Studio ZA/UM gave us our first look at its anticipated follow-up to Disco Elysium at today's Opening Night Live showcase, "a story-rich espionage RPG" called Zero Parades—previously codenamed C4—in which you'll become "a brilliant but tormented operant on a desperate assignment."
The trailer, as PC Gamer's resident Disco Elysium dancer said back in March, looks a lot like Disco Elysium, and going by the description on Steam, it sure sounds like it too. Haunted by a long-ago mission, burned out, and "possibly cursed," you're caught up in a struggle for cultural and ideological power in an all-new city, filled with its own "secrets, traumas, and miracles."
"To get anywhere in this world, you'll need friends," the listing says. "Unfortunately, you don't have any. Instead, you'll go up against international bankers, foreign techno-fascists, psychic doppelgängers, a paranoid TV presenter, a man with a box for a heart, and dozens more. Everyone you meet has their own agendas, beliefs, and secrets for you to uncover and turn to your own ends."
And yes, failure is baked in. What matters, apparently, is how you deal with the aftermath: "As an operant, your dice are in the hand of fate. If they don't go your way (and they won't), you'll have to improvise and hope the consequences are ones you can live with."
It sounds the part alright, but Studio ZA/UM is no longer the same outfit that delivered Disco Elysium to the world—many of that game's principals have split off into other things, some under very acrimonious circumstances. Opening Night Live host Geoff Keighley alluded to the same thing, saying that after going through "a host of changes," the Zero Parades reveal comes from "those who now make up the studio."
Even under the best of circumstances, living up to the standard set by Disco Elysium would be a tall order—doing it with so many of those original creators gone might make it seem an almost insurmountable challenge. This is a pretty cool trailer, though, and I dig the concept—and that's not a bad place to start.
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