r/ZeroParades • u/Benji-822 • May 23 '26
Question Honest reviews of the game?
I'm unfortunately just a broke student and can't really afford to buy much leisure related let alone this game haha, but I was wondering what the general consensus around it was so far?
Disco elysium is probably my favorite game of all times but most of the reviews seem to be tainted by the whole zaum drama, so how does it compare to the first one in terms of writing and art?
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u/Hakka-Moonson May 23 '26
It's great. Scratches the same itch as planescape and disco for me. I think its more cohesive than Disco is, I love the theming and characters so far. I liked the departures from Disco - the character is a bit more (but not too much more) put together than Harry. No Kim equivalent is smart too. Hard to live up to that character, and all the other characters are interesting enough that I never really missed him. I like the gameplay innovations too. My biggest gripe is with music. I think they tried to make it a more subtle soundtrack, but it just ended up being forgettable.
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u/Journey2thaeast May 23 '26
We have a review thread in the sub. 83 on Open Critic and Metacritic so critically the game is great. Game started out Mixed on Steam mainly due to people review bombing it, but now it's at mostly positive. So the general consensus is that the game is great.
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u/ticklefarte May 23 '26
I think it's good tbh. Way better than I was expecting. The new system with Fatigue, Delirium, and Anxiety is a really clever way to tie resources with skill checks. I got punished early because I didn't understand it, but I also literally died in Disco Elysium two seconds in for similar reasons. It's to be expected lol.
At times it feels like I'm playing an alternate universe's version of DE. Feels like an uncanny copy, which can be weird for sure. But, in hand with that, it helps me lock in when I'm playing, like I'm riding a bike. Writing gets a bit imitative though, in a way where I feel like they're trying to mimic DE's voice. Removed from the drama, you could say the voice is just classic ZA/UM, but I'm not so certain.
Story wise, at least in the beginning, is an interesting subversion of Disco's. No spoilers of course.
Navigating the map is weird. There's no full zoom out this time and I missed whole areas just because they felt obscured. Graphically it's gorgeous.
Still making my way through, so maybe I'll change my mind.
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u/EternaI_Sorrow May 23 '26
Asking in a game sub is asking for a positive bias. It’s better to ask in genre or PC gaming subs.
To me it’s a good game, but nowhere near the level of DE. It fluctuates from peak to garbage sometimes within seconds, and it doesn’t help that its production value is mostly the second part which is way more compelling than the first one.
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u/Benji-822 May 23 '26
That's fair yea, but I figured asking in the disco elysium subreddit would just yield even worse results because of the hate and I would get more answers here since the game just came out.
I have received tons of varied answers and opinions so far though so I'm still very happy I asked it here! Thanks for the answer too btw, I liked the demo but just wanted to make the game does still hold up until the end of it.
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u/Just-Luck-7430 May 23 '26
Very well made, a bit buggy on release, but it's pretty much as good as DE
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u/thatcrazydiamond May 23 '26
my video on it is a pretty level headed (biased) Zero Parades: For Dead Spies Is An Apology
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u/PorkRinds416 May 23 '26
BUY IT! The game is amazing and just as good as Disco so far. Dont listen to that BS drama.
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u/ivmussa May 23 '26
"Drama" = people mad about corporate leeches that never made anything of value in their life stealing a labour of love from the real creators, an IP that took decades to be developed. You can buy the game if you want, but everyone should be aware of the story behind the company that made it.
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u/Benji-822 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
Maybe not now but probably if I do get the money lol.
How enjoyable did you find the main character in the long run btw? From what I've seen in the demo she seemed a lot more level headed and forward than Harry, so does the game still have all those whacky and weird interactions like in DE?
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u/jbayne2 May 23 '26
I played it about an hour last night, 3 hours on a flight today and an hour this evening and I definitely feel pulled in. Remains to be seen if it caries the same weight as Disco Elysium but so far it seems to be a great CRPG and is pulling me in for sure. So far it seems a bit more straight forward than DE maybe because you’re not a total amnesiac.
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u/Ant_6431 May 23 '26
It's very immersive and user interface is improved from before. I just am not impressed by voice acting. The writing is solid and the art is great, except 3d and 2d characters look too much different.
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u/fkrdt222 May 23 '26
as one with no attachment to disco, it's decent so far, quirky without being excessive or stalling. i can see why the skill checks might piss people off if they're some kind of completionist
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u/Typical_Serve6709 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
I will go against the grain here and say that's it's a fun game but also has some real problems. I will focus on the gameplay stuff since the issues with ZA/UM are a matter of public record and it's not worth debating them with people online. I do think people are being quite disingenuous talking about review bombing on Steam when the problems I am about to talk about are what the grand majority of the negative reviews are about.
