Zero Parades: For Dead Spies Review - An Uneven But Absorbing RPG

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is a spy RPG set in the port town of Portofiro, shaped by the neighboring country La Luz, described as home to “techno fascists” with holographic patches and neon lights. Multiple local factions operate in the same space, including EMTERR, called the Bank, and the communist Superbloc that sponsors the Opera. The protagonist Hershel Wilk, once disgraced, is pulled back into service for a final mission involving rummaging through Portofiro’s trash and navigating its criminal underbelly. The mission targets vague, unclear Opera goals, while Hershel’s coping habits include occasional drunken cigarettes and returning to familiar places from her past.

"Zero Parades: For Dead Spies , the new RPG from the makers of Disco Elysium , is a spy story. And like many spy stories, its concerns go well beyond its setting, the sizable port town of Portofiro. You feel the influence of La Luz, a neighboring country that is home to "techno fascists" decked out in clothes with holographic patches and neon lights that'd feel at home in Cyberpunk 2077 's Night City. There are plentiful homegrown factions too, like EMTERR, which is often just called the Bank, as well as the communist Superbloc that sponsors the Opera, the fanciful name that protagonist Hershel Wilk's spy agency dons."

"Like me, Hershel partakes in the occasional drunken cigarette, too. By the time we meet her, the once-disgraced spy has been roped back into service for one last mission, one that calls for her to rummage through the trash of Portofiro and navigate its criminal underbelly in order to accomplish the Opera's vague and unclear goals. Often, at the end of a harsh and trying day sifting through Portofiro's detritus, I would steer her out of the Fogged Mirror-a usual haunt from her past life-and watch her delight in the lighting of an Ouroboro"

"You may never step foot outside of Portofiro, but the fiction Zero Parades weaves is vast, complex, and most importantly, deeply intertwined. Like many spy stories, its concerns go well beyond its setting, the sizable port town of Portofiro. The influence of La Luz and the presence of multiple factions create a web of relationships that shapes the protagonist’s work and the mission’s direction."

Read at Kotaku