When we first reviewed Disco Elysium, it was released in an embarrassingly broken state. However, after several updates and patches, we could finally appreciate what made it great. Despite its success, the developers broke into new and different teams and the first is ZA/UM. Just because a key creative is no longer involved in a successor doesn’t mean it can’t still capture the core principles that made the original great.
Disco Elysium has some big shoes to fill, and ZA/UM still boasts plenty of creative talent, even without the original figurehead who led their masterpiece. Not exactly a spiritual successor and not set in the same universe, yet still following the same core principles, can Zero Parades: For Dead Spies emerge from Disco Elysium‘s shadow? Find out in our Zero Parades: For Dead Spies review!
ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies
Developer: ZA/UM
Publisher: ZA/UM
Platforms: Windows
Release Date: May 21, 2026
Price: $39.99
Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is a spy thriller about past mistakes, second chances, and men meddling in forces beyond their understanding. Everyone has an agenda, and either you are playing them or they are playing you. Hershel “Cascade” Wilk, a disgraced operative for the communist-aligned intelligence agency known as the Opera, is thawed from a cryogenic prison called “the Freezer” after five years.
Cascade defies her handlers and goes rogue in a city caught in a quiet proxy war among banking cartels, communist blocs, and techno-fascists. To uncover the truth behind her betrayal, she must navigate the fractured criminal underground of Portofiro, rebuild her network of former spies, and confront her conflicted psyche. She quickly finds that the operation has already ended in chaos.
It’s up to the player to choose allegiances to either a failing communist system or capitalize and sell the secrets to the highest bidder. It’s a gripping socio-political thriller where uncovering the conspiracy turns a routine corporate mole hunt into an intense psychological fight for survival.
Zero Parades doesn’t start with its best foot forward. The first problem is that it dumps a ton of exposition on the player with a file that lists tons of proper nouns and esoteric concepts you won’t understand for a long while. Once you know what the hell is going on, the story grabbed me. I was surprised at first, but once the story got underway, I found it to be engaging and thought-provoking.
The story and gameplay mesh seamlessly, with skills serving as literal fragments of Hershel’s fractured mind, mirroring her trauma, paranoia, and ideological struggles wherever the player leads her. A failed check might spark a vivid internal monologue that reveals more about her and the world’s shattered state, or result in a sudden, darkly funny death, like getting stuck trying to reach inside a vending machine.
The stress mechanics make failure and struggle a bit harsher than the developers likely intended, but pushing your limits can still uncover hidden paths or unique outcomes that fit the spy theme. The downside is that it’s easy to save scum for the result you want, rather than being nudged to live with your failures like in Disco Elysium’s smoother, more organic system.
Apart from the clumsy exposition dump at the start, exploration and side interactions organically flesh out the lore. Every conversation or object can yield clues, personal revelations, or absurdist humor amid the bleakness. Like always, Zero Parades encourages replayability through vastly different playstyles and builds: brutal operative, suave manipulator, or an unravelling intellectual, and how these reshape a story pregnant with conspiracies.
There are 15 skills split across three faculties: Action (covering physical instincts, spy training, coordination), Relation (Cascade’s knack for reading people, influencing, empathizing, or manipulating), and Intellect (memory, deduction, analysis). Almost like they’re party members, these skills speak as distinct voices in Cascade’s mind, offering advice, debating among themselves, and shaping her interpretation of events through passive checks.
High levels in a skill unlock unique dialogue options, deeper insights, or alternative problem-solving paths. Unlike in Disco Elysium, you can load dice rolls by “exerting” effort on checks, but this increases one of three stress meters: Fatigue, Anxiety, or Delirium. If any of Cascade’s stresses breach their thresholds, her perceptions are altered, and you are forced to level down one of her skills.
Managing mental and emotional strain becomes a core gameplay consideration that mirrors the protagonist’s precarious spy life. The system is mercifully flexible once you know how to game it in your favor by stacking the odds with the right clothes/equipment and, more importantly, substance abuse.
Yes, it’s true. Zero Parades encourages the player to do as many drugs and alcohol as possible to reduce Cascade’s stressors, and there are no downsides at all. The option to become a complete drug fiend fits with the look and feel of the game’s dank visuals. The background art is very painterly and gritty, while some illustrations look like something James Jean would’ve designed from the 2000s.
The voice acting is great… when it’s there. Sometimes the voiced lines just stop, as if there wasn’t enough time to finish recording, or maybe extra lines were added after the recording sessions. Worse yet, some voiced lines don’t match the on-screen text, with discrepancies ranging from minor wording changes to noticeably different sentences. Maybe Cascade is so paranoid that she doesn’t trust what she hears… or maybe the devs just screwed up.
Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is a pretty good and gripping experience, but there is no doubt that it fails to escape the long shadow of Disco Elysium. It’s not as funny or deep and comes across as a bit lightweight.
With a few tweaks, some updates, and a fully voiced cast, Zero Parades could finally step out from its big brother’s shadow. Technical issues aside, it’s almost pretty good.
ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies was reviewed on PC using a code provided by ZA/UM. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies is now available for Windows PC (via Steam).
