All articles tagged with #zero parades
ZA/UM laid off 32 employees across all departments after Zero Parades: For Dead Spies underperformed commercially, saying it cannot sustain the studio at its current size. The studio consulted the ZA/UM Workers' Alliance and reaffirmed its artistic goals, noting this follows a 2024 round of layoffs after cancellations of multiple games.
Early Steam Deck preview shows Zero Parades: For Dead Spies running smoothly with default high settings and a 45 FPS cap. The game’s text remains readable thanks to large text options and 16:10 support looks great on the handheld. Some rain and crowded areas can cause frame dips, potentially requiring a 30 FPS cap, but overall the portable experience appears strong ahead of its May 21 release.
ZA/UM's Zero Parades: For Dead Spies leans into a Disco Elysium–style, combatless RPG but with a spy-thriller twist: a three-faculty system linked to Fatigue, Anxiety, and Delirium, a balance of cigarettes and other consumables to influence checks, and branching quests that reward failure as a path to new outcomes. Its city Portofiro is vibrant and politically charged, and Hershel is a compelling lead, though the inner voices lack distinct personalities and the game sometimes imitates Disco Elysium too closely. Overall, it's a strong, narrative-driven RPG that dips in places but remains well worth playing, earning an 8/10.
Zero Parades: For Dead Spies sticks closely to Disco Elysium’s mechanical DNA but is weighed down by ZA/UM’s real‑world disputes and the absence of its original writers. The result is a mechanically faithful follow‑up that struggles to forge its own identity, as Cascade’s mind-voices and a haunted espionage premise unfold in Portofiro ahead of its May PC launch.
Eurogamer previews ZA/UM's follow-up to Disco Elysium, Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, using a Portofiro demo in a decaying bazaar to explore how nostalgia drives media, power, and a washed-up spy's redemption, while hinting at new systems in the full game.