Geekshow

Review – Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS)

Hotel Dusk is what you get when you put a mystery novel, stylized pencil sketches, and the Nintendo DS into a blender. The game features a great story, complex characters, and puzzles that take advantage of the unique control options of the DS.

The first thing you will notice about Hotel Dusk that sets it apart is the sideways screen orientation. The game requires you to hold the DS on its side like a book, helping to create the interactive novel aesthetic the game is reaching for. For the most part Hotel Dusk is very successful in this respect. In fact, the game has enough nuance and story layers woven throughout its narrative that it could easily be adapted into an actual novel.

Hotel Dusk begins with a series of flashbacks. The game’s protagonist, Kyle Hyde, remembers an unfortunate incident with his former partner on the NYPD, Brian Bradley. Kyle found out that his partner had betrayed the department, and he was forced to shoot Bradley at the city docks. Bradley fell into the water and was presumed dead. As time passes, Kyle begins to suspect that Bradley isn’t quite as dead as he previously thought, a theory seemingly confirmed when Kyle receives a phone call from his former partner one day. Distraught over the incident, Kyle left the police force and started working as a traveling salesman for the Red Crown company, mostly as an excuse to search for Bradley.

Years later, Kyle is sent to a place called Hotel Dusk by his boss at Red Crown. He is told to check in and pick up a package at the front desk. On the way there, Kyle catches a glimpse of a mysterious girl standing alongside the road. She later shows up at the hotel after Kyle has checked in, and figuring out who she is is just one of the mysteries that are waiting for Kyle Hyde in the halls of Hotel Dusk. Kyle soon meets several interesting characters (including an unexpected old acquaintance) and eventually unravels the many different connections between them all.

Is Bradley really still alive? Who is the person that used Kyle’s name to check into the Hotel Dusk a few weeks before Kyle himself actually arrived? Does room 215 really grant wishes to its occupants? Its your job to find the answers to the many questions brought up throughout the game, and the various threads come together in the end, just like any good mystery novel.

If you don’t like to read, Hotel Dusk is probably not for you. As you might have guessed by now, there is a heavy amount of text to be found in Hotel Dusk. A large portion of the gameplay involves talking to different people and asking questions to find out information. You even have a notepad to write notes on, taking full advantage of the touch screen. You’d better write neatly if you want to read them later on! There are also a ton of item descriptions for just about every object you might come across.

Walking around the hotel is accomplished by dragging a character symbol around an overhead map of whatever room you happen to be in. The other screen shows a 3D view of the room as you move. Whenever you move next to an interactive part of the environment or another character, an icon will light up, allowing you to take a closer look at things or engage in conversation. When looking around, the 3D view switches over to the touch screen, allowing you to click on things that you wish to look at. Some items will only give you a text description of the object such as “Hey, there’s a mini-fridge under the TV. How’s that for class?”. Other items will zoom in to a closer view for further interaction.

When in conversation, the person you are talking to shows up on the touch screen, and Kyle is displayed on the other screen. Each character is shown in a pencil sketch style that is constantly shifting, even when the characters aren’t moving. As a conversation goes on, you can see how each character reacts to what is said. As you communicate, different dialogue prompts appear to push the conversation forward. If someone says something that Kyle wants to pursue further, a yellow hand icon shows up. You can choose to ignore this prompt, but it is usually well worth your time to try an pry as much information out of everyone that you can. Touching this prompt causes Kyle to say “Hold it!” and follow up on a character’s previous statement. Once a conversation has reached its ending point, you have the opportunity to ask any questions Kyle has thought of throughout talking to the person or from previous conversations with other characters. Sometimes you can even show an item from your inventory to a character to find out what they think of it.

Every so often, you will come across a puzzle to solve. Most of the time these puzzles are pretty straight-forward and take advantage of the unique features of the DS. Early in the game you use the touch screen to literally put a jigsaw puzzle together by dragging and rotating the pieces around. Most of the puzzles use the touch screen, but other features of the DS, including the microphone, aren’t ignored. A few puzzles left me stumped for a while, but once I figured out the proper solution, it almost seemed like it was staring me in the face the whole time.

Forward progress in the game is measured in chapters, just like a book. Each chapter encompasses a certain period of time during Kyle’s one night stay at the hotel. Each chapter usually ends with a conversation or event that is important to the storyline. Before a chapter can end, Kyle goes over the important information, turning it over in his head. This takes the form of a quiz where you must choose the proper answers before moving on. These segments aren’t very long, featuring about half a dozen questions, and they are a good way to keep track of the pertinent information from the preceding chapter. The questions are usually pretty easy to answer, but there isn’t really a penalty for getting them wrong other than having to go back until you pick the right answer.

Hotel Dusk has an overall noir feel to it that is created partly through the visuals and smart writing. However, the mood is helped along by the fun soundtrack. The track that plays during the end-of-chapter quizzes is particularly memorable. All of the music tracks from the game are unlocked on the jukebox found in the hotel bar once you encounter it in the game. The minimalist approach to the audio is probably due to the restrictions of the DS cartridge space, but it also fits into the aesthetic of Hotel Dusk quite well.

Hotel Dusk begins rather slowly as it takes some time for the different mysteries to take shape, but after a little while the pacing picks up as events and revelations start to snowball. Despite the slow buildup, the plot remains compelling, and the quirky characters help keep things interesting throughout. Hotel Dusk was meant to be played while curled up on your couch or recliner, like relaxing with a good book.

Final Grade: B+