Nine people wake up imprisoned by a mysterious man. A coin is tossed. Guess the color and you’ll get your freedom back, guess wrong and at least six of your group have to die. It sounds like a sick episode of Saw but it’s the final and last game of the Zero Escape franchise. The franchise had its ups-and-down but Zero Time Dilemma is the perfect conclusion filled with dramatic decisions and different endings.
The final part
The Zero escape franchise started on the original Nintendo DS with Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and got a sequel called Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward. Zero Time Dilemma is the third and final game in the trilogy. Before you start playing it, we advise you to play the other games first since you’ll run into a lot of spoilers otherwise. Zero Time Dilemma is playable for new players since the story gets explained but those players will miss out on a lot of character interaction. If you’re interested in the franchise, it’s best to start with the first game, you don’t want to be spoiled and play the games in the other direction.
If you have played the previous games before, you know what to expect. Zero Time Dilemma is a heavily story driven game, meaning there are a lot of cutscenes and dialogues going on. The 3D models of the characters were introduced in Virtue’s Last Reward, Zero Time Dilemma introduces 3D animations. Everything is animated and looks rather good. The facial expressions of the characters help to create a better bond but the lip-syncing could have been a lot better. That being said, the voice acting is spot-on so you’ll have no trouble to get sucked into the dark story. It’s still a very story-driven game but it’s filled with different paths, different endings and a lot of unexpected events. It’s like reading an interactive thriller where you’re in control of the crucial decisions.
Time to make a decision
These decisions play a crucial role in the game since they can mean the difference between life and death for some of your characters. The first decision, guessing which side the coin faces, results in a first ending where you all get out of prison but can also mark the start of the actual game. Of course, if you picked the right side and escaped prison, you’ll want to restart the game and pick the wrong color so there’s a little more action going on.
Who will you sacrifice
The way the story unfolds is new in this version. The story isn’t told in chronological order, instead, you’re able to activate certain fragments. If you want to change your decision, for example, you can go back to that specific fragment and pick the other option. This is needed for those who want to see every ending. As far as story development goes, you can pick which character you would like to follow. Shortly after the start, the group gets divided into small groups of three. You can constantly switch between them or choose to follow one group’ fragments and ending first. How you play it is up to you but the freedom the developers gave you is enormous and actually benefits the game. Since the characters are divided into groups, you’ll be able to get to know them a little better than in the previous game.
It’s a shame however those new characters don’t get enough screen time to really leave their mark. The older, better-known characters will develop even more and you’ll even be able to wrap up some loose ends 999 and Virtue’s Last Reward left behind.
The story itself is a lot darker and leans more on 999 than the lighter Virtue’s Last Reward. It’s a bloody and brutal game but doesn’t go into overdrive. The blood and cruel death scenes only add to the tension of your decisions instead of just being there to shock the players. The developers certainly found the right balance between a great story and brutal images.
There’s more than just the story
Although Zero Time Dilemma is a very story-driven game, it doesn’t mean there isn’t any actual gameplay. The main feature of the game aside from the story, are its puzzles. The puzzles aren’t that easy to solve and will demand some clever and even out of the box thinking in order to solve them. Sure, there are some easy and straightforward puzzles but some will ask a lot of the gamer. There’s even one that forces you to tilt the room in several directions in order to find the right solution.
Generally speaking, the solutions aren’t that hard to find but there are some exceptions here as well. It happened more than once that we simply couldn’t find out what we needed to do. This resulted in tapping the action button at every pixel in the room to find the solution in an obscure place. It’s a way to solve the puzzles but pixel hunting can never really be what the developers were aiming for. Aside from these exceptions, the puzzles are fun to solve and have a huge impact on the game since they control the difference between life and death.
Conclusion:
Zero Time Dilemma marks the perfect ending of a dark trilogy. The story is very impressive due to the animated scenes and spot-on voice acting. You’ll truly connect to the characters and losing some of those isn’t easy. The timeline mechanism is innovating and opens up new ways of immersion. The only downside about Zero Down Dilemma is that it’s the last in the trilogy. If you haven’t played it, be sure to start with 999 and prepare for an emotional rollercoaster.
