ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies is a PC and PlayStation 5 role playing game from ZA/UM about a burned out spy, Hershel Wilk, pulled back into a city of ideological conflict, personal failure, and bad choices. Critics are mostly warm on it, but the conversation keeps circling one unavoidable question: how do you review the next ZA/UM RPG after Disco Elysium?
That is not really fair to ZERO PARADES. It is also impossible to avoid. The Metacritic page currently has it at 83 from 61 critic reviews, which puts it in strong company for 2026. The review range I found is not wild in the way a true disaster can be wild, but it is revealing: Ragequit.gr sits at 74, Irish Independent at 80, TheSixthAxis at 90, and Eurogamer goes all in with the headline "it's the RPG we don't deserve." That is a useful spread. Nobody in that set is saying the game lacks ambition. The argument is about whether ambition, writing, and atmosphere are enough when the game is always standing in the long shadow of one of the most praised RPGs of the last decade.
So this is the shape of the ZERO PARADES review consensus so far: critics admire the writing, the world, and the spy fiction mood. They also keep testing it against Disco Elysium, sometimes openly, sometimes by implication. The game wins plenty of those comparisons, but it does not escape them.
ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies reviews agree on the writing first
The through line in the most positive ZERO PARADES reviews is simple: the writing has teeth. Eurogamer describes it as "an exquisitely constructed take on consumerism, empire, nostalgia and beyond," which is exactly the kind of phrase that tells you this is not a quest log RPG wearing a literary coat. The review's opening focuses on Cascade, the fallen spy at the center of the story, and frames the game around humiliation, bad luck, and the strange dignity of trying to recover from your own failures.
That is the part of ZERO PARADES that seems to land hardest. The Metacritic description gives you the setup: Hershel Wilk, alias Cascade, once led a team into disaster and is now dragged back for a mysterious assignment. The city around her is not just backdrop. It is full of international bankers, techno-fascists, psychic doppelgangers, a paranoid TV presenter, and a man with a box for a heart. On paper, that sounds like a writer's room daring itself not to blink. According to the stronger reviews, the game mostly earns it.
TheSixthAxis is the cleanest example. It scores ZERO PARADES at 90 and calls it "a triumphant spy thriller" that may start slowly but grows into "an unforgettable espionage adventure" by the credits. That is the kind of praise you pay attention to because it names both halves of the experience. The slow start matters. It suggests the game asks for patience before it gives back. But the payoff, at least for that reviewer, is strong enough to turn the whole thing into one of the year's notable RPGs.
Irish Independent is a little cooler at 80, but still clearly positive. Its review calls ZERO PARADES "a rollicking story of conspiracy and conniving, marked by pitch-black humour and sharp writing." That is a good compact version of the game's appeal. It is political, funny in the dark way, and interested in systems of power without flattening everything into a lecture.
This is where the game seems to matter for players who use RPGs as memory objects as much as challenge machines. Some games are defined by builds, gear, and endings. Others are defined by sentences that sit with you later. ZERO PARADES appears to be chasing the second thing. If you keep a gaming journal, this is probably the sort of game where the useful note is not "finished chapter three." It is the one line you write after a conversation makes you feel accused.
The Disco Elysium comparison helps and hurts ZERO PARADES
The harder part is the comparison that nobody can resist. Irish Independent says it plainly: "at every turn the shadow of the superior Disco Elysium hangs over it." Ragequit.gr is harsher, calling ZERO PARADES "a cursed game born in the midst of a corporate whirlwind" that has moments, but is "doomed to be forever compared to Disco Elysium and found lacking."
That is a loaded criticism. It is not the same as saying ZERO PARADES is bad. Ragequit still scores it 74, which is a recommendation with reservations, not a pan. The complaint is more specific. The game is good enough to be taken seriously, but close enough to its predecessor's mythos and studio identity that every missing spark becomes visible.
I think that is why the critical spread is interesting. A weaker game would have made the discourse easier. Everyone could call it a disappointment and move on. ZERO PARADES seems more irritating than that, in the best and worst sense. It gives reviewers enough to admire that they cannot dismiss it, then keeps inviting a comparison it cannot fully win.
