"It's like reading a mystery novel, only you get to play it!"
Developed by Cing and published by Nintendo, Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (also know as "Wish Room: Angel's Memory" in Japan) is like interacting with a very mysterious and very driven out book.
*****INFO*****
- Genre(s): Adventure - Puzzle
- Age Rating: 12 +
- Contents: Minor Bad Language
- Difficulty: Easy
*****INTRODUCTION*****
THE POSITIVES
- Superb dialogue
- Intriguing characters
- Stylish animations and characters graphics
THE NEGATIVES
- Repeated background music can become very irritating after awhile
- A lot of back tracking
- Puzzles are not that challenging
*****REVIEW*****
Hotel Dusk is set in a remote rundown hotel called "Hotel Dusk" during the year 1979 (and despite have the name "Hotel Dusk" in it's title), the hotel is not the main aspect of the game. While the hotel only serves as a backdrop of the games story, and a place used for exploration, the main aspect of the game involves having excessive conversations with occupant guests and staff currently present in Hotel Dusk, a secret organisation called "Nile", a mysterious painting called "Angel Opening a Door", as well as investigating the whereabouts of your partner who you assumed to be dead.
The main prodigy of the story, Kyle Hyde, a salesman working for a company called Red Crown, travels to Hotel Dusk pursuing his own privet investigation in search of his old partner, Brain Bradley. Upon arriving at Hotel Dusk, Kyle unravels mysterious encounters that could lead him to answers he seeks.
Prior to the events at Hotel Dusk, during the time Kyle worked as an N.Y.P.D. investigator, confronted and killed his own partner, Brian Bradley, due to a mysterious phone call from a benefactor, which lead Kyle in learning about Bradley's treachery in turning against the police force regarding their investigation on "Nile", a crime syndicate involved in kidnapping and forge paintings. Kyle fired his gun at his partner after he confronted him at the docks near the Hudson River, after which Kyle decided to quit the police force, and became a salesman.
Hotel Dusk is a mysterious story tied with mysterious characters, suspicious conversations, challenging puzzles, where you have to put your investigations skills to good use.
Hotel Dusk is superbly presented in a graphic novel approach, resulting in sketched out drawings, well-detailed backgrounds, as well as minor characters animation. Cut scenes are presented in slight moving images that protrude the story along.
Playing Hotel Dusk is a little different than playing most DS games. As you would hold the DS console normally when playing a DS game, playing Hotel Dusk requires you to hold your DS vertical (like you would reading a book), with the option to allow you to switch from right and left handed, which does work relatively well. The bottom screen (or with the exception of Hotel Dusk, "the right screen") is used to navigate Kyle and interact with the environment using the stylus touch screen feature, where the left screen (i.e. "the top screen") features graphic materials. Hotel Dusk utilises some of the DS's great features within a variety of it's puzzles i.e. using the stylus pen, microphone, and close-able cover. The main aspect of the game revolves around you speaking to various hotel patrons and employees, writing vital notes in your detective notepad i.e. numbers, times, names, or whatever you want really etc (with the exception of all critical in-game story related notes, which are copied automatically), solve puzzles that range from mediocre to well thought out puzzles, and searching the environment for clues etc. Hotel Dusk also revolves around you interrogating characters for information, i.e. showing a specific item to a specific character, or asking questions. Hotel Dusk is not necessarily a difficulty game, the game-play and controls are quite simple for any DS gamer to pick up and play. Gaining a Game-over results in you either asking the wrong questions, or getting caught being somewhere (or doing something) your not meant to be in (doing) i.e. being in another guest's room, or nosing around in the hotel's main office. Making a mistake can result in Kyle being forced back to his room, or even being kicked out of the hotel altogether resulting in game-over. At the end of every chapter, you are giving a trial where you have to answer on screen question that relate to the set chapter, which are purely to test your memory of events and moments that previously happened in the chapter.
Hotel Dusk sound design does have its ups and downs. While the music does fit and is consistent with the story and does give a sense of mystery to certain scenes etc, majority of the music is repeated throughout the game, which can be quite tedious at times, especially with the out of place background track when in game-play. With no voice talent, Hotel Dusk's overall sound effects are pretty decent at best.
Hotel Dusk is an average length game lasting between 8 to 10 hours, which is not a bad length for a DS game, but offers nothing more added value.
Overall Hotel Dusk is an enjoyable game, and I love the overall style and animation of the game. Some of the puzzles where pretty mediocre but still pretty fun with a few challenging ones, and the mysterious story and the intriguing dialogue writing was really captivating, which did suck me right into the game's plot. Hotel Dusk did however have a few minor points I did find rather tedious if not annoying. The music was one thing I didn't find rather appealing. While the music tone did fit with the overall story and with certain scenes etc, majority of the in-game music is recycled and repeated throughout the duration of the game, which I did find tedious after the first few hours, especially the game-play background track which did feel out of place to me. While I can't really complain much about the linear level design, majority of the game requires you to back track to certain places, which I felt made the game slightly boring at times. Overall, as said above, I did very much enjoy Hotel Dusk. As a DS game I do think Hotel Dusk is fit of purpose, and I look forward in seeing more games does in the same style.
If you're looking for a good worthy DS game that uses the DS features (the way it's meant to be used), like interesting mysterious story, like the concept of interacting with a book, like solving puzzles… Hotel Dusk is a game you should indeed try out.
*****FINAL OVERALL SCORE*****
- Story – 8/10
- Life Value – 5/10
- My Thought Score – 9/10
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- Presentation – 9/10
- Graphics – 8/10
- Game-Play – 7/10
- Sound Effects – 7/10
- Originality – 10/10
*****EDITOR'S OVERALL THOUGHT SCORE – 9/10*****
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 Review by Simon a.k.a. [TheDevilDweller]