ZTD Review

Definitely the weakest of the three, I'd say 999 > VLR > ZTD.

999 is the best all-around. Good setting, good pacing, good story. Definitely has the most urgency and the most sense of discovery as you explore the ship.

VLR has the best big-picture story, with a weaker setting overall. The way everything fits into place though, is really great and satisfying.

ZTD does most things good, but falls short in a few areas. It takes the violence and blood from 999 and cranks it up...maybe a little too high, I thought it was fine though. The 3d animations weren't great, but it wasn't that distracting for me personally. The sense of confusion is pretty great, since you don't know exactly where the fragments fall in the timeline. The escape rooms are hit and miss, but when they hit they're pretty frikkin great, ZTD definitely has the best room in the franchise.

The change to movies rather than words I didn't care for at all, but I don't think it was as bad as I was expecting. The writing for characters was still kinda on par. I do wonder if the realities of making movies for scenes caused a change in the direction of the story, though.

The main complaints I have about ZTD are in it's connection to VLR and some of the characterization and motivations for the characters. No spoilerinos, but a lot of VLR's little subplots (and a few MAJOR ones) are just kinda dropped and not mentioned in ZTD, which hurts. And the motivations of some of the characters are...a bit of a stretch.

Ultimately, the plot and characters as a whole are just kind of flawed when compared to the other games. Overall, it's still quite good though. If you've already read 999 and VLR, I'd say its worth yer time.

Pretty Good / 10