Zero Parades For Dead Spies – Part 5-1
Our final, major task before we begin the finale is to assemble our team. But first, we have a particularly annoying radio host to deal with.
Streamed on my Twitch.
You can find Andre on his Twitch channel.
And with that, we have recruited one of two potential Astronomers for the party. That said, we’re starting to grind up against a problem that Andre raised later in this recording session.
This game lacks a central thesis, unlike it’s predecessor. Disco Elysium, throughout every part of its construction, outlines a narrative thesis about the oppressive and all-consuming nature of capital, and the importance of finding small pockets of community. There are certainly highs and lows, but everything fits into that moral and structural framework, even and especially the side quests.
If there is a similar thematic throughline working its way across Zero Parades, I don’t see it. We get the idea that Hershel is a manipulative person who uses and discards people, and that she has perception and skill above the human norm. Those traits either lead her to become a skilled spy, or were cultivated as a consequence of becoming one. There are interesting things to say about that (which I will get into on a future date), but the game doesn’t use that to make some broader point about the human condition in the way I expect or hope to see.
Even this quest to recruit HOLOCENE has the same problem. A miniature, parasitic ape manipulating him from inside his own mind could be a metaphorical representation of many things, but instead it feels more like an empty punchline. We’re supposed to laugh or be amazed that HOLOCENE isn’t crazy, and that he’s completely right, but then once the punchline is delivered there’s no bridge to what it might mean or say.
It’s pulpy, and a bit empty.
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