The new CRPG from the Disco Elysium studio actually looks kind of cool, but after a biblically messy breakup with the original devs it's hard to get invested
Is it too soon to hope?

Six years after Disco Elysium came out, we have a look at a new CRPG coming from ZA/UM: Zero Parades.
During Gamescom Opening Night Live 2025, we got a look at a trailer that blended cinematic and gameplay. Host Geoff Keighley describes Zero Parades as "a dive into the shadowy world of espionage, where the truth can be stranger than fiction, and every failure isn't the end, but the start of a new path."
The trailer gives it the look of a neon-soaked noir, and a narrator tells the tale of a brilliant, relentless, magnetic spy called Herschel. We see her leaning against a telephone as strange scenes play out, like someone slumped in a chair as objects whirl around them.
The trailer states, "your friends are you. Each a separate limb of the whole." Whatever that means, it's kind of weird and I like it. I have no idea what's going on, but I didn't with Disco Elysium either and I still loved that.
Zero Parades is being developed by ZA/UM, but it's important to note several key members of the original development team are no longer at that studio following layoffs and people leaving. It's been hard to keep track of who is where and making what in recent years, but the mobile version of Disco Elysium actually had people seriously impressed, and Zero Parades certainly has the same look as the original.
For more, check out the Gamescom 2025 schedule so you can keep up to date on all the new announcements, games, and trailers.
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I'm Issy, a freelancer who you'll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I've always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degrees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news section at Dot Esports. Now you'll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I'm currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.
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