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Hotel Dusk: Room 215

Back in late January I was sitting around fellow GamerVision members house, Psych, looking through his interesting collection of things when I came across a Nintendo DS with the game Hotel Dusk: Room 215 in it. Soon as I booted up the game, I was intrigued by the style and what kind of gameplay elements it had to offer. To put it lightly, I instantly fell in love with it.

The Story: The main story, without giving away too much information because it's a huge part of the game, involves you visiting this hotel that is out in the middle of no where. From the beginning, everything seems a bit strange and off. You're an ex-cop turned private investigator whose past is shady and filled with mystery that is uncovered throughout the game. You find yourself meeting old acquaintances, meeting new friends, and solving several puzzles throughout the game as you try to solve a big mystery that's been digging at you since the “incident”.

The Graphics: For a Nintendo DS game, the graphics are subperb. Everything is rendered in a 3d environment and seems well fleshed out. Characters are animated in an almost surreal comic sketch that is charming and eye pleasing.

The game is meant to be played with your Nintendo DS tilted so that the handheld system is verticle. Depending on what hand you are, your character view and your floor layout will be on different sides of the DS, naturally.

The Gameplay: Gameplay is broken down to puzzles where you have to gather information from people staying at the hotel, simple fetch jobs, sneaking into offices and rooms, and trying to rig things to open. There is a lot of varied game play elements and an intriguing plot twists and turns to keep you interested in continue playing.

Another unique aspect of the game is that it has a notebook where you can literally write notes in it as if you were detective! It's very easy to use but the only downfall is because of the limitations of the Nintendo DS touch screen, you may find yourself erasing and rewriting information because what you write looks too blocky.

The Final Word

The Good: Hotel Dusk is filled with interesting characters, challenging puzzles, great graphics, and game play that keeps you coming back for more.

The Bad: Sometimes the puzzles can be a bit too narrow minded and hard to figure out while other times picking the wrong conversation choice can lead you to a game over. This can be very frustrating but luckily, most of the time, it sends you back to a check point relatively close to where you failed.

The Verdict: Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is a solid hand held game that I clocked in just about twenty hours of fun. For the price of around $30, it's a game no fan of adventure, noir crime dramas, and crime puzzles can ignore. It plays a lot like Phoenix Wright but I find the clue searching is a bit more in depth. I give this game an 8 out of 10 and I recommend it for all.

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