As if I needed something more to play on my DS, Nintendo dropped Hotel Dusk: Room 215 into my life. The fact that my DS backlog is fattening to a point of pure awesomeness is a point to address, but I’ll save it for another day. What you need to know now is the following:
Hotel Dusk is awesome.
If you’ve played Trace Memory and said “This is cool, but…I need a little more”, well Hotel Dusk offers that “little more” and then some.
The fantastic writing coupled with an enthralling story is only helped more by characters who stand out with their own unique quirks and ways of speech. The story is good. Real good. You may have to suspend your disbelief a little from time to time but do it anyway. It’s well worth it.
The game is basically broken down into three parts. Wandering, puzzle solving and interrogation. I say wandering is a part because from time to time you’re given only a slight hint on where to go, and you have to figure it out. You’ll get to know the hotel very well, and all the nooks and crannies. You’ll have to explore. Your hand is very infrequently held, and you may find yourself frustrated from time to time. On occasion I’d swear I checked everywhere, but then upon actually finding what it was I was looking for, I couldn’t help but groan and realize it was I who passed up an almost obvious clue.
The puzzles range from easy to what-the-hell, but never disappoint. Many use the DS’s features in unique ways and there was one case of “Wait, can I really do that with the DS?” for me. This is a hard section of the game to talk about without spoiling anything, but as long as you’re willing to give this game a shot this part, I feel, delivers.
So that leaves the interrogations. What surprised me about these dialog segments is that you can lose the game here if you say the wrong things. You’ll know when you did wrong and you’ll come to regret it. This makes for some really tense moments and minutes of wondering what to say next.
But the game isn’t perfect, unfortunately. The dialog scrolls by a little too slowly for my tastes. This may have been compounded by me wanting to know the story so badly, but I don’t feel it was a deal breaker. There were also a few too many “Goddamnit where do I go now?” moments. Don’t get me wrong, it was extremely satisfying when I figured out where that certain item was or where that particular someone was hiding. But while I was hunting I was a bit peeved. The game does ask for your patience from time to time.
Honestly, that’s the best way I can summarize Hotel Dusk. The game asks a little of you. Suspend your disbelief and be patient. In return, you are given a chance to experience a game you’ll never forget.
