Review: Hotel Dusk: Room 215

Developer: Cing

Publisher: Nintendo

Made by the now sadly defunct Cing (Yes, I know that Last Window is out now and that is their dying breath, sadly), you star as Kyle Hyde investigating the strange goings-on at Hotel Dusk. The mystery concerns room 215, which is said to grant wishes if you stay the night.

Kyle used to be a detective (now in disgrace, he shot his partner) and three years on he’s on a quest to redeem himself by solving the mystery. Now working for Red Crown Delivery services he investigates Room 215 and the hotel’s other inhabitants, who each seem to have a story to tell and a hidden mystery.

If you’ve played either of the Another Code games you’ll know what to expect. The game is split in to different chapters and at the end of each Kyle will ask you questions about what happened in that chapter. Get them right and you move on, wrong and you’ll have to choose a different option. However, too many wrong turns whilst playing the game will lead to a Game Over screen – something I haven’t seen in an adventure game for a while.

Hotel Dusk has gone for pen-and-ink, black-and-white style characters on realistic backgrounds, which lends itself to the semi-realistic backgrounds and the film noir atmosphere the game is aiming for. I am personally no fan of black-and-white, pen-and-ink characters but thought the way it was executed really worked for this project. Think of a comic book version of a-ha’s “Take on Me” and you’ll be somewhere near it.

Controls are simple; grab the stylus and prod or poke anything or anyone in the room. The DS is held in what is now termed the “book” orientation and to those of you going “eh?”, that’s sideways. It feels comfortable and works well. The orientation is appropriate because you will be doing a lot of reading and when I say a lot, I mean a lot. This game is actually more of an interactive novel than a game sometimes. If a bit of reading doesn’t put you off then I can highly recommend this quality oddment of DS gaming.

My one criticism – if you can call it a criticism – is there doesn’t seem to be enough game for your cash. Incidentally that was the criticism of the last Cing game I reviewed, Another Code: Two Memories. You can pretty much have this done and dusted within a day if you can solve the puzzles efficiently.

I must highlight that there is one point in the game where there is a massive glitch, so I do suggest saving at very frequent intervals. At a certain point in the adventure you are meant to meet a character in a room. I’d wandered in and out two or three times, examined everything in the room twice and they still refused to appear. I was on the point of deleting my save game and starting again when they did appear, despite no trigger or action on my part, which was weird and frustrating.

Overall, it’s one of the better point and clickers on the market. I’m purely giving this a rent due to the fact you can have it done in an afternoon. Good while it lasts, though.

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