ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies

This one is for players who like reading people and don't mind dirty choices. You play as Hershel Wilk, a burnt-out operative with the callsign CASCADE, and the story starts when a new job lands on your desk while five years of guilt are still weighing on you. The mood is heavy and a bit paranoid, and the city around you feels almost alive. Why grab it: - The first hours go to sizing up people: some crack under pressure, others open up if you find the right angle. - Skill checks are never a formality: the same answer can be played with fists, cunning or logic, and each route changes how things unfold. - Opponents like the paranoid TV host or the doppelganger psychics stick with you, and each has a truth you can dig out and use. - The story runs on consequences: small decisions come back later, and it pays to notice them. You receive the game as a Steam gift: we add you as a friend via your quick invite link and send the gift to your account. You can buy ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies as a Steam gift right here. Brilliant, burnt-out, possibly cursed - you play as operant Hershel Wilk, alias CASCADE. Five years ago you led your team into the abyss and have been haunted by your failures ever since. Now you've been recalled for a mysterious assignment that may give you a chance to prove yourself again. Uncover secrets hidden in the lost corners of the city and within your own mind. Navigate a murky world of potential informants and adversaries. Pass skill checks to uncover their true motivations through subterfuge, violence, or deduction. As an operant, there are multiple ways to approach every problem - your choices and methods will be your own, and so will the consequences. Find yourself thrown into a three-way struggle for cultural and ideological power, played out across an unforgettable city. You'll go up against international bankers, foreign techno-fascists, psychic doppelgängers, a paranoid TV presenter, a man with a box for a heart, and dozens more. Everyone you meet has their own agendas, beliefs, and secrets for you to uncover and turn to your own ends. In ZERO PARADES, even the world itself is a character with its own secrets, traumas, and miracles for you to discover. Operants subject themselves to years of psychological training to hone their minds into their greatest weapons. Do you favor animal-like reflexes, a philosophical approach, or a different cover story for every occasion? Through Conditioning, you'll turn the deepest aspects of Hershel's identity into potent abilities and unlock new paths forward. You can even change the rules of the game itself. Pressures simulate the physical and psychological toll of being in-theatre. Exertion pushes dice rolls in your favour - just remember that you’re gambling with your life. Keep your Fatigue, Anxiety, and Delirium in check or deal with the long-term repercussions. In this line of work you're going to fail way more often than you succeed. That much is expected of you. What matters is how you pick yourself back up. If the dice don't go your way (and they won't) you'll have to improvise and hope the consequences are ones you can live with.