Review: Virtue's Last Reward (PS Vita)

Virtue's Last Reward, sequel to the DS game 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, is not your typical gameplay experience. The graphics are comparatively plain, you don't fight anyone, and you read on-screen text more than you do anything else. That said, Virtue's Last Reward is one of the most riveting video games I have ever played.

At the start of the game, you wake up to discover that you've been kidnapped and trapped in an elevator by a malicious stranger who speaks with you via a maniacal AI rabbit. As it turns out, eight other people have also been abducted—and you are all being forced to play a deadly game. If you win, you can escape captivity. If you lose, you die. In addition to solving puzzles, you must participate in reality TV-style votes. Will your teammates ally with you for your mutual benefit, or will they betray you for a chance at their own freedom? Will you turn out to be a traitor yourself?

As the game progresses, the plot becomes increasingly intricate as you come to know your fellow competitors and as you make use of the game's flowchart system. After you naturally play to one of the game's endings on your own, you are permitted to travel back to pivotal moments and to make different choices. Ultimately, you will reach the true ending, and it will blow your mind. The very last plot twist lost me a little, but aside from that, I was more than glad to be along for this ride. 

There's no denying that this game is clunky. Looking around rooms and zooming in on objects during puzzle sequences can feel a bit stilted. (The PS Vita's touchscreen really helped with this, though.) The game's puzzles are tough, in part because they are not entirely intuitive. For example, I occasionally found myself stumped until I finally realized that two seemingly unrelated items in my inventory needed to be combined. The story sequences were so long that once I got going, there was no convenient place to save the game if real life interrupted me. 

Despite these minor flaws, however, Virtue's Last Reward is amazing. I haven't been this challenged and entertained in a long time, nor have I been so interested in collecting even the smallest insights into the minds of video game characters. If a bestselling thriller novel combined with a brilliant puzzler sounds appealing to you, this one is a winner.