Hotel Dusk: Room 215

[Sky_Dragon]

Hotel Dusk: Room 215. From the guys who brought us Trace Memory, one of the older DS titles, Cing pulls off a simply superb DS adventure. Hotel Dusk can be described as an interactive novel, and what an amazing interactive novel it is. From start to finish, Hotel Dusk (Which will now go by HD) is a story of mystery, lies, and betrayal.

In HD you play a guy named Kyle Hyde, a former NYPD officer in his 30s who now works as a traveling salesman for a company called the Red Crown. Besides going around selling junk people don't want, Kyle also works in a side business ran by his boss Ed, finding things their clients can't. This brings Kyle to Hotel Dusk in December of 1979.

However, there's more then this. In the introduction we find out about a guy named Brian Bradley (who goes by Bradley in game), Bradley is Kyle's former partner from the NYPD, however he has been missing for the past three years, Kyle has memories of shooting Bradley into the water, however, he sill believes he is alive. Throughout Hotel Dusk you will wonder why Kyle made that shot, and why he must find Bradley.

Upon entering Hotel Dusk, Kyle will meet quite a couple of very interesting characters. At first they'll all look rather normal, but it doesn't take long to realize not everyone is what they first appear to be. HD balances out the timelines for character development very well. It won't be as if you know every secret about everyone ten minutes after talking to him or her for the first time. The game will only allow you to learn a bit about them at first, but over time they are tied into the story, this not only boosts the character department, but also aids the story very well.

As a detective, naturally you ask questions, and search for clues. That is basically what HD is all about. You will search every little corner of the nicely sized hotel for information and items you need. Then you ask people these questions to progress the story. This all sounds rather simple, but it is actually rather difficult.

Searching is set out nicely, a little button on the bottom of your touch screen will flash when you're near an area you can check out, simply tap it. Then by using either a little scroll bar or the control pad, you can look around the area. Find something you want to check out, and double tap it. You will either then receive the item, or get a description on it. What makes it a bit more difficult though, is there are a lot of items you can search. It's not just a couple of items through out the hotel. It's more like five areas in each of the rooms, with about four items in each of he numerous areas. If you don't know where you need to go, this can prove annoyingly frustrating.

Asking, and finding questions isn't too difficult. When talking to characters, Kyle may think of a question from the things they say, you will then have to choose one of normally multiple questions available to ask, later on in the game you will usually have to pick one of two choices a bit after asking the question, depending on whether you say the right or wrong thing, you may get a game over. Also, you can use items in your inventory; these can help progress the conversation or bring out some secrets of the person you're talking to.

Puzzles are nice in the game. Some are difficult, but after you complete them you'll figure out it's easier then you thought, you just have to think for a minute and you'll usually be able to get it. Puzzles often use items found in the game, though sometimes you just need your trusty stylus.

When playing HD, you hold the DS sideways, like a book. This is also done in Brain Age. From there you see the two screens (obviously). When walking around and everything, the touch screen will be an overhead map, while the main screen is a 3D view of what Kyle sees. When taking to people, Kyle will normally appear on the main screen, while the other person is on the touch screen. There's always some buttons in the bottom corner of the Touch Screen. These are: A door, person, notebook, and magnifying glass. They'll flash when you can use them.

On the overhead map, you control Kyle with the touch screen. Simply drag the stylus along the map and Kyle will move there, it works very well, I haven't really found a problem with this at all. As said earlier, when investigating. The same works for the door, you can either double tap the doorknob to open the door, or double tap the door itself to knock on it.

The graphics of HD can divided into two parts. Conversation graphics, and well, non-conversation graphics. When talking to people the graphics are simply beautiful. The characters are drawn out in black and white, although they still move, it looks brilliant. They also feature a large amount of expressions, so they're not always in the same position. Along with this, a background image of the room is featured, which is a nice addition.

Outside of conversation, the graphics are still pretty nice. The touch screen map is done well, with clearly marked characters, doors, and other items. The 3D map is where the problems come though. For the most part it looks great, however there are two little things that could be better. When you walk up really close to a wall, it just looks all bad and messed up. It's like taking a picture off of the Internet, and zooming up on it with MS Paint. It doesn't look right. Also, the characters are bad looking. They suffer the same was as the close up walls, and they don't look good on the 3D background.

The music on HD is great. A lot of it is some jazzy sounding stuff, it all sounds pretty nice. The piano music especially is beautiful. There's a pretty large soundtrack too, which can be listened to during certain chapters thanks to a music player. Sound effects are generally nice too. One thing HD is missing though is voice acting, although this is expected due to the mountains of text, so no real problem there.

This game is hard, to put it simple. Unless you use a guide you will often find yourself wandering the halls and knocking on doors. HD does not give you a list of things you have to do in the chapter, so there's going to be trial and error at times, especially when figuring out what to use for puzzles. Later in the game, it's easier to get game over too. Being seen by a wrong person can cause this, and even asking just one wrong question. However I personally don't mind this, and I feel it adds to the challenge, in a good way.

Replay value is actually quite nice. HD offers a New Game Plus sort of thing, where you just continue your file after finishing the game. You'll go back to the start of the game; only it will be slightly different. Some rooms you couldn't reach before will be accessible in this time through. And the dialogue and items can change a bit. Also, HD has multiple endings, so if you want to get them all you'll have to play again.

Overall, Hotel Dusk is a simply excellent game, and I highly recommend everyone to buy this. It will take you about 15 to 20 hours your first time through, however as I said, the reply value will want you to keep playing this excellent mystery adventure.

The Run Down

10.0 Presentation
The storyline and characters of Hotel Dusk are simply brilliant. Along with this, easy to use menus and non complicated control makes the presentation perfect.

8.7 Graphics
While Hotel Dusk does have wonderful black and white drawings for characters, outside of conversation the characters just look bad. The nice maps and detailed 3D background helps keep the score up.

9.0 Sound
With some soothing jazzy tunes, and well done sound effects, HD offers great overall quality, however there is no voice acting. Though this is expected with the huge ammount of text in the game.

9.2 Gameplay
Simple yet fun gameplay. Although frustrating at times, HD offers smooth flowing gameplay, easy to use controls, and interesting detective story gameplay.

9.0 Lasting Appeal
The main story itself may be short, but HD offers multiple endings. Along with a ton of different choices you can make through speaking, HD just keeps on making you play.

9.4 Overall (Not an average)

[malons]

This is a good review for an excellent game, though you should add a picture or two.

[Mystic]

Nice that you look it, cause I wanna buy it ^_^