What is Zero Escape series ?
Zero Escape series is novel/puzzle type game where player gets closed with other people inside some facility and he is made to play some fucked up game. Yes it looks like those weird japanese shitty novels but is way and above beyond them in therms of writing quality.
More on that in this video which nicely sums up current games:
Should i play 1st and 2nd game before 3rd ?
YES. Despite 999 and Virtue Last Reward being written as separate games they are closely connected to each other and you won't "get" how awesome VLR is without playing 999 and probably you won't "get" how awesome is ZE3 without at least finishing VLR.
That being said each game is written as its own game so even without playing 999 you will have ton of awesome fun with Virtue Last Reward. Same thing will probably true to ZE3. But some really important things in VLR and probably most of ZE3 will fell flat because you need to know what happened earlier with characters to "get" that something big just happened.
Why i should try it faggot ?
Because:
A - great puzzles - i mean probably best in business curently considering state of adventure games
B - great writing - yes, not just "great", motherfucking great that treats you like adult.
C - amazing music - just listen to this shit:
OK I WANT TO PLAY IT WHAT NOW ?
999
about 30 hours, available on DS. If you don't have DS grab
http://desmume.org/ emulator and play it on it.
Virtue Last Reward
about 50 hours 30-40 for android version, available on 3DS and Vita. Grab cheap used Vita or 3DS with VLR play it and sell it after (if you don't want 3ds or vita). There is rumor going about PC version of VLR coming soon.
You have 9 days till 29th and join hype train.