Zero Parades: For Dead Spies Review

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I’ve been struggling to find the right way to review Zero Parades: For Dead Spies. It’s a game that really got under my skin and stayed with me long after I finished playing. It’s hard to describe because it’s incredibly complex, and also because of the difficult situation surrounding the game’s creators and their previous work, Disco Elysium. Zero Parades is clearly trying to be its own thing, but it’s built on the same successful foundation as Disco Elysium, while also exploring how media and entertainment can be used for control and to shape people’s beliefs.

Despite being a bit wordy at times, Zero Parades is a game that has really stuck with me. It’s a captivating spy story with a lot of depth, and it’s emotionally powerful – once it grabs you, it doesn’t let go.

Zero Parades is the new game from ZA/UM, the studio behind the critically acclaimed Disco Elysium (2019). Unfortunately, things became difficult after a serious legal dispute arose between the game’s creators and the studio’s management. While I won’t detail that legal battle in this review, it’s important to understand the situation surrounding the game and its developers. Many articles explain the context, and I recommend reading them alongside anything about Zero Parades. For this review, I’m focusing on the game itself – I believe it’s important to judge the work these developers have created, regardless of the circumstances.

Zero Parades is often compared to Disco Elysium, though the stories aren’t connected. It uses a similar gameplay system. You play as Hershel Wilk, codenamed Cascade, a disillusioned spy working for The Opera, a communist agency. Cascade is fighting a secret war against a powerful, tech-focused enemy for control of the city-state Portofiro. After a failed mission five years ago, Cascade was relegated to desk work, but is now being given one last chance to prove their worth and return to active duty.

Right from the beginning of Cascade, you’re dropped into the action without knowing your goal or what you’re supposed to do. This means you have to improvise and figure things out as you go, all while facing off against rival spies with the odds stacked against you. It’s not a flashy, over-the-top spy game, but the way Zero Parades builds and highlights the espionage elements is truly captivating.

I want to be clear – this is a compliment – but the game really loves using a lot of words! It’s full of lengthy conversations, quirky characters, and portrays spying as mostly just talking and connecting with people. While there’s some light spying like tapping phones or disguises, Zero Parade focuses on how you talk your way through situations, using dialogue choices, skill checks, and dice rolls, all wrapped up in a compelling mystery. This focus on the different personalities Cascade can adopt, and even the less glamorous parts of being a spy, is what makes the game so interesting. But it’s the way the game weaves in deeper themes and social commentary that truly sets it apart.

Like Disco Elysium, Zero Parades deeply explores the tensions and connections between communism, fascism, and capitalism. Considering the difficulties faced by the game’s developers, it’s hard not to interpret this conflict as a commentary on real-world issues, prompting complex questions without simple solutions. It took me about twenty hours of playing to fully grasp the game’s central message: a heavy critique of how art functions within different societies, how media can be used to manipulate people and suppress dissent, and what it means to be an artist when creative work is controlled by outside forces.

Honestly, while thinking about the big ideas in the game is cool, what really grabbed me was how they showed those ideas through the characters. And a huge part of that was playing as Cascade – seriously, what a character! He’s got so many different sides to him that the whole game felt like a mystery, trying to figure out who the real Hershel is underneath it all.

The game features a skill system divided into three main areas: Action, Relation, and Intellect. Each of these areas contains five different skills, such as Personalism, Coordination, and Grey Matter. Improving these skills with points earned from leveling up significantly impacts conversations and how the story unfolds. As you play, you’ll also discover “ideas” that shape Cascade’s personality, offering stat boosts and unlocking new dialogue choices. These ideas can lead to surprising and unique gameplay experiences – I particularly enjoyed one that made my character constantly believe an apocalypse was imminent!

Essentially, these skills act like different voices inside Cascade’s mind, each adding its own perspective to conversations. This reflects the fragmented personality and mental state Cascade has built up over years of working as a spy.

One of the most impactful parts of the game, for me, was the theme of self-discovery. The character Cascade has lived many lives, and as you play, you uncover details about those past experiences and how her previous teams failed her. The game constantly asks you whether you want to fully understand these pasts or avoid them. Personally, I really connected with the idea that we can feel like completely different people at different points in our lives.

I’ve dealt with feeling disconnected for a long time, and honestly, it makes you really question who you are – I find myself constantly second-guessing past choices and wondering ‘what if?’ That’s why I was so hooked by Zero Parades. It doesn’t shy away from tough questions, like whether people deserve a second chance, and it builds that right into the main character. The game really makes you think: can you actually change, and even want to? How much do we need to feel like we belong somewhere, or believe in something? And when it comes down to it, what – or who – are you willing to give up to get what you need? It’s in the way the game explores all these different sides of a person that it really feels different from Disco Elysium. It goes much deeper into themes of guilt and trying to make amends.

Failure is a central mechanic in Zero Parades. Because you won’t know when skill checks will appear, you’re bound to mess up conversations, even with skill-boosting outfits. The game focuses on dealing with those failures and finding ways to continue. Throughout the game, you also have to manage three conditions: Delusion, Anxiety, and Fatigue. Your choices in dialogue can increase these conditions, making skill checks harder the more points you accumulate. You can reduce these effects by sleeping or using alcohol and drugs, adding another layer of challenge and heightening the existing tension in the story and conversations.

What truly makes Zero Parades special are the unique stories you discover in Portofiro, and how they connect to the larger plot and its themes. You’ll meet memorable characters like a talking monkey who runs a shop, a record store owner upset by modern music and with some unusual fixations, and a businessman who reveals secrets about his powerful employer. Even an old friend believes a creature is controlling his mind. Everything feels subtly unsettling, blending paranoia with a touch of the supernatural.

The game features a large cast of characters who bring the story to life and explore difficult themes like grief, loss, and regret in many different ways. The excellent writing consistently reminds you that you are playing as Cascade, forcing you to consider how your interactions with the diverse characters will impact your goals. As you play, you’ll also gain a strong understanding of the game’s world and how it reflects the Cold War era.

I keep focusing on the writing and story because everything in Zero Parades is designed to support them. Whether you’ll enjoy the game’s ‘spy’ theme really depends on if you’re okay with a spy experience that’s mostly about conversations and dialogue – it’s about 90% talking!

The game’s visuals and sound design generally enhance this atmosphere. At first glance, Zero Parades looks and feels a lot like Disco Elysium, with a gritty urban setting, a dark and atmospheric soundtrack, and artwork that explores themes of both communism and capitalism.

Zero Parades does have some technical problems. I noticed occasional slowdown and objects appearing suddenly, especially when playing on the Steam Deck. There were also a few bugs with climbing and, once, a skill check got stuck on the screen, forcing me to restart. The game also explains things in extreme detail, which can be overwhelming. You might spend a long time learning about even minor things, like the local wildlife, which sometimes makes the game feel slow.

Zero Parades is a deeply haunting game. Its exploration of themes like atonement and guilt really resonated with me on a personal level, and it’s made me think a lot about the purpose and impact of art and artists in our world.

I also recognize that Zero Parades tackles some complex ideas that will be difficult for players to ignore – and shouldn’t. The game consistently challenges how media becomes standardized and how capitalism controls art, specifically how we exhaustively mine franchises and intellectual property for profit. It asks tough questions about the inherent conflict between capitalism and artistic creation, and considering the situation surrounding Disco Elysium and its developers, that conflict feels especially relevant.

Zero Parades isn’t simple to understand, but perhaps just thinking about the issues it brings up – and doing so with a healthy dose of doubt – is enough in itself.

9

Versions tested: PC. Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is also available on PS5.

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2026-05-21 07:58