Hotel Dusk features one of the best stories ever told in a game; and you won't be able to put it down.
When I first got my DS, there were only a handful of games I knew I had to have. I spent the first few months jamming out to Elite Beat Agents and solving cases with Phoenix Wright, but there was always a game in the back of my mind that I really wanted. That game was Hotel Dusk. Now that I've played through the whole thing, I can assure you the story is top notch and it is perhaps the best adventure game on the DS.
You play as Kyle Hyde, a retired police officer now working as a "finder" for a man who also runs a traveling salesman business. Kyle's been searching for his ex partner, who betrayed the force three years ago. When he's assigned to Hotel Dusk, he thinks nothing special will happen there at first. However, he starts meeting several people of interst and the mysteries of the hotel start piling up. Being up a quizical nature, Kyle starts looking into these mysteries and gets caught up in a whirlwind of secrets and intrigue that eventually lead him to his biggest desire: contacting his partner.
The story is told through long conversations between characters and the occasional introspective moment from Kyle himself. During conversations, you'll have moments where you can stop the guest and use of two different dialouge branches. Choosing the wrong one can kill a conversation before the full story is revealed or even cause you to lose the game and see a game over screen.
The rest of your time will be spent digging around for clues. You hold the DS like a book and use the touch screen to move your character. If you come across something of interest, you can click a little magnifying glass at the bottom of your screen and zoom in. From there you can slide the few to the left or right in order to get the full picture. You'll need to do this in order to find some objects.
The puzzles are pretty straightforward and there are a lot of them. You'll get things like having to put together a jigsaw puzzle or pick a lock. These use various touch screen controls and are very well done with only a few scattered control issues.
The game is over fifteen hours long start to finish, which is pretty good for a handheld adventure. There are a few bonus items to collect and a few new dialogues for those that want to play through a second time. Being that you can find a new copy of the game for only twenty bucks, you're going to get your money's worth.
All told, this is one of the best video game stories I've ever seen. Each of the characters is incredibly fleshed out and has a backstory. You'll learn to love or hate all of them for their uniqueness. Each character has thier own mannerisms and way of speech that really helps set them apart from each other. Even Kyle manages to be interesting despite initial perceptions of him being just a typical gruff detective type.
There are tiwsts and turns everywhere and you honestly won't be able to predict what's going to happen next. The only problem comes in the fact that the hotel isn't that big and you'll be covering the same areas over and over again. Also, the game takes place all in the course of one night. However, it feels a bit weird that people would move around so much. Characters are coming and going all the time and seem to bump into you every twenty minutes. They act like they haven't seen you in a while. That bugged me a little bit.
The graphics are an interesting homage to the Ah Ha's "Take on Me" video and do a fantastic job of conveying emotion. From happy to sad to astonished to angry, the emotions are real and just add that next level of depth to the story.
The music is some pretty cool stuff too. Its not great, but it has a really laid back feel while at the same time capturing the inquisitive nature of Kyle. Its an excellent use of sound to carry the mood.
If your someone who plays video games for the stories, than you need Hotel Dusk. The rest of the game does a great job of complimenting the narrative, and its an absolutely solid game. This is one of the best DS games I've played in a long time.