Review Hotel Dusk Room 215 Developer: Cing, Inc Publisher: Nintendo Genre: Adventure Release Date: January 2007 Platform: Review by Randy Sluganski February 27, 2007		Buy this game at Trade for this game at:

If you are a die-hard adventure gamer and you own a Sony PSP, well, what can I say except that you’re a putz.  But if your choice of handhelds is the Nintendo DS then you’re already aware of its rapidly increasing library of adventure games.  Trace Memory, Touch Detective, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney – all splendid and entertaining games.  Now prepare to be immersed into one of the most innovative and well-crafted mystery/adventure games of recent years as you check into Hotel Dusk Room 215. 

Hotel Dusk opens with a flashback depicting the story behind Kyle Hyde’s abrupt resignation from the New York police force and then shifts ahead three years and three days after Christmas as Kyle - now a traveling salesman who also performs some under-the-radar private investigations for his firm - prepares to check in at Hotel Dusk, a run-down, off-the-beaten-track hotel that has seen better days. 

The past three years have seen Kyle degenerate into a bitter, sarcastic misanthrope, haunted by the betrayal of his former partner who disappeared that night three years ago after a bullet fired from Kyle’s gun plunged him into the Hudson River.  Kyle has spent the past three years searching not only for the reasons behind the betrayal, but also for his partner, whose body was never recovered and who Kyle insists is still alive.

Little does Kyle realize that his life is about to change – for better or worse we won’t reveal – in unimaginable ways.  For as he signs the guest register at the front desk, Kyle is informed by the hotel owner that someone with the same name stayed at the hotel six months ago.  Aided by plausible plot twists and film noir visuals we are soon drawn into a world populated by secretive characters and ghosts from the past.

To create the effect that you are immersed in a printed mystery – and make no mistake, you will do a lot of reading in this game – you must turn and hold the DS sideways as you would an open book.  These vertical screens are not only handy for dual conversations and startling graphics that often that often slip off one screen and flow seamlessly onto the other, but are also instrumental in solving a few puzzles one of which is probably the most innovative and unique puzzle solution I have ever encountered (and which, after I accidentally stumbled upon the solution, wanted to smack myself in the forehead with a big ‘DUH’). 

Gameplay is new school point-and-click.  The stylus is used on the touch screen to draw the route you want Hyde to take, to search objects and collect inventory items, to knock on or open doors, to communicate with other characters, to advance conversations and to solve puzzles.  As you guide Kyle through the hotel the left screen is the hotel as seen through Kyle’s eyes and the right screen is a lay-out of the currently occupied area and if you want Kyle to walk faster you need only to touch the screen farther away from him to speed-up his progress.

Dialogues with other characters must be handled carefully as your selection of questions and responses can dictate not only the direction of the game but also be responsible for an abrupt and unexpected end to the game.  For this reason it is suggested that you not only save often, but that you also learn the temperaments of each character so that interrogations provide clues and progress the story. 

As there is an almost overwhelming amount of dialogue in the game, you would expect long, boring stretches of gameplay.  But thanks to the crispness of the dialogue and constantly emerging secrets of the supporting cast, there really is none.  There are moments when certain characters or plot twists threaten to slip into silliness, but the writers seem to realize when they threaten to veer from the boundaries of reality and rein in their imagination.  Kyle Hyde does suffer occasional moments when his dialogue lapses into a hard-boiled, Mickey Spillane/Mike Hammer cliché – you can almost imagine him speaking in a craggy, rasping, whiskey-soaked voice - but thankfully this is kept to a minimum.

Sound effects are limited, yet strangely efficient.  When the only sound for long stretches is the background music, it is jarringly effective to suddenly hear the ringing of a phone.  There is no spoken dialogue – most likely due to the limitations of the DS – but the writers have splendidly constructed well-defined characters – the bratty child, the grouchy hotel owner, the matronly housekeeper – who, though they all have been assigned common character traits that would satisfy most game writers, all harbor deep secrets that shape the true nature of their personalities and add further depth to their character. 

There are moments when the plot twists seemed as though they might be lifted from Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express but after all is said and done, I was truly pleased how the writers had not only tied together so many loose ends and storylines in such a believable fashion, but had also opened up new storylines while still providing a satisfying conclusion to the mystery at hand. 

What ties everything together though and sparks the game to life, are the stark, distinctive graphics featuring black-and-white simplistic, yet lifelike, etchings.  Their movements, sometimes across screens, are concise with not a wasted motion.  When these black-and-white characters are then placed against their brightly colored environments, they almost seem to pop off the screen.

Final Grade: A (find out more about our grading system)

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