Zenless Zone Zero: The Final Preview

ign.com:

At this point, Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail have firmly created the expectation that when developer HoYoverse sets out to make a new game, it's going to be both like and completely unlike what it has done before. Fans of the studio's games will know how getting new characters and eventually building them will work (different names, same structure), but the action and tone vary quite significantly. This is once again true for Zenless Zone Zero, HoYoverse's next project that swaps out its larger sandboxes for stylish streets with even more stylish characters and flashy action combat.

I played Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ) for the first time briefly in its second closed beta test, and again for about four hours at a media event hosted by the studio. The long and short of it is that in my brief time with it, I feel that ZZZ is the most "mobile game" of HoYo's most recent releases. I don't mean that in a bad way; what I mean is that almost everything can be done in quick encounters – think 15 minutes or less. Whether you're diving into a story beat, a character quest, or just completing side activities, ZZZ seems to take a bite-sized experience approach to most things it offers. Not that some don't go longer (and I didn't have a chance to play everything, after all), but that seemed about the average.

What I like about that is that while I can see myself spending hours helping complete missions for folks around the city of New Eridu or taking on repeatable combat challenges on PS5 or PC, it'll be just as easy to sneak in a few activities on my phone in between other obligations. And based on how much fun I had during my playtime, I know I'll certainly want to when ZZZ is out soon on July 4.

In ZZZ, the apocalypse struck with the appearance of expanding, dangerous bubble realms known as Hollows. The space-warping zones are filled with dangerous creatures that can afflict humans with a deadly disease that may just kill them or, worse, transform them into monsters. Rather