There is a useful player question buried there: do you want a game to outrun its lineage, or do you want it to make something worthwhile inside that lineage? A lot of the strongest reviews argue for the second answer. Eurogamer's praise suggests that ZERO PARADES is not merely echoing Disco Elysium's structure, but using a spy story to talk through consumerism, empire, nostalgia, and identity. TheSixthAxis frames the game as an espionage adventure that grows into itself. Irish Independent still finds a lively conspiracy story, even while saying the older game remains better.
That is a pretty honest consensus. The game may not have the miracle quality of Disco Elysium. Very few games do. It may still be one of the more sharply written RPGs of the year.
What critics praise in ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies
The praise falls into three broad areas, and they all connect.
First, critics like the prose. Not just the amount of prose, but its confidence. The game appears comfortable being dense, funny, unhappy, and strange. That alone separates it from a lot of RPGs that offer political texture but pull back before anything gets too uncomfortable.
Second, critics like the setting. Portofiro, as Eurogamer describes it, seems to work because it is not just a board with quest markers. It is a place where ideology leaks into small encounters. A city like that can be exhausting if the writing is weak. If the writing is strong, it becomes the thing you remember.
Third, critics like the spy frame. ZERO PARADES is not just another fantasy of competence. Cascade is damaged goods. The premise starts after failure, which means the player is not building a legend from nothing. They are working with a person who already has history, guilt, and a reputation. That can make role playing more constrained, but it can also make choices feel heavier. You are not deciding who this person is from a blank page. You are deciding what they do with the wreckage.
That is a strong hook for a game about memory, and maybe why the better reviews sound so attached to the writing. It is easier to forgive rough edges when the central role feels specific.
What critics criticize in ZERO PARADES reviews
The criticism is not just "it is not Disco Elysium," although that is the loudest part. The other concern is pacing. TheSixthAxis praises the game highly but still notes that it may be slow to start. That matters for a text heavy RPG because the opening hours have to teach the player how to read the game. If the rhythm is off, the whole thing can feel like homework before it becomes play.
Ragequit's lower score also points toward a broader anxiety: maybe the game has moments rather than a fully sustained spell. That is the risk with ambitious narrative RPGs. A brilliant conversation can make you feel like you are playing something essential. A weaker stretch can make you notice the machinery.
The other criticism is more emotional than mechanical. Some reviewers seem to want ZERO PARADES to be freer of its past. That might be impossible. ZA/UM's name carries expectations now, and the studio history around Disco Elysium has become part of how people read anything that follows. A review can try to judge the game alone, but players do not experience games in a vacuum. They bring the whole mess with them.
That is not a reason to punish ZERO PARADES unfairly. It is a reason to be clear about what kind of purchase this is. If you want another once in a decade shock, you may come away disappointed. If you want a strange, literate, politically charged spy RPG that can survive being mentioned in the same sentence as Disco Elysium, the critic scores suggest it is worth a serious look.
Should you play ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies?
Based on the reviews, yes, if you like narrative RPGs that ask for attention. The 83 Metascore from 61 critics is not a fluke, and the named reviews point in the same direction: Eurogamer is strongly taken with its construction, TheSixthAxis loves the eventual payoff, Irish Independent praises the conspiracy and black humour, and even Ragequit's more cautious review still lands well above the middle.
The better question is when to play it. ZERO PARADES does not sound like a palate cleanser. It sounds like a game you should meet when you have room for it. Not because it is precious, but because text heavy RPGs are easy to flatten if you try to rush them between louder games. A spy story built on failure probably needs a little quiet around it.
There is something reassuring about a review spread like this. The consensus is not clean enough to feel pre-approved. Critics are arguing with the game, with its history, and with their own expectations. That usually means there is something alive in the work. Maybe not perfect. Maybe not the second lightning strike some people wanted. But alive.
For Perthro players, this is exactly the kind of game worth logging while the reaction is still fresh. Rate it if you want, but write a few words too. Was it brilliant, overburdened, too close to Disco Elysium, or better once you stopped asking it to be anything else? A score can mark the verdict. A note can remember the argument.