11 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
A Room You'll Want To Stay In
Date of Review: Jul 9, 2008
The Bottom Line: While it suffers from a few thoughts, Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is a marvelous adventure game for anyone who likes a good read.
Too long, don't want to read? Skip to the end to read the summary and get the final score!
Nintendo doesn't often take leaps off the proverbial cliff. While many new properties have been promised, Nintendo often seems to squabble them, instead relying on its rooted franchises. (One of their new Wii properties, H.A.M.M.E.R., is on indefinite hiatus and information about the other, Destruction: Day of Crisis, has not had new information in a while). Hotel Dusk was a new property, developed by Cing, that actually has seen the light of day . While perhaps a sleeper, Cing and Nintendo have done a great job on this point-and-click mystery title that deserves a run through by anyone with a DS who doesn't hate books.
STORY
As detective-turned-salesman Kyle Hyde, your job in Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is to unwrap the mystery and whereabouts surrounding your missing ex-partner and fell cop, Brian Bradley. Along with his job as a salesman, Hyde's boss sometimes gives him certain things that others want found that they've misplaced. You arrive at Hotel Dusk after receiving such a task, taking Room 215--the Wish Room. The hotel's owner, Dunning Smith, gives you a tale about the room having the ability to grant wishes. Shortly, you meet the other occupants of the hotel. These include an intrepid mystery writer (ho ho!), a girl looking for her mom, a mute young woman, and an ex-pickpocket Hyde often busted during his time on the force.
The game is packed with text-- you feel more often like you're reading a comic book than playing a video game, something the orientation of the DS helps. However, almost none of the text is wasted. The writers of Hotel Dusk have done a superb job creating the characters and scenarios in Hotel Dusk, with almost every line revealing just a bit more depth in character or another small twist in events. These twists continue up until the very ending, which is not quite how I expected the game to conclude. The ending is by no means a bad one, and after your first run-through you'll feel quite satisfied. A few questions are left dangling, though a secret ending (achieved by never retrying from a game-over screen) can help with one.
GAMEPLAY
Hotel Dusk plays like a point-and-click adventure PC game from days of yore. Many of the actions and puzzles will be comforting to those who grew up on such titles and enjoy a more "leisurely" pace. The game actually has the player holding the DS sideways, like a book, rather than the common position. To the left-handers, do not worry--the game has an option to switch the favored hand, allowing you to hold it using either the D-pad or the face buttons. The touch screen displays the map and various options such as Look, Speak, and so forth. The normal screen shows a 3-D view of where Hyde is looking as you move him about. Hyde's movement can be controlled by the D-pad/face buttons or by holding the stylus on the touchscreen. You have a memo pad that can be used to write down notes, but this is rarely needed and is actually used more by the other characters.
When talking with individuals, the game switches to a double-view mode, with Hyde generally on the left and the individual he is talking to (or grilling) on the right. During many of these discussions, you will have a chance to "interrupt" the conversation to ask a question. The points where you can do so are fairly obvious (a large ! appears), and the options given also tend to be obvious in which selection is the right one, so exact control over the conversation is limited. During conversations you may build up a number of questions to ask the character in turn, presented as a menu once the current conversation is over. In general the order of asking does not matter, but in a few cases it can affect the outcome. In these cases, it is often random chance how you go, as the game does not seem to offer extra emphasis to one question over another. This can cause some sour turns and Game Over screens, but this is only a slight annoyance.
There are a large variety of puzzles and challenges in the game, and most are fairly unique within the game itself. One has you removing sheets from a laundry hamper, another picking a lock, while a third is a connect-the-dots style puzzle. Some also have very unique methods of completion. For instance, early in the game you will need to turn a jigsaw puzzle over. The jigsaw is shown on the non-touch screen, while the touch-screen itself is left blank. The solution? You close your DS. After it opens up, the puzzle will be on the touch screen. (This is not the only challenge with such a solution.) The variety of puzzles helps to keep the tasks from becoming stagnant, though at times the solution can be very alluding.
The game does suffer a few larger problems, some common amongst point-and-clicks: Linearity, Hand-holding, and Single Use Items.
The game is a complete straight line. Even when certain tasks can be completed in any order and have no relation, the game still requires you to do them in a specific order. As an example, early in the game you have to return a doll to a little girl and discover the mystery owner of a pen. You would think you could do the pen first and then the doll, or vice-versa, but the game requires you to return the pen first before returning the doll, despite the fact that the two scenarios have absolutely no relation to each other. When there are multiple things going on, this causes some headaches because you aren't sure which task you have to complete first.
Though you are lost at times, the game will also hold your hand too hard at others. When Hyde gets a task, he sometimes makes a comment that he should jot the task down in his memo book. When the game finally allows you to do the task, however, Hyde will make another comment along the lines of "I should return that doll now," regardless of whether you have written it down or not. As mentioned earlier, many times you have a choice of answers the correct one is obvious, with one painting you curious and other painting you a jerk. A small handful of times you'll actually need to use the "jerk" option, but these are few and far between. This removes a lot of the intrigue you might have when trying to decide how to turn a conversation (though the jerk option will usually get you through a conversation, anyway).
