{"id":810161,"date":"2026-05-20T15:56:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/810161\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T15:56:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:56:19","slug":"the-disco-elysium-studios-new-rpg-is-uneven-but-absorbing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/810161\/","title":{"rendered":"The Disco Elysium Studio’s New RPG Is Uneven But Absorbing"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve recently taken up having a drunken cigarette every now and then. And before you say anything, I know it\u2019s bad for me! Despite what it sounds like, the move is hardly recreational. It\u2019s more a twisted form of therapy, one that works best (or worst) when compounded with the poison already coursing through my veins by the time I\u2019ve lit up. To me, the cigarette is a crude implement, but it\u2019s my chosen weapon these days for beating back the dread. I embrace the nicotine wave, allowing it to crash over and soothe me, prolonging the vibe of my buzz after a hearty night out and keeping me warm. It\u2019s not a healthy tactic, but it\u2019s about all I\u2019ve got.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As its name implies, Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, the new RPG from the makers of Disco Elysium, is a spy story. And like many spy stories, its concerns go well beyond its setting, the sizable port town of Portofiro. You feel the influence of La Luz, a neighboring country that is home to \u201ctechno fascists\u201d decked out in clothes with holographic patches and neon lights that\u2019d feel at home in Cyberpunk 2077\u2019s Night City. There are plentiful homegrown factions too, like EMTERR, which is often just called the Bank, as well as the communist Superbloc that sponsors the Opera, the fanciful name that protagonist Hershel Wilk\u2019s spy agency dons. You may never step foot outside of Portofiro, but the fiction Zero Parades weaves is vast, complex, and most importantly, deeply intertwined.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like me, Hershel partakes in the occasional drunken cigarette, too. By the time we meet her, the once-disgraced spy has been roped back into service for one last mission, one that calls for her to rummage through the trash of Portofiro and navigate its criminal underbelly in order to accomplish the Opera\u2019s vague and unclear goals. Often, at the end of a harsh and trying day sifting through Portofiro\u2019s detritus, I would steer her out of the Fogged Mirror\u2014a usual haunt from her past life\u2014and watch her delight in the lighting of an Ouroboros Black, a perfect follow-up to her recently guzzled schnapps of choice. Together, these little acts of solace make up her own little flirtation with death. A sick little ritual to deal with the pangs of grief that must rack her throughout her return to these ugly, haunted streets.<\/p>\n

\"zero\u00a9 ZA\/UM <\/p>\n

I keep coming back to these acts of self-medication and destruction. They\u2019re not just for flavor; they\u2019re a way for Hershel (and you) to balance Zero Parades\u2019 three competing gauges that can stress and even break the main character: fatigue, anxiety, and delirium. Should any of them exceed a certain threshold, they begin to actively debuff her, and if they max out, one of Hershel\u2019s various skills is knocked down a whole point. Players are encouraged to exert themselves\u2014tack on points to one of these meters to roll a third die during difficult skill checks\u2014and after doing so, I\u2019d often let Hershel imbibe and come down. It\u2019s a vicious cycle, and one that\u2019s integral to the fabric of Zero Parades, a game that at times feels possessed by an otherworldly and all-consuming ugliness, and is packed with figures desperate to do anything to deal with it.<\/p>\n

Portofiro\u2019s people are at the whims of much of this ugliness, feeling the impact of everything from La Luz\u2019s \u201ccultural war\u201d and threat of annexation to EMTERR\u2019s ironically named \u201cstabilization\u201d loans that have brought about anything but. I mean, the Palace of Cultures sits in ruins. Half of the buildings sitting along the docks are boarded up, and its greatest market is a bazaar filled with odd personalities peddling bootlegs. The people you meet, the assets you reconnect with and recruit to your cause, are all rehabilitating and coping in their own appalling manners. Does any of that sound stable? No one is coming to help the people of Portofiro, and in the middle of it all is poor Hershel, who has been brought out of retirement for one impossibly fucked job that might alter its course.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How little control do you think Hershel must feel after being brought back from proverbial death and forced to reckon with the dissemination of her old crew?\u00a0 As good as it might feel to be back in the field, how do you imagine she might feel being given back her cursed codename after her last mission was so thoroughly butchered? Here in Portofiro, long past the End of History, what hope does she really have of pulling off this job and making the best of a powder keg that\u2019s going to blow regardless of what she does? If I were thrust into such a combustible situation that I had so little control over, I\u2019d be tearing through those smokes and drinks just trying to get through an afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"zero\u00a9 ZA\/UM <\/p>\n

