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Hotel Dusk Room 215: Reviews

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Game Score: 9/10

Hotel Dusk is a game that's set out in the style of a book. You play the role of Kyle Hyde, a policeman that has become a salesman (/detective) due to circumstances.

He visits Hotel Dusk whilst trying to find his ex-partner, who has been missing for several years. During his stay at Hotel Dusk, Kyle notices some weird occurrences and decides to investigate. Kyle thinks that if he unravels the mysteries of Hotel Dusk, he will find his ex-partner, Bradley.

Gameplay: Something that sets this game apart is that you have to hold your DS on its side, much like Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training and the like. To explore the hotel, you control Hyde's movements throughout the game. The touchscreen acts as a top down map of the hotel, and allow the user to move with the stylus. The other screen shows Hyde's point of view. You can also use some of the buttons to do functions, as the d-pad allows you to advance to the next line of speech, and also to move around without the stylus. The R shoulder button also performs the next line of text function, as if turning a page. Sort of. At the bottom of the touchscreen, there are four buttons, one zooms in on a door that's in front of you (to knock, or try the handle), another talks to a person in the vicinity, the third allows you to zoom in on certain areas of the room, and view them in a panoramic style. The fourth opens the main menu. Also there are puzzles that use the stylus, that crop up occasionally and a notepad with a few pages... for notes.

Graphics: Visually, this game has it all. 3D scenes, mixed in with 2D objects, the people for instance. They are drawn in an artistic Noir-esque style (a bit like Sin City). and it looks spectacular, one of the best games I have played, from a visual perspective at least.

Sound: As anyone who knows me (no one here, lol) would tell you, I don't use the volume much on my DS, so as to save my battery. From occasional flips of the volume thing, it sounds okay, I mean they've bothered to put in footsteps every time you move. And there's no Animal Crossing style gobbledygook language to harm your ears. Which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

Plot: The game has a lot of it, okay, so I spoilt it for myself by going on the wikipedia article, but so what? It's not really escapism, as the characters are fairly realistic, and they're human. In no way is this a bad thing though.

Puzzles: These range in difficulty, I mean at one stage you have to do a child's puzzle for instance, and at another you have to figure things out, like how to use what's around you. Combining things like in Broken Sword is fairly common practice.

Graphics: 10/10 (Superb)
Sound: 6/10 (Nothing out of the ordinary, but still good)
Gameplay: 9/10 (Haven't noticed any bugs, and the controls are easy)
Stylus Integration: 9/10 (You use it for everything, and the point and click elements needs a stylus to do it justice)
Replayability: 8/10 (I haven't finished it yet, but it's not the sort of thing I'd play again, simply because I'd remember what happens)

Overall: 9/10

In Summary: I think this game is amazing. At first I was a bit apprehensive, even a little dismissive, but now I accept it as a brilliant game. Okay, so it isn't really a pick up and play game, as I tend to prefer in a portable game, but you can save more often than in RPG games like Final Fantasy.