The third major grip is Single Use Items. Throughout the game you'll get many items that you only ever use once, even when there are scenarios where they might seem helpful otherwise. Some of these items you can drop off in your suitcase (and in some cases are required to do so), but many of them you just hold on to, useless, throughout the entire game. One example is the key to your suitcase, which breaks in the beginning of the game and is then useless through the rest.
One final problem, perhaps one not often found in most point-and-click games, is action areas. In many cases these are large, activating discussions or focusing Hyde's attention. However, there are a few points later in the game where the action area is very small; one portion at the very end requires you to basically hug the wall to activate it.
However, while these are noticeable and sometimes irksome, it does not deviate from the overall gameplay.
GRAPHICS
Hotel Dusk offers an interesting combination: areas are represented as both a 3D view and a 2D simple map. The majority of puzzles and challenges are also done in 3D. However, all characters are 2D, even when shown in 3D space. Characters, rather than being a construction of polygons, are inked outlines with ink shading, looking much like someone cut them from a magazine. While it sounds odd, it actually adds to the game overall. Each character has a wide range of animations done with these drawings, which tend to be rather smooth for the animation itself. Even when the character isn't moving, per se, the animation still is, giving a "squiggly" vibe as though the animators messed up slightly while scanning frames of animation. This is a good effect, though I understand some are annoyed by it.
Even though the movements of characters are many and varied, some can be re-used a bit too much. In some cases, they are re-used in a row (such as the crossing of arms). This gets a bit more annoying due to the fact that there are no transition animations. A character will jump straight from one finish pose to the next beginning pose, a very unnatural effect. Some of the poses also seem off during certain parts of conversation. For instance, a character may be worried and have a pose that you would expect, but still have a large grin on their face.
While the areas are displayed in 3D, the presentation is not necessarily the best the DS can do. Other 3D games have been shown with much better detail, and one would expect a second-party game to be higher up. In its defense, areas are still easily identified and distinguishable. Despite taking place entirely within one hotel, the locations are also varied. Even the hotel rooms do not have the same layout from one to the other, meaning you won't get bored of seeing anything for the thousandth time.
AUDIO
Hotel Dusk has a very diverse list of original tunes. Some you will get sick of hearing time and again (mainly as you wander around the hotel), but some are quite lovely and used rarely. The music always fits the situation, and the transitions between are never jarring. Some of the "alert" style snippets do sound very similar to each other, sometimes giving the wrong impression of just what's going on.
With the amount of text and story that this game relies on, it would have been nice to have at least voice acting snippets or certain conversations with voices, but this may have been too much for the DS to handle.
A jukebox is also available in one area of the hotel where you can play any piece of music you've already heard (one reason to do another run-through).
REPLAYABILITY
As with many games that rely mostly on story, there is no strong pull to play through it again afterward. An optional side-item may have been missed the first time around (you have exactly one time when you can get coins needed to complete this). You may want to play through for a "perfect" game to get the extra ending. Or perhaps you want to take your time and see how conversations change if you decide to play the jerk.
Even so, while the story is great, you're unlikely to play it time and again. If you choose not to resell it, you may one day pull it out again to see the story once more, or to loan to someone else, but otherwise it's a one-trick pony. The manner of dialog would have been great for multiple branches in the story, perhaps being able to choose whose problems you would actually solve rather than solving all of them. Hopefully, a sequel (if any) will incorporate this.
There is a New Game+, allowing use of the Jukebox for all songs and the ability to "speed read" everything (instead of having to wait them being printed out). The only real lure that requires a second play-through is a room that can be opened at the end of the game which couldn't be in an initial play-through.
CONCLUSION
While not free of any problems (what game is?), Hotel Dusk is a rather enjoyable experience. Those who do not like to do much reading may be turned off by the title, however. (Don't like RPGs because they talk too much? You won't like this.) Well written characters with layers of depth and a unique, though perhaps not terribly original, story help to make up for the few failings the game has. Anyone who played and loved point-and-click adventures back in the day, who also owns a DS, would be doing themselves a grave injustice if they did not pick up this game. This is also a great game for those who want to try out point-and-click adventures, but have not wanted to dig back to MS-DOS to do so.
SCORE & SUMMARY
STORY (5/5) - A small cast of characters with great depth, and a hotel with history almost as deep, combine for a great story that would be able to stand on its own.
GAMEPLAY (4.5/5) - Simple controls make for an easy playtime, though sometimes tasks and the linearity become frustrating.
GRAPHICS (4/5) - While the 3D environments are nothing to write home about, the 2D character animations have a great style about them.
AUDIO (4/5) - Good music fits situations and can be listened to on their own.
REPLAYABILITY (2/5) - One go and you've seen most there is to offer. A New Game+ is offered, but there are few reasons to return. May be worth keeping for another play-through after some time passes.
OVERALL SCORE: 4.8/5 (Not Cumulative)
Final Recommendation: BUY NOW
This game is rated "T - Teen" for adult situations (marital problems, kidnapping, extortion, murder) and cursing.
For an explanation of the Final Recommendation rating, please see my extended profile.
