he makes. Hit the points, and you will be forced to lose the skill points you already have apart. In particular, you can also do something by intentionally messing up one of these three things to increase your chances of winning. It is as if the spy is forcing his body and mind to achieve his goals, even if it means losing his parts in the process.

These activities are well combined with Cascade, because he is always interested in his miracles. That is his nature. Although the main issue is related to the work, you need to create a group of people who work with you, which means that you follow your old friends and calculate the results of what you did in the past years. Every culture breaks down in some way, and you are not welcomed with open arms.

This is where the espionage part of Zero Parades he helped me. When it came to pretending to be someone else in trouble, I failed every time. But my Cascade has been very helpful in knowing what to say and what buttons to push to rally his team – even though he knows there’s a chance he’ll get hurt again. As one person said, “You break them, over and over again, and they stay close to you.”

In People Make Games‘ ZA/UM’s first report in 2023, lead writer and producer Robert Kurvitz said “this company has ruined the lives of four of my best friends.” Kurvitz, along with art director and artist Aleksander Rostov and writer Helen Hindpere, were fired in 2022. It was one of the many administrations that have continued to shake since then, with reasons that are disputed especially between Kurvitz, Rostov, and the rest of ZA/UM. It’s tough, tough: People Make Games’ first report is two hours old, and there’s more next searchalong with the separate notes of the five sections and noclipand many other reports and statements.

The most important points, however, include the studio that owns the rights to the IP without founding membersand the ongoing controversy surrounding the studio’s stated roles and how they have changed over the years as external stakeholders they participated. It has been there again toxicity claims and current and former developers, who have employees say that Kurvitz, in particular, was difficult to work with. ZA/UM took action dismissal and report to stop work, and to make matters worse, there are also four companies that were founded by former members of the group. Surprisingly, the success of Disco Elysiumwhich also sold more than 5 million copies, unabashedly turned romantic art into a commodity. The result is that all of this is against his anti-capitalist spirit.

Lack of DiscoImportant design concepts are readily apparent. There’s an obvious leap in technology in how the game plays and how Portofiro looks and feels. However, the writing and world-building is not only beautiful and attractive. The main story is safe, the city is condensed, the characters lack depth, and some of Cascade’s dialogue reads like internet memes. Seeing “now kissing” and “big, if true” rubbed me the wrong way, trying to adopt anticapitalist sentiments. Disco Elysium and desperate phrases like “dreaming are bourgeois” feel like a strange attempt to capture that original spirit.

After giving the loan, the problems that existed inside and outside ZA/UM remained in my mind. I can’t stop thinking about the creators who joined as fans of Disco Elysium and will be forced to live up to high expectations while also dealing with conflicts involving producers who are no longer part of the studio. In ZA/UM fashion, Zero Parades he addresses the concerns and frustrations of the studio, while arguably showing both sides of the larger story, leaving much to interpretation.

Like Cascade, I did what I had to do and pursued forgiveness. I tricked old friends into doing the last job for me, tricked people who trusted me into getting information, and left a lot of unfinished business, which will undoubtedly result in a city I will never plan to enter again. In Zero Paradesyou can choose the mask you wear. Run the right checks, choose the right words, and you can convince yourself that what you did was right all along.

_{Zero Parade: For Dead Spies launches on May 21st on PC.}