Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Posted by Skrud at Thursday, February 22nd 2007 at 10:23pm
While I was in New York last weekend (and an awesome trip it was) I picked up a Nintendo DS game called Hotel Dusk: Room 215, since it’s in high demand and Amazon was sold out. The game is an interactive mystery novel, and plays like film noir.
You play Kyle Hyde, an ex-NYPD cop who’s now a door-to-door salesman in LA. Three years ago he shot his partner, Bradley, who turned out to be a dirty cop. Bradley’s body went missing and Kyle’s been looking for him ever since, wanting to find out why Bradley betrayed the force. Kyle’s company sometimes takes on unusual offers to look for certain things, and Kyle will execute these missions. The latest mission brings you to Hotel Dusk, which is riddled with mystery, and some clues about Bradley…
Adventure games are built entirely around atmosphere, and the best part about Hotel Dusk is the atmosphere it creates. The characters have … character, and there’s emotion pouring out from them. The art style is sombre and subtle, but serious and dramatic. You can see smiles and slight grins, frowns and furrowed brows. I think the line drawings emote better than fully-rendered 3D characters would. The music is mostly piano, and soft jazz – which fits perfectly with the film noir setting – and accents the mood of the events in the game. It’s really easy to lose yourself in the game world for hours on end.
The story itself was intriguing, and filled with twists and turns as you discover the secrets of the hotel’s guests. Although it was pretty predictable, I still had fun unravelling the mysteries. The only issue I have with the game’s story is that it’s very linear – that is, there’s only one story and only one way to go through the game (with incorrect paths leading to a Game Over screen). This effectively reduces replay value to 0.
Hotel Dusk makes very clever use of the DS’s dual screens and touch pad. You hold the console sideways, as if you’re holding a book. You use the touch screen to navigate and inspect objects. When you have a conversation with another character, Kyle will appear on the left screen while the character you’re talking to will be on the right screen. This makes the conversations flow dynamically, and the facial expressions are excellent and accentuate the text. This game does some pretty clever things with the DS altogether, but I won’t mention any more because I don’t want to give you any spoilers.
If you want to see more, you should really check out this video review. And then go pick up the game.
dude apparently there are secret endings but theyre so secret no one knows how to get them yet
so there is SOME repaly value
Yeah I figured … I mean, I never even got to touch the vending machine! I bet there’s something involving that …
did you get into room 220?
Now that you mention it, I don’t think I did.
In fact, I never did anything the boiler room, either.
Still – replaying would be a bitch because there’s no way to skip the text :(
I got into room 220 just now. On my second playthrough (star appears on saves). After you
ve dealt with the first cassette tape you get another from Louis (a little later) who finds it on the stairs. Its got another code you have to run through the codebreaker machine. The message tells you a momento is in the love room. When youve finished the game and are leaving the hotel go to room 220 (the door is unlocked) for the momento. I won`t spoil it by saying what it is.When playing through that time around i did a perfect run (no mistakes on multiple choice at end of chapters) or any mistakes questioning people. I also got the lipstick from the vending machine (instead of the rabbit) and gave it to the snooty blonde. Dunno if that has any bearing on if you get the cassette.
To get the secret ending*, you need to complete the game without game-overs. This doesn’t count wrong answers.
*scroll down to find out about the ending…
The ending shows Jenny, (Dunning’s Daughter) coming back…
did anyone ever figure out what the scissors in the basement were for? they are in the drawer right next to the file. that book said you have to cut tinfoil with it but i couldnt find any.