Zero Time Dilemma (PC) Review

Hype is a very dangerous thing, since it makes it so much harder for the final product to live up to the lofty expectations that have been built up. This might be part of the reason that Zero Time Dilemma proves to be so ultimately disappointing. Maybe in its own right it would have been received more positively, instead of being classed as the runt of the Zero Escape trio. Right from the off, that may be an argument that holds some weight, since there is the re-introduction of characters in past entries, littered with the usual mix of newcomers that spice events up. The big bad, in Zero, is also ever present, teasing the nine captives with the promise of escape…with a major caveat present: six must die for the special X door to open, leading to freedom. There are no real warning signs when the adventure commences, so indeed the idea of this being better as a standalone title might be valid. Might. It becomes clear later on that it is not the case at all, sadly.

The concept was wonderfully laid out in 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors on Nintendo DS, and then developed to streamline the process of replaying events to obtain differing outcomes in Virtue's Last Reward on Nintendo 3DS in order to uncover all scenarios within the gripping story. Everything was looking peachy, and tantalising story threads were left dangling at the end of the second adventure - would there be a prequel or sequel? Maybe both coming eventually?

Then it seemed like a third entry was not going to come to fruition due to poor sales in Japan. Thankfully, though, a spirited reaction from fans in the West helped Spike Chunsoft make the decision to get Zero Time Dilemma green-lighted. All was well with the world - PC, 3DS, and PS Vita releases ahoy. Finally, all those questions would be answered and a satisfactory conclusion would be delivered!

Well, not really, in reality. Sure, there are elements that are wedged in to tie things to the previous games, and there are tenuous threads that do relate to questions posed in the past, but there are plenty of questions left unanswered and an overall sense of dissatisfaction when the adventure is over (and it will be over quicker than ever before, as this entry seems far simpler to progress through), especially given the haphazardness of the Global Flowchart that it relies so heavily on.

In Virtue's Last Reward, the concept of a chart to keep track of what avenues had been explored was genius, rectifying one of the annoyances found in 999, but here the developer has an over-reliance on said chart, but not only that, also breaking things down even further into 'Fragments' for each of the three teams in what was previously deemed the 'Nonary Game.' It all becomes quite messy once multiple timelines need to be navigated due to teams being put to sleep after 90 minutes, and their memories sometimes wiped, other times not, all the time waking up in random locations no matter what.

Most of the time will be spent trying to figure out how to open up a new pathway through the flowchart, rather than soaking up some extremely well written prose. In fact, the writing is rather sterile compared to the previous games, so sometimes it is favourable to skim over the endless chatter and use the 'jump back' feature to play through and aim to get another scenario by changing a decision previously made. The main problem is that everything feels so frustrating after a while.

Playing through, at first it all flows well enough, albeit with too many conversations that bear no relevance to the core story, and with puzzles that do not seamlessly fit into proceedings, and are either too simplistic or the opposite extreme, being completely devoid of logic to the point of hair-pulling annoyance. Well enough, indeed. Then a wall is hit, and many will not have a clue where to go or what to do, and that is where the wheels come off, and constant reference to the flowchart is required, in addition to checking out individual teams' fragment pages. Even then, checking everything out, it may not be abundantly clear what to do or where to go, or even what needs replaying, if anything actually does.

Only when being forced to check a guide will realisation kick in that despite early events being cleared, the game demands that they be replayed in a particular order once more in order to unlock certain events later on. In instances like that, more often than not it is a palm to the head moment, thinking, "Why didn't I realise that?!" Not so here, since it is more like, "Huh, what? Seriously?" and then follows total frustration. Zero Time Dilemma is based on a broken model, ultimately. Who really wants to spoil things by relying on a walkthrough? Well, this either requires one to be used after a set time, or the entirety of the first half of the adventure must be replayed to try and figure out what was missed…

Even then, though, there are times where codes and passwords are required, or notes must be made on key conversations to unlock areas further into the story. However, many of these will be overlooked either because it is not apparent at the time, or the dialogue has gone off into its mundane territory once more, leading to minds wandering and facts being missed. Heavy use of the game's conversation 'Log' is required, although it is only useful for current conversations, not actually accessible when jumping to another timeline. None of this is overly difficult to overcome, in the end, but it should work far better than it does, and all feels fumbled together in a half-hearted manner not befitting the quality that came before it.

Puzzles? Either overly simple or complicated to the point of wanting to give up, and never fitting in with the story. Visuals? The cel-shaded models do look delightful, but the characters all have extremely dead eyes that sometimes go into crazy-judder mode when startled or dying (there are lots of deaths, over the top ones at that), and the animation is so bad that even the development team must have realised something was off, opting to move the camera position away from characters when they start moving, focusing on the far distance and leaving just sound effects to do the grunt work. Story? Well, it answers some elements from the past entries, yet in a forced and unsatisfying manner that detracts from the overall interest levels, whilst also introducing a whole host of monotonous threads that do not relate to anything in particular other than acting as filler content, plus throwing up new questions that remain unanswered, and not even touching upon some key issues from Virtue's Last Reward. Gameplay? A broken mess of what was the strong point of the previous game - the flowchart - leading players to dead ends all because the game has not recognised that, even though some parts are complete, they were not done in the 'correct' order to unlock further routes… It is a bleak outcome, sadly.

There is enough substance to Zero Time Dilemma to make it playable, but there is equally so much that makes it not just third place in the series in terms of quality, but a long and distant third that shatters the dreams of those that adored 999 and VLR so much.