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Zero Parades For Dead Spies – Part 3-1

It’s about time. At long last, we are finally going to figure out exactly what our mission is.

Streamed on my Twitch.
You can find Andre on his Twitch channel.

One of the points that Andre raises is a salient one: Assassination is an ineffective political tool, and one that cannot bring about lasting change. Most of our lives are governed by systems. While systems are crafted by people, once they are in place, they are self-perpetuating. A famous recent of this was the killing of the United Healthcare CEO. There may have been a increase in insurance claim payouts in the immediate wake, but fast forward to today and the only real consequence is that health care CEOs have additional security. United Healthcare has replaced their old CEO with a new one, and the system is once again operating as it normally does.

Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be the kind of point I would take seriously. That is a truth of how our real world operates, but in the realm of fiction we often use major characters as personifications of bigger ideas that we want to explore. Sometimes that means the death of a character serves as a metaphor for the end of a specific theme or concept. Our heroine, in completing her quest, metaphorically kills techno-fascism using the Grand Lich as a proxy to represent it.

But that would not be in keeping with Disco Elysium, the work which hangs over ZA/UM, and will likely remain hanging over them for all eternity. Disco certainly made use of metaphor and personification in weaving its narrative. Yet it was also practical, demonstrating mechanically the sorts of behaviors and actions that could create lasting impacts for the people of Revachol. And, if the player chose to become a fascist, it would mechanically demonstrate how poisonous and self-destructive such a turn would become.

Zero Parades wants to be more of a spy thriller. On some level, I can respect and understand that. And yet, because we are talking about ZA/UM, there is someone inside of me that would like more of that self-awareness and empathy that Disco so painstakingly poured into every interaction.

The heart of Disco is still there, but it does not beat as powerfully.