Games

Putting the ZA/UM discourse aside, this is what the lowest score review of the game on Metacritic had to say, which I found particularly interesting because it actually engages with contrasting the political cognizance of Disco Elysium that made it so compelling to leftists. This is something that virtually every other reviewer, positive or negative, fails to appreciate.

Zero Parades also fumbles the fundamental lessons for introducing political concepts into the narrative. In Disco Elysium, the characters do not just espouse their political ideology; they embody it. The dense political conversations and musings go down easily because they are rooted deeply in the humanity and personalities of the various characters. The fascists are motivated by a deep insecurity and fear of the unknown, the liberals a sense of moral superiority and rational practicality, the communists by theoretical understanding applied to their material conditions. In Disco Elysium, every character is a true believer; in Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, every character is a cynic.

Characters will explain the political ideology or aspirations of their side, only to undercut those explanations immediately in self-service. Perhaps this is more accurate to a bunch of spies, trained professionals who care more about the execution of their assignment and chasing thrills than the cause they are ostensibly fighting for. Unfortunately, it makes it much more difficult to buy into the political content of the narrative, turning most of these digressions into pastiche rather than genuine insight.