A vendor named Petre operates out of the Bootleg Bazaar selling all kinds of music, most of which he has an apparent disdain for. His gallery, dubbed a \u201cmuseum of loathing,\u201d feels like an apt metaphor for Zero Parades. If Disco Elysium was known for its overwhelming ennui, Zero Parades is likely to go down for its venom and vitriol.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zero Parades is the newest game from ZA\/UM, the studio which shipped the landmark 2019 CRPG Disco Elysium<\/a> and later became engulfed in a sordid split<\/a> with some of its original founders, including lead designer Robert Kurvitz. Dueling lawsuits, canceled sequels, and a cascade of splinter indie developer spin-offs attempting to claim the mantle of working on a spiritual successor to ZA\/UM\u2019s debut hit ensued. It\u2019s a legacy<\/a> that distinguishes the conditions under which Zero Parades was created, and one its new creators have tried to distance themselves from<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zero Parades appears a lot like its predecessor, a game whose outsized reputation has haunted the RPG space since its momentous debut. It\u2019s presented from an isometric perspective, stars a fuckup and an authority figure, possesses an art style that rends beauty from an ugly world, and is, in a word, verbose. Hershel, like Disco Elysium\u2019s failed cop, has voices in her head tied to her RPG skills, like Shadowplay, Personalism, and Entanglement, and everyone in the game (imagined and literal) speaks like they\u2019re fresh off of a philosophy major.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"zero\u00a9 ZA\/UM <\/p>\n

But Zero Parades is different from its storied predecessor in some meaningful ways, too. For example, it\u2019s certainly more action-packed. Disco famously wrung rich role-playing scenarios from conversations and encounters of the mind, but featured very little in the way of combat. Zero Parades doesn\u2019t swing wildly in the other direction but, as a thriller taking cues from the world of espionage literature and film, it does materialize dramatic sequences in which you\u2019re making more split-second, action-filled decisions. These moments aren\u2019t game changers in and of themselves, but being rewarded for leaning into my fantasy of a dream spy (a physical force to be reckoned with) was a nice change of pace from the genre\u2019s aforementioned wordiness.<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s considerable pleasure to be found in navigating the rich worldbuilding on display as well. Untangling the deep mythos of Portofiro and the forces influencing it from without and within is part of the appeal of Zero Parades. In fact, finding yourself at the center of a complex narrative web woven by political and social forces has become an increasingly common element in narrative-heavy CRPGs more broadly of late. Though I\u2019ve never finished Disco Elysium, I was wholeheartedly absorbed in its central mystery and the way that it connected to the deeply broken people of Revachol, the city itself, and the world that shaped them both. Earlier this year, Esoteric Ebb<\/a> unspooled a similar story of political intrigue and murder in a fantasy-inspired setting. Wading through these deep CRPGs nowadays almost seems like a tacit admission: you\u2019re missing a certain intrigue in your life and are willing to work through complex systems and dialogues to sate that appetite for what is, at the end of the day, a lengthy mystery novel in the shape of a video game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zero Parades is no different, beginning with the mystery of Hershel\u2019s catatonic colleague and aide, codenamed PSEUDOPOD, before quickly growing into a swirling morass of conspiratorial threads that can be followed to the disparate edges of Portofiro and the massively screwed-up world beyond its flimsy borders. It\u2019s a shame that, as Zero Parades\u2018 web of lies continues to expand, the larger plot loses focus on much of its supporting cast, including the team that Hershel is meant to recruit. Though the first half of the game builds up to some tense confrontations with the ghosts of Hershel\u2019s past, I can\u2019t help but feel that a dramatic revelation at about the game\u2019s midway point shifts the narrative into overdrive, consequently reducing some focal characters like ESTOC and KINDRED to mere pawns in the game\u2019s grander game of chess and diminishing the opportunity for some deeper characterization.<\/p>\n

Despite these hang-ups, I do enjoy many of the places that Zero Parades eventually goes, and man\u2026does it go places. As it turns out, the world is a goddamn mess.<\/p>\n

\"zero <\/p>\n

No Parades: For Dead Spies <\/p>\n