Hotel Dusk: Room 215

8.0
Good

Gameplay	6.5	"A slow-paced, yet extremely satisfying, adventure."
Graphics	7.0
Sound	7.0
Value	8.5

By Tristan Clark

“A glass of bourbon. Oh, how I have missed you!” - Kyle Hyde

Fact: hard-boiled detectives are cool, especially when they narrate in a wonderfully cynical and sarcastic tone. Naturally, they also have to be alcoholic ex-cops who have fallen on hard times, and are reduced to taking on petty investigations for little money.

Coincidentally, in Hotel Dusk you play as Kyle Hyde, an alcoholic ex-cop who had to leave the force after shooting his partner for unknown reasons. Now he’s a door-to-door salesman who also – naturally - helps people find things on the side. But most importantly, he has some great lines of dialogue that make this game into something special.

Hotel Dusk sometimes feels like less of a game and more of an interactive novel. It’s similar in some ways to the classic PC point and click adventure games, in that you solve puzzles and get involved in a lot of conversations. However, the fact that you turn the DS on its side, as well as the sheer amount of dialogue included in the game, means you’ll be passively watching the screens instead of engaging in the game world. It’s a testament to Hotel Dusk, then, that this actually adds to the experience rather than detracts from it.

The game begins with your arrival at the hotel. You’ll soon meet a wide assortment of characters, all of whom seem like they have something to hide. Not long into the game, it soon becomes clear that these people are not all gathered at the hotel by chance – and that the ghosts of Kyle’s own past will come back to haunt him.

The gameplay uses the touch screen almost exclusively. When talking to characters, you can use your stylus to advance dialogue and, in some cases, interrupt a character mid-speech. You’ll also use the stylus to navigate rooms, as well solve puzzles. The touch screen is definitely put to best use with these puzzles, which involve anything from lifting objects to picking a lock. All in all, the gameplay is basic and probably could have been polished up a bit more, but it serves its purpose: namely, to let you get from plot point to plot point.

Thankfully, the story holds up, thanks to the generally excellent dialogue and character development. While there are clichés floating around, and several of the ‘twists’ are so obvious that you’ll spot them a mile away, it’s still a totally engaging storyline that should keep you interested from start to finish. Having said that, it does move at a slow pace, so if you’re looking for quick thrills, you’ll need to look elsewhere. Hotel Dusk is a slow burner, but if you have the time to invest in it, you’ll certainly be rewarded.

Graphically, the game is an odd mix of styles that actually come together quite nicely. You’ll move around in 3D representations of the rooms that really remind me of the mansion from the original Resident Evil. Cutscenes, however, are done in 2D, and the characters themselves are animated black and white pencil drawings that look like they’ve jumped straight out of A-Ha’s ‘Take On Me’ videoclip. It’s eclectic, but it works, and the graphics do a good job of complimenting the storyline.

This game certainly isn’t for everyone. If you’re after action, you won’t really find it here. But if you can appreciate a good story, and want something to keep you entertained for a while, I highly recommend picking up Hotel Dusk. Once you start unraveling the mystery surrounding the hotel, you won’t be able to stop until you’ve gotten to the bottom of things.

 del.icio.us  StumbleUpon  Facebook  Reddit