A great adventure game, with a story capable of making the game highly recommended all on its own.
Hotel Dusk puts you in the role of Kyle Hyde, a somewhat alcoholic ex-detective haunted by the mistake he made three years ago that lost him his job, as well as one of his best friends. Kyle is now somewhat of a salesman, who has an interesting side-job of looking for important lost items for anonymous clients. His job has most recently brought him to Hotel Dusk, a run-down place in the middle of nowhere.
Little does Kyle know that everyone at Hotel Dusk is hiding something, and that his stay at this place is no coincidence.
I don't want to spoil anything, because, being a mystery story, this is the kind of plot that can be greatly damaged when spoiled. However, I will say that Hotel Dusk's story is truly the best thing about it. As you play through the game, you may not be particularly compelled by it at all times, but Kyle and most of the other characters are all very likable, and the game's emotionally powerful climax transcends it to new heights. Like any good noir-style story, Hotel Dusk shows the dark, intimate secrets that people hide. It isn't a perfect story, though, there are more than a few unbelievable coincidences, and the fact that the entire game takes place over several hours makes it somewhat silly that these hotel guests are willing to spill their life stories to you after a short interrogation, but in the long run those end up being simple pet-peeves. The dialogue is also so well-written that it often works to suspend your disbelief all on its own.
The good news about Hotel Dusk's gameplay is that the developers have invented a great way of moving around. On the right screen, you'll see a map, and all you need to do is touch in a certain direction to move around. On the left screen, you'll see a fully 3D version of the area you're exploring from a first person view. (in this game, you hold the DS sideways) Don't worry, though, because there's an option to flip the settings (and the DS) for left handed people. The DS's two screens are also used to the game's advantage during cutscenes. When two characters are talking you'll see one on one screen, and one on the other. In addition, the other screen is sometimes used for flashbacks to allow you to still see that other character talking. It's excellent, because you can see Kyle's reactions to the person you're interrogating when they give you important information instantly.
Speaking of cutscenes, another one of the game's biggest strengths is its graphics. The characters are animated in a kind of sketchy style, and from looking at screenshots, you'd think that they were static pictures. However, nothing could be further from the truth, these people move, and due to the style they are animated in their motions are very life-like. It's an absolute joy to watch them. The 3D rendered hotel is also surprisingly detailed. If you pay enough attention, you can see the grime on the walls.
Hotel Dusk does a good job of doing what most adventure games don't even try to do, and making the puzzles believable for its setting. There won't be any ridiculous "Use the gum on the hackysack, then combine the hackysack with the chainsaw" puzzles here. All of the items that you find are appropriate for their setting, and all of the ways that you use them MAKE SENSE. No ridiculous out-of-the-box thinking here, thankfully. The bad news about the puzzle solving is that you can't do something until KYLE officially knows how to do it. Since you probably didn't get what I meant by that, I'll use an example: Let's say you need to shoot a gun (not a real part of the game, of course) There will be a book that tells you how to shoot the gun, and something your supposed to shoot at. To shoot the gun at it, you'll need to read the book, then take a good, long look at what you're supposed to shoot at before you fire the gun at it. This may give you the impression that some items might not work in certain areas, when they really will, you just need to look at something completely unnecessary first.
Another problem is that this game is VERY slow-paced, this is NOT for those with short attention spans. In fact, you can swear that sometimes it's almost trying. For example, let's say Kyle needs to get down to the kitchen. First, you'll start to go out of your room, then you might get a phone call. Kyle will have a long-winded conversation with his boss, resulting in him having to do something else. As soon as Kyle leaves the room, he'll have a long-winded conversation with someone who just happens to be in the hall at the time. For some reason, you won't be able to go down to the kitchen until you do what your boss asked you to. After that, you'll get to the kitchen and back with only one or two more long-winded conversations.
This doesn't happen all the time, but it sure happens a lot. And its hard to decide which is more frustrating: when the game gives you multiple things to do that you HAVE to do in a particular order for no real reason, or when the game doesn't tell you what to do at all. Thankfully, to give some kind of order to all this confusion, you have a notebook that you can hand-write memos in, in case you're afraid of forgetting what you're doing.
Another thing that makes the pacing slow is the fact that ALL conversations all long-winded. If you don't want to sit through a lot of talking, this game isn't for you. Thankfully, you don't just watch. As a former detective, you're the one asking the questions. All conversations are interactive to a certain extent, and saying the wrong thing is generally how you screw up and get a game over. What I really like is that, sometimes when someone says something interesting you get the option of interrupting them and asking a question of your choice. Sometimes, you need to question them, or else the conversation won't get anywhere, but if you ask the wrong question or say the wrong thing it can get you in a lot of trouble.
At the end of almost every chapter there's an interrogation of one of the major characters, almost like a boss-battle. Screwing up here gets you a game-over fast, but making good guesses using intuition, and asking the right questions will get you through easily. In that sense, it's really a matter of trial and error, yet despite that grilling someone never feels dull, especially since you always get some interesting information from it, information that you'll care about as much as Kyle does.
Hotel Dusk is a surprisingly immersive and compelling game despite its slow pacing. The gameplay may be fun, but the storyline behind it is reason enough to recommend it.