Nice visuals but strange mechanics, HD serves to prove what we might someday be able to do on the DS.
The power button is slid on. The familiar ping of the touch screen ushers you to the game menu and you're off. You're clutching your DS, thumbs resting to either side of your touch screen.
But you're doing it wrong.
From the very start, Hotel Dusk invites you to start enjoying your DS and its capabilities. With a slight expression of awe did I slowly turn my DS to hold it like a book. For me this was the first time I was seeing the hardware used this way, and so the impression stays with me. If you've seen it before, I'm sure it'll be less exciting.
Hotel Dusk takes you on a trip that reminds me of the old text based adventures on the first cruddy computers. If you want it, try and TAKE it; if you are in a room, try moving SOUTH. HD pumps up the graphics and game play, but is it all as good as it sounds?
Graphics
The graphics here are a combo of beautiful sketch-drawn characters and blasé' backgrounds to help those characters really pop. At first I was put off by the background graphics, but continuing to play it has shed light on their purpose. True to a text based history, there are several secrets to CHECK or FIND, and closing in on a particular background reveals much more detail. All in all, a nice and original take on graphics; I have only two grievances here. One: they do tend to use the same graphics over and over to indicate conversations between characters. And two: After a while I started getting a very Tom Goes to the Mayor vibe off of them, which probably wasn't what they were going for.
Story and Music
A classic-esque story takes you searching through Hotel Dusk, looking for clues to not only the main character's past but all of those staff and patrons around him. No big shocker here: everybody knows somebody from somewhere, though if you can get through the end of the game with a great score, it'll all come together quite nicely.
The music serves its purpose always. Though slightly repetitious, it holds enough components to keep it from driving you crazy. Some songs are downright beautiful.
DS Mechanics and Gameplay
The DS becomes your journal as you shuffle through the hotel map on the right while watching the real graphics walk by on the left. Very nicely put together, which is why it surprises me that here is where the game lost points from me. Though I enjoyed the two character conversations on their own screens, there were a few mechanics that threw me. Let's get back to that double map. While nice in theory, I just hate the idea of having to split my eyes like that. I always felt like I was trying to watch each screen with one eye. Which can get hard, frustrating, and headache-inducing easily for some people. My other grief was with the difficulty of the game. With no warning you could outright lose only a third of the way into the game, and who knows when you last saved? I feel strongly that without a guide, it gets REALLY hard to get that perfect ending. You have to think WAY far ahead.
Conclusion
Very "text-based mystery" with a fairly beefy storyline, Hotel Dusk will take a little time to get used to. For those that thrive in this type of game play (I'm guessing PC players will feel at home), this game will be astounding. Fair music and nice graphics seal the deal; it's defiantly worth a play, if only to use it to start imagining what can REALLY happen someday on the DS screen.