ZA/UM had a mountain to climb with ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies, their new role-playing game and first since Disco Elysium. Following up arguably one of the greatest games of all time would be a Herculean task on its own, but how do you also rebuild a fractured studio?
The very public falling out with that games creators, which ended with them leaving the studio, surely doesn’t make things any easier. This isn’t the same studio that made Disco Elysium – it couldn’t be, not after layoffs and the loss of those who made it what it was. I absolutely loved Disco Elysium and followed the situation closely. Going into ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies, I couldn’t help but wonder if the new ZA/UM, which does still have some developers from their earlier days, could ever live up to what came before, and rise above all the weight of the last few years.
The answer is complicated, but what is entirely true is that ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies rules. It takes the formula created by Disco Elysium and spins it into its own thing. The art style is gorgeous, the writing is great, and the plot and decision-making are as engaging as ever before. ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies does feel a lot like Disco in its opening hours, especially narratively, but as it starts to bring you deeper into its world and the story, you get lost all over again. It’s a story of loss and rebuilding, if you so choose it to be, almost showing ZA/UM’s journey through Hershels.
Sins Of The Past
ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies puts you in the disgraced shoes of Hershel, a former spy who was shunted to desk work after a miserably failed mission. She lost her entire crew in the process, all scattered to the wind in different ways. ZERO PARADES opens with her return to the field: her comrade comatose, whispers of trouble brewing, and a printer downstairs that needs fixing. Herschel, codename CASCADE, is thrust back into spycraft with next to no support and few leads.
Whatever happens next, Hershel needs her crew and gets to work on reassembling those she lost years ago. Much of the narrative centers on finding and trying to reconcile with them, scattered throughout the city of Portifiro. They’ll all need something as you try and bring them back into the fold – how successful you are depends on your choices and the rolls of the dice. The city itself is embroiled in a constant sense of dread and loss. People are being taken off the streets, and a cultural and military cold war with a neighbouring country is leaving everyone on edge.
Hershel Is A Fantastic Lead
Nothing would work without Hershel, and who she is largely depends on the player. She could be egotistical and cocky, so sure of her capabilities that she can be blind to reality. She can be full of conspiracy, convinced that alien puppeteers and shadow forces stalk her every move. She can be self-deprecating and depressed, carrying the sins of her past mistakes so heavily that they weave into every fiber of her being. Or, she can be a mix of all of the above, flipping between communism, techno-facism, and lord knows what else on a whim. She’s a fantastic partially-blank canvas that you imprint on. Where Disco Elysium was a buddy cop story at heart, Hershel is very alone through a lot of the dice rolls and encounters. She’s a fantastic lead that can make brutal choices, or be on a redemption quest, all equally engaging.
Depending on the leads you chase and the choices you make, Hershel gains new thoughts that she can condition into her psyche. Each offer higher skill potentials and other possible boons, while also coming with a cost. There’s a wide range of them you can hunt down and equip, but they also carry risk. One may give you a higher skill potential for technoflex and records, but hits you with disadvantages when you try and repress memories of your old crew. Another can limit saves, or give you overall buffs but prevent you from gaining more skills points. There are a lot of options as to how you want to build Hershel out, helping her choose what to focus on or what to avoid.
The combination of all the above nails not just the spy-genre, but also a mix of sci-fi. It feels very much likes The X-Files or Control at points, as the supernatural sets in. You often face tense and uncomfortable situations, but also find them endearing in the people you meet and their own stories. Portifiro is as important as the crew. One early side quest has you looking for a young woman’s father after he gets caught up in possible conspiracy theories and disappears.
Another has you searching for ghost songs in an abandoned building, trying to get the musicians to leave before it completely collapses. Another has you trying to figure out if a departed friend’s soul has taken residence in a giant boar. Each side quest I’ve come across has been naturally woven into the fabric of the city, adding to and filling in parts of its history and the lives of the people who call it home.
