ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies Features Trailer Explains Gameplay Mechanics
With only 14 days till launch, a new trailer explains the mechanics and features of ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies. The Features Trailer reveals a new look at how skills, Conditioning, Dramatic Encounters and the pressures of spycraft come together to form a psychedelic espionage RPG, set in the living, breathing city of Portofiro.
“It is important for us that the gameplay mechanics support our narrative and tell a story in itself, not the other way around," says Siim “Kosmos” Sinamäe, Principal Writer on ZERO PARADES and Writer on Disco Elysium. “More often than not, narration in games simply exists to explain gameplay. We design features to uplift the story; to make the invisible - your mental state or spycraft for instance - observable. It builds upon our experience of creating Disco Elysium by introducing new ideas, it’s really an evolution of the cRPG concept.”
Hershel Wilk, a burnt out spy (cryptonym: CASCADE), returns to the city of Portofiro five years after the greatest failure of her life – the disintegration of her old network. Painfully aware of her past, now back in-theatre, she is ready to get the crew back together for one last show.
On her assignment to Portofiro, players will uncover the secrets of the city, along with those of grand geopolitical powers and the fabric of reality itself. ZERO PARADES tells a psychologically gripping story about broken trust and the human condition as it is. A game in which failure does not mean the end: just as a door closes, a window opens somewhere else.
What Kind of Spy Will You Be?
With cRPG mechanics at its core, players choose one of three character archetypes at the beginning of the game or build their own. 15 unique skills in three different faculties - action, relation and intellect - and the ability to reshape Hershel’s inner belief system through Conditioning, will make the difference between proving yourself or becoming a cautionary tale.
The life of a spy is stressful, which is embodied by the three constant pressures players have to balance: Fatigue, Anxiety and Delirium. Hershel’s mental state becomes a gameplay system in itself. Keeping pressures low in-theatre is a near impossible task, and sometimes not what the situation calls for. With exertion, players can deliberately choose to raise their pressures to increase their chances of success on skill checks.
ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies arrives on May 21, 2026 for $39.99 on Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG, and will release on PlayStation®5 (PS5®) later this year.