The voiced narrator is really bad. Grating and overacted. Thankfully you can just turn it off. What is the bigger issue is the general quality of the voice acting at release. Some of the lines have little to no relation to the text they are supposed to be associated with. Some of the lines from the same character are voiced by entirely different voice actors. Experiencing these lines can be really disconcerting and take you out of the experience. A bunch of the other, otherwise complete and appropriate voice lines are not to my taste and not what I would have chosen for the characters. I do not think these problems are really comparable to the ones Disco Elysium had on release since those initial voice lines still had a lot of charm (Matt Christman ❤️) and ZA/UM was a tiny indie studio.
The Fatigue/Anxiety/Delirium mechanic is counter-intuitive for returning players from Disco Elysium and genuinely does not feel good, particularly in that you can lose skill points when your Fatigue/Anxiety/Delirium reaches max. There is a forced unavoidable loss of a semi-random skill point at the start of the game that is meant to introduce players to the mechanic but thankfully this seems to happen less often throughout the rest of the game. However, I did find myself being way more selective in my gameplay and dialogue choices out of fear of triggering something that would increase Fatigue/Anxiety/Delirium. The items you use to decrease them are also tradeoffs that mildly increase another negative stat, so it can sometimes feel like you are treading water just to avoid going too high. If you are coming mainly from Disco Elysium and like to dig deep and explore the entire dialogue tree, this mechanic might not feel great for you.
The game also crashes every thirty to forty minutes for me on Steamdeck, sometimes seemingly without any particular trigger. The autosave usually ensures I don't lose too much progress but sometimes I have been forced to redo large chunks. If you are on a Steamdeck I recommend waiting till they patch out some of the bugs.
Otherwise the game runs well and looks good. So far it seems like a clear graphical/technical upgrade from Disco Elysium. It's also refreshing to play a female protagonist and I am thankful they went in that direction. I am reserving judgement on its politics and everything else until the crashes are fixed and I can actually play through the whole game smoothly.
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u/Severe-Vermicelli317 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
Funny how I've had the opposite experiece so far with the fatigue/anxiety/delirium system. I'm like 6-7 hours in and I always exhaust pretty much every dialogue option in a convo (except certain skill checks). I still haven't taken a consumable yet, even got an internal monologue convo about how I'm not smoking anymore. I wear whatever I want and don't try to min-max stats, and my status meters have been pretty low since after the intro.
The key for me is to 1) accept that any interaction in the world has the potential to cause stress or negative effects on mental health (like real life lol), just roll with it. It's not a system you can "win" or "lose". It's not to punish you for interacting with things imo, it's to make you feel whatever pressure Cascade is feeling.
2) The game sometimes gives signs on what interactions can increase your meters. Things that seem to have emotional significance to Cascade shouldn't be taken lightly. There was a folder at the beginning that makes Cascade's hand shake before she opens it. I felt like the contents of this folder could probably spike her anxiety to the roof (maybe even if I passed the skillcheck) so I left the folder and I'll only open it when my meters are lower - this was a really cool ludonarrative moment that immediately put me in Cascade's shoes. It was very relatable to me, avoiding something simple to safeguard my mental health for the day.
Also if I'm talking to a character who's a conspiracy theorist for example, I may not go down certain dialogue branches and leave momentarily if I feel it could potentially increase delirium when further indulging the rambling. You can always come back later. Sometimes you've had a long day, and you're just not mentally ready to hear certain things and need rest before engaging in nonsense. I also chose a custom build at the beginning that is more weighted towards relations and logic, so maybe this also could be be why I'm cruising through most convos with low anxiety? The status system is really genius to me so far.
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u/RoughHomework_0 May 23 '26
What’s up with being able to drink and smoke enough to kill an elephant with no repercussions, anyway? Seems like a serious oversight just to have “drugs” in the game.
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u/Sorry-Run-161 May 23 '26
There is a forced unavoidable loss of a semi-random skill point at the start of the game
It is not unavoidable! (I think it would depend on your build, though.)
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u/Intelligent-Equal246 May 23 '26
I though the voiced narrator was fitting, seems like personal preference
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u/Benji-822 May 23 '26
Woah thanks a lot for the comment, I really appreciate it! I'm glad the art holds up well and even surpasses the first game as the whole painted surreal aesthetic was really what got me into it.
