Several weeks ago, I played Zero Parades for Dead Spies (ZP) demo. This is the new game from ZA/UM, the studio that created Disco Elysium. That’s a whole fuckin’ can of worms that I, nor anyone outside of those involved, will truly understand or know the full extent of the situation. The truth is somewhere in the middle, and from the ashes of these burnt bridges have come several new studios and “spiritual successors” to Disco Elysium. Initially, I was really expecting to dislike it or, at the very least, just feel neutral about ZP given all of the history of ZA/UM and the controversy surrounding it, but I actually had a blast with the game and am fully excited for its release tomorrow. I am worried that every review will fall into the easy and lazy comparisons to Disco Elysium, and I am going to do my best here to avoid doing that.
First and foremost, the writing is GOOD, and the story/setup is so interesting! I love the spy angle and the way it colors all conversations. There is an underlying tension when talking with any single NPC; the worry that you may reveal too much information, the fear that they may not be who you think they are, or even worse, they are who you think they are, and you are caught in a no-win situation. One of the things that draws me into this story the most is actually one of my biggest issues with Disco Elysium and its narrative. Harry starts as a blank slate for you to determine, change, and evolve, BUT the ending of the game (imo) undercuts that by having everyone in his life be like “No, you aren’t any of that shit, you are the Harry we know before you k-hole’d yourself into complete amnesia.” I’ve been told that the secret ending does something more substantial with the personal discovery of Harry and who he was and who he’s become, but I didn’t get that ending. Maybe the normal ending is the “bad” ending, but no matter what, it feels like the game is saying that a person cannot evolve or change, given the chance.
Zero Parades begins with Hershel “Cascade” Wilks realizing that the mission she is on has already gone to shit. Her partner is pantless and catatonic, she has no information to work off of, and her only shot at redemption in the eyes of her agency is dissolving right before her eyes. Wilks is an entire person with a long history that we are actively learning about as we take control of her at the start of this mission. She is a spy who has “been on ice” for many years after a mission went so poorly that it resulted in the death of her entire network of spies and friends. Instead of molding the clay that is Harry DuBois’s mind into a new person due to his amnesia, Hershel has a set of beliefs actively being challenged by the course of the mission, the people she interacts with, and the ideologies she is encountering. We’ll see if ZA/UM lands that plane with this approach to the narrative and Wilks’ journey, but I am deeply intrigued to find out.
The other important aspect of a Disco-like is the character writing, and I’m elated to say that the characters are beautifully weird. This isn’t too far into the demo/game, and I need to talk about this dude, but spoilers for this conversation. I don’t remember his name, but there is a guy who sells media and music out of a market stall. He is a HIPSTER to his core and is a true audiophile, to the point that he is obsessed with an obsolete music format that is purposefully designed to only be listened to one time. Upon listening to it, the format is designed to wipe the disc permanently with a magnet. His explanation of the purity of this format and what it means to create art that will immediately destroy itself was incredibly hilarious and moderately thought-provoking. Portofio is a city in cultural conflict. The younger generation is being baited by the media and easily accessible consumer objects of a techno-fascist society. Is there something to be said that streaming services like Spotify cheapen the experience of listening to music due to their ease of access, and make us appreciate music less? Does artistry lose something when it is made to get views and clicks? Is the ritual of putting a physical piece of media something that can a near religous experience which brings us closer to the understanding of the art we are consume? This is the kind of writing, sarcasm, and satire that I expect from a game like this.
Moving on to the visuals and art direction, they are well done, but I have a major complaint. One of the most important visual elements of a game of this genre is the display of the internal emotions/characters and their representative skill. The recent Esoteric Ebb made beautiful reinterpretations of the 6 D&D character traits, giving each a specific color and designs that created a monstrous, parasitic profile for each. For example: Constitution is a rust orange creature shaped like a strong with no eyes, a massive mouth, and instead of tubes connecting it to other organs, it is writhing tentacles. Constitution acts on instinct and is always talking in all caps to characterize it as a primordial instinct, and it works perfectly!
Zero Parades instead took a very flat approach to each skill, designing them as badges/pins. While an interesting approach, each skill is visually very similar, and since they are all shaped as the same pin with different art, they do not stand out amongst the crowd. I do not remember a single skill OR the badge associated with it. This was actually a major piece of criticism raised with the demo to the point that the developers redid the art to make the badges pop more and stand out when interacting with them in the game. I am sure that this will be a major point of comparison between ZP and DE, which is the same. The art team tried something, and it simply didn’t work the way they hoped it would.
My other major complaint about the demo, which I hope will be addressed in the full release, is the audio. The music within the demo is almost non-existent, which is such a shame, since one of the first major conversations you can have is about music, audio formats, and even different artists. During my time playing, I felt like something was missing until I realized that there wasn’t music playing throughout a majority of my time, and when there was music, it was very quiet and hidden in the background. It didn’t stand out whatsoever or set the tone of the set pieces I was in. There are also issues with the voice acting. There are several times when the characters say lines that differ from the text, which is jarring, but the main issue is that the voice performances are drastically reduced and end up falling into same issue as the skill badges; the blend together too easily with no major distinctions. This is, by far, the comparison I anticipate the most. Disco Elysium’s voice acting was lightning in a bottle, and Lenval Brown made magic in that recording studio. While I like the voice actor for ZP’s narrator, I do not believe she was directed well, and her performances end up sounding overacted, muddled, and indistinguishable from one another.
Moving back to exciting and interesting elements, the mechanics are cool! Instead of health, you have three bars that associate with your main faculties: fatigue, anxiety, and delirium. Random things will trigger an increase in those bars, and you can exert yourself to gain an advantage on rolls by adding to the skill’s respective bar. If the bar exceeds a certain amount at one time without any reduction, you will lose a skill point to refresh the bar. There are plenty of items to try and help balance your deficiencies (caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes, etc.), but each has its own price to pay for its use and costs money. There’s also like… Turn-based battle/encounters, which is rad. At the end of the demo, a scenario triggers where you realize you’ve been trailed. You are given the options to have “Cascade” charge the tail head on and try to knock them out before you escape, blend into the crowd and avoid confrontation if possible, or talk your way out of the situation. The tactical scenario felt surprisingly intuitive and tense, even though it was a short encounter with only a few choices to be made. My hope is that further into the game, there will be more complex scenarios that require a lot of thinking, tactical choice-making, and severe consequences depending on the results of your actions and rolls.
Ultimately, the best thing Zero Parades and the creatives behind it can do is to disassociate from the Disco-brand, not call itself a spiritual successor, and just try to stand on its own two feet. Legit though, there’s a ton of promise, and I am definitely buying it now because of the demo (unless it releases as a broken fucking mess). I think people wanted to write Zero Parades off because it wouldn’t capture what Disco was, and without the minds behind the core of Disco, the auteurship would die. BUT that leaves space for other people to shine and stand on the shoulders of giants to make something new and different, but reminiscent of the past. I think people just really wanted to shit on this cause it wasn’t disco despite its best efforts, but after an upward struggle to get to release, I honestly think it wants to be its own thing, which is good.