ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies Review: ZA/UM Delivers A Sharp Espionage Thriller

I’m going to be blunt—I never got around to playing Disco Elysium, the cult classic by developer ZA/UM. It’s not that the game never interested me; it just happened to release during a year that was jam-packed with other fantastic titles. As years went on, I always eyed it and got close to starting a playthrough, but never officially started.

I mention my relationship with Disco Elysium because it helps you get a better understanding of where I’m coming from with ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies. Simply put, I won’t be doing many comparisons between the two and how they stack up with one another. Instead, this review is coming from someone who is completely new to a ZA/UM game.

ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies is a fantastic video game and is one that I will definitely be returning to for a second playthrough. It’s not perfect, and I have some gripes with some specific aspects, but what it excels at, it does with flying colors. Read further to learn more about what the game does well, and where it could have been improved.

Become a Spy in This Corrupted World

ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies tells the story of CASCADE, an undercover spy who wakes up from her slumber with no recollection of her current assignment. In the chair next to her bed, she spots a man, completely unconscious and unresponsive. This is your handler and the provider of your assignment, but since he’s out cold, you’re left to figure things out on your own.

After further investigation and speaking to many characters across town, you eventually figure out your assignment, and let me tell you, it’s a big one. The fun of the introduction of the game is figuring this out on your own, so to avoid spoilers, I won’t be mentioning what the assignment is.

What I can tell you, though, is that the story of ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies is well written, is filled with shocking twists, and has the high stakes of a thriller book or movie — one that you’re actively participating in. Games aren’t really ever referred to as “Thrillers,” but that is honestly the best way to describe what ZA/UM has created.

I found myself on the edge of my seat as I pushed further into the story, fully engaged with this fictional world that shares an uncanny resemblance to modern society. It focuses on politics and those in power, the influence of the media on the minds of our young ones, and the simple fact that “the people” don’t have all the answers.

The game’s story places an emphasis on conspiracy, and it’s your job to get to the truth, even if you’ll likely not appreciate what you find. This is where the game excels with its story, as you constantly want to get to the bottom of everything and see the bigger picture at play.

My biggest concern when going into ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies was that the dialogue was going to be mediocre and leave me uninterested, which would be catastrophic for a game that is strictly focused on reading a ton. I mean, there is an insane amount of reading in this game, so I’m happy to say that all the dialogue is carefully crafted.

That brings me to my next point: this game is absolutely not for you if you aren’t willing to put in the effort and read everything. I’m sure Disco Elysium fans understand this, but if you’re new to ZA/UM like I am, make sure to take the dialogue-heavy aspect into consideration before purchasing.

A Declining Mental State

ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies follows a core gameplay loop of exploring environments, speaking to characters, passing skill checks, and managing your character’s mental state. Your mental state has three components: Fatigue, Anxiety, and Dilirium, all of which have their own bar at the bottom left side of the screen.

As you speak to characters, you’ll be faced with skill checks and choices to make, and your success rate on these is determined by your in-game stats. Failing these skill checks can result in a decline in your mental state, and reaching the maximum limit will lead to you needing to lower a skill. Being forced to lower a skill does not feel good and can put your character in a bad spot, so it’s essential to manage your mental state to the best of your ability.

I can imagine that this gameplay mechanic will frustrate a good number of players, and some may prefer the classic “Game Over,” but I actually found this mechanic to be brilliant. Your mental state makes skill checks much more tense, since you know failure could lead to a step back in character progression. There’s real weight to it, and it's more consequential.

For example, one of my favorite moments in ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies is when I was being interrogated by the enemy, strapped to a chair as they stood over me with a taser. This moment consisted of many dialogue options and skill checks, and every wrong choice led me to being tased and an increase in my delirium bar. Every time I saw that +1 Delirium appear on the screen, I knew that lowering a skill was in my near future.

This is one of the many moments where the intensity is high, the levels of your skills matter, and you genuinely feel like your choices matter. It’s much more impactful than your typical game-over screen, since in those cases, you can just restart and try again. However, in ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies, you live with these outcomes. Of course, you can save scum, but I don’t recommend that since it ruins the fun.

While this is punishing, there are also a lot of rewarding aspects that go toward positive character progression as well. For example, as you speak to the game’s many characters, you will unlock and complete tasks, pass skill checks, learn key information, and more. All of this rewards experience points, which eventually leads to earning a skill point that can be allocated to one of your many stats.

The stats determine how well you do in certain situations, the actions you can take, and whether or not you pass a skill check. In this case, as you level up, your character becomes more capable and a better spy overall.

A Few Rough Edges

I know that this review has been all positive, but I want to make it clear that ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies is not a perfect game. While I enjoyed every minute of the game, there are some pain points that I have with the game that bring down the overall experience.

For starters, the ambience of the game could have been better, especially considering it's a thriller. The best way ZA/UM could have done this is by adding better music in the less tense sections, such as exploring and speaking to side characters. The lack of a great musical score in these smaller moments can make them less engaging than they could have been.

Another frustrating aspect is that the stats are fairly confusing, and it’s hard to understand what exactly you are allocating points into. While it does provide a brief description of each stat on the skill page, it's hard to take that information and know exactly when you are applying it in dialogue.

The reason this is the case is that, outside of the dice roll skill checks, which tell you the percentage of you succeeding, the stat you'll be using, and are the most influential on outcomes of the story, the standard skill checks have no logo or explanation of which stat is being used until after the fact. Even worse, the game doesn’t even tell you when a standard skill check is about to happen, and instead, it comes randomly after selecting a standard dialogue option. In other words, you never really know when one is coming.

I thought this was a strange design choice, and I’m confident that it would have been better to place the logo of a stat and its level next to each dialogue option, so you know exactly what you’re getting into. Since it doesn’t, it’s hard to know exactly what each stat does.

Last but not least, ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies has some issues when it comes to performance and dialogue. When it comes to performance, the game has a hard time keeping up when you’re running through town, stuttering as the screen tries to keep up. As for the dialogue, sometimes the voice acting cuts out or does not match up with what’s written on screen. This easily breaks immersion.

While the stuttering will most likely be fixed in the day one update, I’m not confident that the dialogue issues will be completely fixed by then due to the sheer number of problems I noticed. However, none of these issues are enough to diminish how great ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies truly is, and I’m sure everything will be fixed with more updates down the road.

Overall, ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies is an exciting espionage thriller that succeeds far more than it stumbles. Its narrative is gripping, intelligent, and is packed with conspiracy, consistently pulling you deeper into its immersive world that is essentially an uncomfortable metaphor for modern society. Its mental state gameplay mechanic is a brilliant addition, where you can lose a skill point if it reaches a certain level, as it increases the stakes of skill checks and your actions, adding extra weight to each decision you make. While it's not without flaws, such as unclear stat feedback and mediocre music in its smaller moments, these negatives aren't enough to ruin the experience. ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies is a demanding game that requires patience and attention, but those willing to engage with it on its own terms will find something truly special.