Who needs books when you've got Hotel Dusk?
So, you play as Kyle Hyde, an ex-cop for the LA PD. He got axed from his previous job from shooting his partner and best friend, Bradley (as the opening sequence cuts in). Kyle is now a door-to-door salesman, but gets a call from his boss to investigate Hotel Dusk.
Now, this game focuses on the dialogue that ensures and not as much on the puzzle solving. Whether or not this sounds engaging to you is really based on your taste, but believe me, you will really appreciate the story when it starts to pick up. As far as puzzles, they are about what you'd expect from an adventure game of this type, but done a lot more logically than most. For me, this is one of my first adventure games, so I needed a walk-through (strategy guide), but I'm sure if you have played this type of games before, you should be able to figure out the puzzles and where to go easily because the game lays them out mostly really well. Also, it uses the DS's innovative features such as closing the DS to perform CPR (heh, censored) that just wouldn't be captured on any other platform.
Because the game focuses on story instead of gameplay, you need the characters. The characters in this game perfectly complement the story. Kyle Hyde is an extremely likable character, with his down-and-dirty sense of humor and manners. Of course, when you think about it, how is it that all these people have something in common. As you go through about roughly half the game, you stop and think, "man, what a coincidence that so-and-so was knew so-and-so to do so-and-so". But, as the story finishes up, the game has one of the best climaxes and resolutions I've ever played (allowing multiple endings so I hear, but you probably won't want to rip through the whole game to see the alternate ending scene, either).
Which would be quite understandable for anyone who has a life outside of playing video games, because the game is a monster of a game. And to think, this is all squeezed onto a Nintendo DS cart. Amazing!
The game's graphics do an awesome job of stringing together those all-important characters I mentioned earlier. I know the graphics are always being compared to the Ah-Ha music video "Take on Me", but that is a really awesome art style to be compared to. The right screen is a basic top-down view and the left screen is the 3D counterpart. This is just one way this game wouldn't have been as good as something like the PC. Even if the 3D display does get murky in some spots, does it really matter when you've got the perfect solution on the right-hand screen?
The game has a good soundtrack. It comes with a bunch of tunes that jazzes up the game, but the tracks are limited. I know this is only the DS cartridge that may be preventing this, but after you've gotten deep into Hotel Dusk, the soundtrack may wear thin on you because you know when so-and-so track is played so-and-so happens.
Overall, I really enjoyed this game. It twists a really engaging story into a game that can't be otherwise described as great. I recommend this game to anyone who likes point-and-click adventures or to anyone who is looking for a good read and slow-paced experience. Hotel Dusk satisfies the detective in all of us.