Meaningful Choice and Consequences
ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies also presents you with a ton of choice. Most of the missions have multiple possible solutions, offering you different avenues to follow depending on which stat points you’ve upgraded. Failing doesn’t usually mean getting locked out, but it can mean trying again the next day or taking on temporary weaknesses. You can try and mitigate as much as you can with different clothes, each offering different boosts and drawbacks. It would’ve been nice to be able to arrange the clothes by their effect typings or make set outfits, as changing out the outfits gets old after a while.
This level of choice and consequence seeps into every decision, especially in the games final chapter. The Whole Sick Crew isn’t what it used to be, and each role that needs to be filled has multiple options, each with their own caveats. You can try and chase down old friends and hope they’re alive and want to join, but you can also get in bed with enemies and potential foes. The final mission is a payoff of everything that led you there, and I can’t wait to dive back in to see how other ends could possibly go depending on my crew.
ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies is gorgeous. It looks like an oil painting made with a broken brush, colours blurring and edges bleeding. Each screen is so visually dense that it can be almost overwhelming at points, a mass of architecture, people, and items that can blur together. This extends to the UI, with some beautiful menus and artwork, but similarly can take some adjusting to. It’s a stunning visual experience.
Sharp Writing And Sharper Wits
None of what’s presented to the player would be so successful if the writing were weak, but it’s one of the strongest parts, giving a firm, solid backbone to the rest of the game. It’s different from what came before, but it’s well put together, grabs you, and doesn’t let go. The description of the city and its people is brilliant, with the voices in your head commenting on everything going on.
Each of them represents a different aspect of Hershel, whether they’re reminding her of her past mistakes and letting her wallow, or commenting on the space lords that evidently control her every move. It’s funny and engaging at every turn, managing to inject humour despite the oppressive feeling of the world at large.
Going along with the spy theme, ZERO PARADES puts you into tense action sequences that slow time down. Decision-making is critical; one wrong roll and you suffer the consequences. One early section has you trying to make it to the end of a bazaar without getting spotted by enemies. It’s a tight section that has you both dreading and living for each roll. It’s a fantastic way to introduce the tense spy situations where every split decision matters. You can exert yourself on any roll, but doing so will increase its associated overall stat. A roll that falls under a physical ability check, such as Coordination, will increase Fatigue.
You need to manage levels across Fatigue, Anxiety, and Delirium. If any one of them gets too high, you’ll lose experience points in the related category. You can mitigate loss through a number of items, including drugs and alcohol, while also being able to sleep to lower them. The day/night cycle becomes integral here, with everything you do not just a risk of losing stats if you push too far, but also a need to find time to sleep to give yourself a relatively fresh start the next day.
ZERO PARADES is playable on the Steam Deck
ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies does have a few technical issues, but none that really soured the experience. It’s small stuff like getting stuck on the environment at times, or something not clicking the first time you highlight it. One specific section where you try to hop off a ledge was particularly frustrating, where Hershel would just turn around and go back up, creating a loop where you just couldn’t get down. Thankfully, spamming button presses eventually got her back down. Hopefully, these smaller issues get patched.
It also runs decently on Steam Deck, even if the frame rate is inconsistent. Playing on high settings, in jumps between 30 and 60 fps often, especially outdoors. Dropping the graphical settings lower does help. It did crash on me a few times with the latest patch as well, which wasn’t an issue prior. There’s also really brutal screen tearing whenever you run past the midpoint of the map, the entire lower or upper side turning entirely black before kicking in. I played the entire 20 hours on Deck and would do it again, but performance is inconsistent.
Verdict
Overall, ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies is a fantastic follow-up to Disco Elysium. It proves that ZA/UM still have a ton of talent at the studio, with sharp writing and a world you can’t help but inhabit. The new action sequences are among the best parts, bringing you closer to the world of a spy in a harsh environment.
While there are some technical issues, they were never enough to lessen the experience. If ZA/UM can still put out quality titles like ZERO PARADES, the studio’s future looks bright, even if it isn’t what it once was. ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies is all about reckoning with the mistakes of the past and moving on, a well-told story that is worth the adventure.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: Steam Deck
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Author: 360 Technology Group
