Decisions, decisions…death
I have been a fan of the Zero Escape series for a long time. Played 999 and Virtue’s Last Reward when they were suggested to me a long time ago. I was finally able to play the third game in the series on PS4 when it was released there a year after it had hit the Vita and 3DS. Now, a good five years later, all three games hit the Xbox and with the latest entry, everyone can enjoy the series as a whole on Microsoft’s platform.
Obviously, the first thing I need to tell anyone reading this, if they haven’t played 999 or Virtue’s Last Reward, they really need to play those before taking on Zero Time Dilemma. People are trapped in a deadly game known as The Decision Game where they must decide the fates of certain people in a deadly game of choices. After being divided into three teams with captains, they must solve puzzles and make hard decisions at the behest of a mysterious figure known as Zero. Think of it like Jigsaw meets a puzzle game.
MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), Switch, PlayStation
Now, I’m not going to dive deep into the story because doing so will just spoil the experience. Since this game is all about the story and experiences of the characters, I really don’t want to ruin it for anyone, and if players haven’t played the first two games, they can very well be lost in what is going on and who certain people are.
What is nice is the fact that this game takes place in the player’s choice of order. They can pick and choose which team to observe and which time frame to do them. That’s not to say that choosing a node is the right order or not, players may begin to see events bleed over into others based on what the other teams are doing.
This spreadsheet timeline setup is nice for players to keep track of everything that has taken place even when the events start to get jumbled up. Players will soon notice correlations to the timeline based on the decisions they have made.
It’s not just a visual novel, there are sections where players will be tasked with “escape the room” type of puzzles that require the players to think outside of the box at times. I found myself actually taking notes on some of these puzzles and they really do push the player to think with a lot of the solutions.
The voice acting is fantastic with the visuals feeling like a cross between anime and a comic book style. I have always enjoyed the style of these games and Zero Time Dilemma is no exception here.
Obviously, I would highly suggest this game, but only if you have played the other games in the series. As a single game, and as a whole, this is a fantastic game series that I believe any fan of great puzzles and a good mystery story will enjoy. I highly suggest it and now, everyone can enjoy these games on Xbox.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.