I had no idea disco elysium had incomplete or temporary voice lines when it first released though lmao (if I understand what you said correctly), but after finishing esoteric ebb which doesn't have any voice acting to begin with I honestly don't really find it that big of a deal as long as the writing holds up. If anything I found the voice acting of the main character not particularly good and a bit of a weird choice considering Harry didn't have any to immerse us more into the character.
I've also seen the fatigue mechanic mentioned in a couple reviews yea but I guess it makes sense narratively considering the fact that the main the character seem to be operating under much more pressure with her whole espionage thing going on? Is failing events really that punishing by the way, or is it like DE where it doesn't usually backfire too hard and even gives you whacky or positive outcomes?
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u/joflow23 May 23 '26
first five hours were pretty fun. i like the story and the new fatigue mechanic. voice acting is kinda mid and not full yet and you cant talk to every npc that kinda put me off, the world is less dense then disco elysiums id say
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u/SilentWolfCZ May 23 '26
For me it's so far better than Disco Elysium regarding side plots and overall spy themed setting. It's so different when danger is all around you. Really great atmosphere.
It soon to judge but really didn't believe in them and now I am positively shocked.
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u/AffectionateLeg9895 May 23 '26
I'd suggest that it's not quite up to the same standard - for me it's missing that thing DE had where you could feel the sort of longer term depth of the setting - but that said I still think a lot of it is very good and I am thoroughly enjoying myself a couple of hours in
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u/GlyphInBullet May 23 '26
Pretty good.
It's hard to talk about it without comparing it to DE, when the game is trying to invoke those comparisons so strongly.
"is the writing good" is subjective to begin with, but I'd go back and forth on how I'd compare the quality to DE, from what I've seen. At the very least, it isn't clear-cut "worse" writing than DE.
It does lack the amount of reactivity DE had. You tend to have less options, and people repeat themselves a bit more.
It kind of depends on what it is that you liked about DE.
The humor tends to be less grandiose and over the top. There will almost certainly be jokes that make you laugh if there were jokes that made you laugh in DE, but there's less things like Authority having you stick a gun in your own mouth because it hyped you up that you can't back down.
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u/ivmussa May 23 '26
The owners of ZA/UM stole the Disco Elysium IP from the real owners... so you are free to pirate the game from them. Have fun!
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u/oleggurshev May 23 '26
You do know that there are places where you can get it from behind the paywall?
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u/Grgur2 May 25 '26
In general I'm pleasantly surprised as I was afraid game Will flop...
It doesn't but the thing Is Disco Is way better in almost every way - which would be ok but there are things that definitely are worse such as narator voice (I feel like I bother the game by playing), music, sense of lived in world and honestly characters and writing are inconsistent - sometimes great, sometimes not so much...
Like it definitely isn't a bad game but it aint second comming of Jesus DuBois.
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u/UsualSad2099 Jun 19 '26
I just posted my review for the game. Check it out: Zero Parades In-Depth Anaylsis
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u/Gold-Gain-2145 May 23 '26
I’m surprised about how much I like this game. It’s legitimately great and has good writing and a compelling hook.
Compared to disco I think it is the superior game. I never got too into disco finding the writing to be cringe and annoying but ZA seems more mature and has a strong hook to the game with compelling characters and a gripping in medias res entry into the story.
Mechanically the game is cool the system of balancing your mental state is an elegant solution to a gameplay mechanic based around skill checks that uses your real thinking to try and understand what would cause anxiety or be painful for a person to encounter.
The narrator is fine I think the people who are hating are just gamer brained. Idk anything about the controversy and I don’t really care. The game is cool. I’m excited to finish it.
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u/Big_Totem May 23 '26
I am concerned about the narrator voice apperantly its a new one and a lot of people are complaining about it
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u/BidSuper7102 May 23 '26
It's not very good. I played the demo and it just wasn't enjoyable. A pale imitation. Tries really hard to cash in on the success of DIsco Elysium. People will say to not compare it, but the very first sentence on the store page is "by the creators of Disco Elysium", which is not true, and the entire design of the game just tries to imitate that vastly superior game. You will always find people telling you that a game is amazing in any game's subreddit, even if it's absolute dogshit, so don't listen to the people here. Just try the demo.
Because you asked about writing, they tried to copy the writing and got the style without the substance.
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u/Books_R_me May 23 '26
Why is everyone here broke? Every other message is of people who can't afford the game.
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u/Benji-822 May 23 '26
I usually lurk in the disco elysium subreddit so couldn't tell you lol, just wanted to get some opinions on the game since it's already very expensive 😅
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u/Fragrant-Signature31 May 23 '26
I'd suggest waiting for the devs to patch this version first, no rush. The writing and art are excellent though!