Review: Hotel Dusk: Room 215
This is a very unique game in the Nintendo DS world. Not only has it a hand-drawn style, but it's slated in the latter part of the '70s (we control the hero in December 1979).
The style is also very contemplative. No speedy action, no stressful arcade moments. Everything is slow. You take your time walking, talking, finding clues. The mini-games are not meant to be quick. It's been a while since I've last seen such story. Oh Mystery House, where art thou?
Accurately described as a movie you live through, the choices you're making are accessory to the story, you live that moment as a near spectator.
And for me that's where it derails. It's a detective story, a mystery. I should be able to deduce logically everything, and I should be able to answer adequately. Sometimes, you are given two choices to answer that are totally strange, that I would never say. What to do? None seems to transfuse the essence of what I want to say. Sometimes, the mini-games are simply odd, without a good chance to do something. Like the pencil, and then with the breakers. It's not a matter of skill and understanding, it's a matter of having to follow what the game designer thought would be cool.
Finally, never in my life have I been so frustrated by a game. If I miss one single line of text, if I go to sleep, wake up and forget something, I'm screwed. Not only that, but sometimes, I have to find near-impossible small artefacts, that requires me to try opening and knocking on all doors at least once per chapter. I would never ever do that in a hotel, and with this game, it becomes a cat-and-mouse chasing around what the game designer tought I should do, and not this is not logical.
The game is very interesting, and I do like it. However, with this game, print a Gamefaq and leave it at your side. Try out what you think you should do, assume it works and then, if it doesn't and if you are starting to get stuck and want to do a roundabout of all the doors yet again to try to figure out what to do, forget about it and use your trusted little friends you printed. That way, you will enjoy the game as a very interesting movie with proper interactivity. Otherwise, you will just want to grab the game card and see if it survives a bath in drano.
