Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM's new RPG C4 is part espionage thriller, part psychedelic sci-fi

Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM – or at least what remains of it after a fractious few years of mudslinging, firings, and lawsuits – has announced its next game: a dice-rolling blend of psychedelic sci-fi and espionage thriller it’s calling C4.

C4 casts players as an operant serving a questionable global power who finds themselves “locked in a vicious, clandestine struggle for the truth and influence”. It’s a quest for secrets, set in a world of shadowy characters and concealed conflicts, that’s said to offer a blend of player introspection, deep character-driven dialogue, and dice-based high-stakes encounters.

“Yet it is the mind that takes centre stage in C4,” ZA/UM explains. “More vulnerable and somehow more powerful than the physical world, it can be erased, changed, reordered, and of course significantly altered through regular use of psychoactive substances. Players must steel themselves with whatever comfort they can to survive the violent canvas of the real.”

In a brief conversation with press ahead of C4’s official unveiling, ZA/UM writer Siim “Kosmos” Sianamäe shed some light on the philosophy driving C4’s development. “We want to build on what we’ve done before,” he explained, “but not simply by repeating it or rehashing it. This is not Disco Elysium 2, this is C4. We’ve spent the last three years developing this brand-new, gripping, completely original work exploring the theme that each and every member of the ZA/UM collective is inherently obsessed with: espionage.”