The Studio, the Controversy, and Why It All Matters

ZA/UM's road to Zero Parades has been anything but clean. Following Disco Elysium's extraordinary success, the studio fractured. Founding designer Robert Kurvitz, art director Aleksander Rostov, and key writer Helen Hindpere were pushed out of the company around 2021 under circumstances that triggered a legal dispute over ownership of the original IP, with allegations of a fraudulent takeover and misuse of nearly €4.8 million.

The controversy split the Disco Elysium fanbase. Many fans followed Kurvitz and Rostov to their new ventures, while others remained cautiously curious about what ZA/UM would build next without the people most associated with Disco Elysium's soul.

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is the answer. And based on everything seen so far, the talent still at ZA/UM has not gone anywhere.

The Story: Spies, Lies, and a City in Crisis

You play as Hershel Wilk, alias CASCADE — a brilliant but tormented operative working for a shadowy intelligence organization in the city-state of Portofiro. Following a massive mission failure that tore her team apart, Hershel is reactivated for one final assignment — to investigate a new mystery in a city plunged into ideological and cultural disputes.

She must gather her broken network, untangle a web of lies, and prove herself on the world stage. Or blow it all up again.

The game was inspired primarily by the spy novels of John le Carré — more intellectual and morally ambiguous than James Bond, centered on people doing "sneaky, horrible things" as part of their work. Additionally, the literary works of Ursula K. Le Guin and Thomas Pynchon shaped the story's surrealist undertones. This is not a game about cool gadgets and action set pieces. It is about the psychological cost of living a double life.

Differing deliberately from Disco Elysium, the writers noted they did not want to make another cop game — and that how people think about the police these days made that choice feel right. A spy story, by contrast, exists in a space where there is no necessarily right or wrong action, making it more suitable to the systems they built for it.

Gameplay: The Thought Cabinet Evolved

Zero Parades is a role-playing game played from an isometric view, with the player controlling Hershel directly through exploration, dialogue, and skill checks — directly in the tradition of Disco Elysium.

Hershel has a split psyche, and rather than resolving conflicts through combat, the player makes skill checks against facets of her own psychology and other characters. The UI tracks new stats — Fatigue instead of health, Anxiety instead of stress — and introduces a new system called Delirium, which plays into Hershel's unraveling mental state throughout the mission.

Conditioning is Zero Parades' evolved successor to Disco Elysium's beloved Thought Cabinet. Hershel can reinforce thoughts encountered in the world, constructing her identity, unlocking new skills, and shaping her psychological resilience — but at a cost. These decisions carry drawbacks that highlight the mental toll of spycraft.

Dramatic Encounters and the Exert System

Two completely new mechanics expand significantly on Disco Elysium's dice-heavy formula.

Dramatic Encounters are high-intensity chains of events where time slows down and Hershel must thread a series of choices, with outcomes hinging on skill checks at each step. Players must commit to one of several options at every decision point — there is no turning back. PC Gamer's senior editor Wes Fenlon, who played a larger build at GDC in March, described these as "fantastical spycraft situations that embody the ideal of Disco-with-a-twist."

The Exert system allows players to push their luck during dice rolls by adding an extra die — keeping the best two results — but doing so raises one or more stress levels on Hershel, such as anxiety. Risk management becomes a core loop in ways that feel more directly tied to character psychology than anything Disco Elysium attempted.

The Writing Is Already Turning Heads

PC Gamer called the writing "consistently fun" and noted it "suggests ZA/UM has plenty of ideas for how to turn the act of spycraft into a handful of text choices that rocket off in surprising directions."

The Steam Next Fest demo — available until April 13 — offered two full quests, side activities, and open exploration of Portofiro. Responses from early players have been broadly positive, with many noting that the Disco Elysium DNA is unmistakably present even in short sessions.

Platforms, Languages, and What's Included

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies launches on PC on May 21, 2026 via Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG. A PlayStation 5 version is confirmed for later in the year. The game will be Steam Deck verified at launch.

Day one languages include English, German, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish (Latin America), with eight more languages — including French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Traditional Chinese, and Turkish — rolling out in free updates through 2026 and 2027. ZA/UM studio head Allen Murray cited Disco Elysium's five-year localization journey as something the team was determined not to repeat.

Conclusion

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies carries the weight of one of gaming's most beloved legacies — and the shadow of one of its most painful controversies. Whether ZA/UM can deliver something that stands on its own terms, independent of the ghosts haunting its halls, will become clear on May 21.

Everything seen so far suggests the answer might be yes.

CASCADE has been activated. The mission has begun. There is no right answer — only choices.