Zero Time Dilemma, the third installment of the well-received Zero Escape series developed by Danganronpa masterminds Spike Chunsoft, was just released on the 3DS and PS Vita today and will be available on Steam, a first for the series, starting tomorrow. Set in an underground chamber in the near future, Zero Time Dilemma is a hybrid of the horror and adventure/puzzle genres, following the stories of nine individuals held against their will and forced to play the deadly Decision Game. If you are familiar with the Danganronpa series, or the previous Zero Escape titles 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors and Virtue’s Last Reward, you know where this game is going: people will die. And they’re going to die horrific, traumatizing deaths.
“Death is certain, its hour is uncertain.”
The Zero Escape series is well-regarded by critics and adored by the fans for one thing about the game in particular: the narrative. While the following summary will be spoiler-free in case you haven’t played any of the previous games, playing 999 and Virtue’s Last Reward isn’t necessary to enjoy the story of Zero Time Dilemma. However, it is recommended, as Zero Time Dilemma does take place chronologically in between the two games, and does solve some mysteries that were left unanswered in them.
Deep within an underground facility known as the Mars Mission Test Site, or Dcom, in the middle of the Nevada desert, nine individuals conduct experiments to determine if a manned mission to Mars would be suitable to life. On the sixth day, they wake up to find themselves split into three groups, confined in cells, and told by a mysterious man dressed as a plague doctor, named Zero, that the only way to escape is to play the Decision Game. It is a game that determines the fate of the entire human race. It is a game of luck and survival. It is a game where six of them will die by the hands of the rest.
“Cease to hope that the decrees of the gods can be changed by prayer.”
The gameplay of Zero Time Dilemma is similar to the previous two titles: split up into a narrative section and an “escape the room”-style puzzle, where you have to find hidden objects and clues and interact with your surroundings to escape. Finally, there is the moral decision, key narrative segments that alter the course of the entire story in large ways. They’re also usually pretty horrific, and as the name would suggest, will force you to make some pretty difficult decisions about the lives of your fellow prisoners. Of course, every time someone dies, everyone else gets that much closer to escaping: once six people die, the six passcodes to the elevator shaft in the middle of the facility will be revealed. Who will live, and who will die?
Zero Time Dilemma also introduces a unique narrative mechanic known as Floating Fragments. Each Fragment consists of a narrative chunk that’s 90 in-game minutes long. After that, all nine characters are injected with mind-altering drugs, causing complete memory loss. This means that none of the characters, as well as the player, has any idea where they are on the timeline at any given moment. When you play a Fragment, it gets added to a larger tree, showing when and what happened and how it fits into the narrative. You may play a fragment where someone is already dead, but have no idea how they died until you go back and play a different fragment. It’s a unique take on non-chronological gameplay that keeps the player on their toes.
“Both luck and love favor the bold.”
Finally, another interesting part about Zero Time Dilemma’s story is that some narrative events of the game are actually legitimately randomized. If a character is said to have a 50/50 shot at dying, the game isn’t lying: it has calculated the outcome and will calculate a new one every playthrough, meaning that the game has a massive replayability factor. In addition, there are numerous different endings, and with the convenient ability to skip text you have already seen, you have a game that can be replayed numerous times for hours of content without the game feeling grind-y.
Zero Time Dilemma aims to be a riveting (and very likely emotionally painful) experience for newcomers to the series and a long-awaited conclusion to the fans. As previously mentioned, Zero Time Dilemma is already available for handhelds, and will be available on Steam tomorrow. Happy killing!
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