ZA/UM doesn't want 'to invite too many comparisons' to Disco Elysium with new game Zero Parades—'We didn't feel like we wanted to repeat our greatest hits'

ZA/UM doesn’t want ‘to invite too many comparisons’ to Disco Elysium with new game Zero Parades—’We didn’t feel like we wanted to repeat our greatest hits’ | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these Action After 6 hours, Crimson Desert is one of the most overwhelming, chaotic, madcap videogames I’ve ever played—and I’m hungry for more Adventure ‘We are definitely not doing QTEs’, said Dispatch’s creative director before doing QTEs: ‘We just needed it to not suck’ RPG Banquet For Fools is a CRPG like no other and the most interesting thing I’ve played this year, and between it and Esoteric Ebb, roleplaying fans are eating great right now RPG This bizarre CRPG features claymation graphics, beat ‘em up combat and the option to send defeated enemies to a prison colony, and it just left early access after a massive final update RPG Esoteric Ebb isn’t just the best Disco since Disco, it’s the closest anyone’s come to the magic of tabletop D&D in a videogame RPG It’s only March, but I’m calling it: Esoteric Ebb is 2026’s best RPG and the first worthy successor to Disco Elysium RPG After 2 years in early access, Greedfall: The Dying World still feels unfinished RPG Cara Ellison, senior narrative designer on Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 before Paradox switched developers, discusses her love of Troika’s original RPG: ‘Everyone on the team helped really make that maximum goth’ Adventure Making Dispatch was motivated by ‘a mix of arrogance and stupidity,’ its creative directors say RPG Control Resonant is far more of an RPG than I expected, complete with talent trees, stats screens, and build-crafting that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Diablo game RPG Tabletop gaming saved videogame RPGs Games The best indie games on PC RPG You’ve never heard of it, but a Russian studio made a fantasy take on original Fallout way back in 2001, and it honestly kind of rules Games PC Gamer’s Game of the Year Awards 2025 RPG The new game from Disco Elysium’s studio feels like the first Christmas after your parents’ divorce PopularNEW: PC Gamer Clips!MarathonArc RaidersBest PC gearQuizzes Games RPG ZA/UM doesn’t want ‘to invite too many comparisons’ to Disco Elysium with new game Zero Parades—’We didn’t feel like we wanted to repeat our greatest hits’ News By Joshua Wolens Contributions from Wes Fenlon published 12 March 2026 Harrier Who Bois? When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: ZA/UM) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer Get the PC Gamer Newsletter Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. 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From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Seven years on from Disco Elysium’s release and we are once again getting a game with the ZA/UM studio name on it. Zero Parades is a CRPG spy thriller that—when I played its demo a few weeks ago—felt very Disco-Elysium-shaped indeed.Which is weird, because when our Wes Fenlon chatted to principal writer Siim Sinamäe at this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC), he said the studio doesn’t want “to invite too many comparisons” to its predecessor.”[In Zero Parades] You start in a safe house, not a hotel, right?” pointed out Sinamäe, his first example of a ZP divergence from Disco. “Let’s do a safe house, you know, we don’t want to invite too many comparisons because people, in bad faith, they will already compare and say that it’s the same thing, despite there not being a body hanging out in the yard, right?”Article continues below You may like The new game from Disco Elysium’s studio feels like the first Christmas after your parents’ divorce Disco Elysium had so much text it broke the branching narrative software: ‘we were writing too much’ Why does isometric perspective suit Disco Elysium? ‘You can design the entire game as if it was a painting’ Another difference, of course, is the protagonist. Gone is Disco Elysium’s cop protagonist Harry Du Bois, in his place is Hershel Wilks, a spy whose bosses locked her out in the cold after an op gone wrong. “The backstory is different. The universe is different. You know, the job is different,” said Sinamäe. “The police is about what’s black and white, what is justice—a story of redemption. [In] espionage you do a lot of dubious things.”We didn’t feel like we wanted to repeat our greatest hits, so to speak. It’s like, ‘Let’s challenge ourselves.'” (Image credit: ZA/UM)Which, hm. Big caveat here: I’ve only played