ZA/UM Unveils ‘Zero Parades: For Dead Spies,’ A Gritty Espionage Follow-Up to Disco Elysium

ZA/UM, the studio behind the critically acclaimed narrative-first CRPG Disco Elysium, has officially revealed its follow-up project: Zero Parades: For Dead Spies. The new game takes the studio’s signature isometric, text-heavy, skill-check-driven formula and transplants it into a world of 1990s-inspired espionage, paranoia, and deep psychological trauma. Revealed with a stylish gameplay trailer, the game is set to launch in 2026 for PC and PlayStation 5.

While the painterly art style and emphasis on dialogue immediately call back to Disco Elysium, Zero Parades is carving out its own identity with new systems focused on the emotional and physical toll of being a spy. The game aims to be a “story about failure and crippling regret,” trading the drunken detective’s amnesia for a burnt-out operative’s inescapable past.

The Protagonist: Hershel Wilk, Alias CASCADE

Players step into the shoes of Hershel Wilk, codenamed CASCADE, a brilliant but disgraced “Operant” (spy) for the communist Superbloc faction. Five years before the game begins, Hershel led her intelligence team into a disaster in the free city-state of Portofiro, betraying and abandoning her crew to ensure her own escape. After years in desk job purgatory, she is reluctantly sent back to Portofiro to untangle a new, mysterious intrigue.

• Central Conflict: Hershel’s professional assignment—dealing with a three-way ideological struggle between the communist Superbloc, the techno-fascist La Luz, and a shadowy international development bank—is secondary to her deeply personal mission: re-recruiting the old crew she betrayed.
• Narrative Focus: The story is a deep dive into character study, taking inspiration from classic spy fiction authors like John le Carré, but stripping the espionage genre of its glamour to focus on the human cost of intelligence work.

New & Evolved Gameplay Mechanics

ZA/UM is building on the successful foundation of Disco Elysium’s dialogue-and-dice-roll structure while introducing several key evolutions to suit the new spy setting:

1. Conditioning: The Thought Cabinet Evolution

The beloved Thought Cabinet system returns, now evolved into Conditioning. As Hershel experiences the world, she’ll gain new “Thoughts,” but instead of simply internalizing them over time, the player must choose to either Reinforce or Punish the thought. This decision instantly grants different skill modifiers and permanent changes to her character.

• Example: An experience involving a dangerous situation might grant a thought about avoiding risks. Reinforcing it could lead to higher Shadowplay (stealth) but lower Nerve (courage). Punishing it would lead to opposite effects. This system is faster and more decisive than its predecessor, reflecting the spy’s need for instant mental adaptation.

2. Pressures & Exertion: Gambling with Your Health

A major new system is the introduction of Pressures: Fatigue, Anxiety, and Delirium. These gauges fill up under stressful or physically taxing circumstances. If a gauge hits its limit, Hershel suffers potentially deadly penalties.

• The Twist (Exert): When faced with a crucial skill check, the player can choose to Exert themselves. This burns through one of the Pressure gauges to gain an Advantage on the dice roll (rolling three dice and taking the best two scores). This forces a powerful, high-stakes choice: risk a breakdown for a momentary chance at success.

3. Dramatic Encounters

To replace the traditional combat of action games, Zero Parades introduces Dramatic Encounters. These are tense, high-stakes situations—like being interrogated or actively pursued—where time freezes. The player must then make a rapid series of text and dice-roll decisions based on their skills to resolve the potentially fatal situation.

• ZA/UM emphasizes the ability to “Fail Forward,” a core philosophy from Disco Elysium. Even a botched skill check will not result in a simple “game over” but rather a new, likely more difficult or messy, path forward for the narrative.

4. New Skills

The skill list has been retooled for the spy genre, including new espionage-focused categories such as:

• Shadowplay (Stealth)
• Cold Read (Reading people)
• Doppelgang (Disguise/Mimicry)
• Technoflex (Technical aptitude)
• Poetics and Personalism (Social and philosophical skills)

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is currently slated for release on PC and PlayStation 5 sometime in 2026.