Support NeoGAF

[The Cockatrice]

Isn't that the announcer? I keep reading the protagonist is a guy?

Watch the video. Not the mysterious voice, the protagonist is a woman and her voice is garbage. Can't stand it.

 

[Arsic]

Watch the video. Not the mysterious voice, the protagonist is a woman and her voice is garbage. Can't stand it.

Wewh. Glad it is a chick lol. The art was one sissy looking dude. Her voice wasn't irksome to me so I'm good.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

From the creators of Disco Elysium - The Final Cut comes ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies – an espionage RPG. You're a brilliant but tormented operant on one final desperate assignment. Gather your broken network, untangle a web of lies, and prove yourself on the world stage - or blow it all up again.

Brilliant, burnt-out, possibly cursed – you play as operant Hershel Wilk, alias CASCADE. Five years ago you led your team into the abyss and have been haunted by your failures ever since. Now you've been recalled for a mysterious assignment that may give you a chance to prove yourself again.

 

[Rocinante618]

I played quite a bit of this and I must say, this is a lackluster attempt of trying to imitate Disco Elysium.

First, the VA work.
Bland, boring and banal. It's lacks emotions, joy or anything that is human. It feels like the last words of a dying clanker whose voicebox is broken and the whole system is shitting oil and leaking static electricity. It's uninspired. Go back to Disco and listen to that voiceline, "lingering, ungodly headache...", listen it again. You did? Listen to it again. Yes, it's that memorable. It's that good.

Second, writing.
It's better that most games but games aren't about writing until Disco Elysium was born in this woeful world. It feels like it's trying to emulate Disco Elysium. If you played DE, you know that the writers of that game are talented pretentious fucks that if by Santan's will, you're invited to a 7 course Michelin starred dinner with the ex-Disco Elysium team, they will give you an hour long tirade about how historically wrong the fourth dish was and how offensive it is to a native culture, a tribe of a few hundred along with praises of food, of gastronomy. You'll also hear a long rant about capitalism and an applause of Marx and the power of people and communism. But this is good. This isn't delusion, they know their stuff very well, they are passionate and they love being what they are and that clearly shows in writing. It's craft and it's beautiful.

Third, artwork.
Zero Parades does indeed nail it here, the work is distinct and unique, very ZA/UM, very melancholic strokes and brushes of watercolor and woe. You know it's real and you know you would actually love a real game, a shooter or adventure game set in this world but you'll never get it. That longing, that yearning is what makes this good.

Maybe I don't hate Disco Elysium now that I have tried it's competitor. Disco is pretentious but is competently made and above all, it has a soul.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

Taking a look at Zero Parades, an upcoming narrative game from what is left of the company that initially made Disco Elysium.