Remember the spy-themed game ZA/UM have settled into making after all the Disco Elysium drama? Well, unless they’ve got another espionagey cRPG in the works, Project C4 has gotten a new name in a cameo at Gamescom Opening Night Live. It now seemingly goes by Zero Parades.
Yep, amid the waves of spiritual successors, after all the controversy around the exits of key team members and cancellations of Discoey things, this is the thing those who remain at the studio have been working on. It looks and sounds very Disco Elysiumy.
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The Keighleybot intrduced Zero Parades trailer as a “first look” at a spy RPG ZA/UM have been working on. Oh, you mean the spy game they revealed earlier this year, Project C4, I mouthed at the screen. Geoff didn’t answer, or even mention the name Project C4. So, unless this is an example of spyish doubling up to confuse a foe, I assume the two must be one in the same.
Anyway, in Zero Parades, the name for which comes with a host of optional taglines including “Zero Parades for fake radicals”, which given all that’s happened with folks seen as radical ideasmiths leaving ZA/UM in the Disco aftermath feels maybe a bit cheeky. Anyway, in this game you play as an operant Hershel Wilk, alias CASCADE, who’s described as being “brilliant, burnt-out, possibly cursed”, as well as “an Anti-Icon”. Hershel’s also a woman, so modify the mental image of Harry Du Bois that description’s inevitably given you a little bit. The Steam page continues as follows:
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. Find yourself thrown into a three-way struggle for cultural and ideological power, played out across an unforgettable new city. In Zero Parades, the world itself is a character with its own secrets, traumas, and miracles for you to discover.
Much like in Project C4’s reveal, a big thing’s made of the fact you’ll be failing a lot, and tha your failure will take you places via improvisation. Places that might not be as ideal, but that be how the dice are sometimes.
Zero Parades, or the artist that looks to be formerly known as Project C4, is currently without a release date. You can wishlist it here, if you’re so inclined.
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