Beware of
stereotypes, they may be hiding something really cool.

Stereotype
1: Say the name, “Big Fish Games” and you could be forgiven
for thinking of an endless supply of Hidden
Object Games and variations of Jewel
Quest. But Hotel is a genuine, bona
fide adventure game. It was made by Cateia Games, which is a small
company in Croatia (note to Americans: Find Croatia now on the map
to earn the fourth shard). I had not heard of them myself, but their
web site shows quite a few games. You should go there and check them
out.

Stereotype 2: When I first
saw the plot for Hotel I rolled my eyes. Beautiful
NYPD detective with psychic sensitivities is sent to an old castle
in France built by the Knights Templar where she discovers an ancient
cult and a mystical artifact which will allow its owner to rule the
world. Gee, that’s never been done before…TO DEATH!

But
I set my prejudices aside for the moment and started playing. And
I found a very nice game.

The first thing you will
notice from the screen shots is that the graphics are very nice. I
can’t say that they were especially atmospheric, but they are very
pretty. Good, professional effort.

The sound was also pretty
and attempted to set the mood. No great orchestration, just simple
background ambient chords. There were attempts to sound dramatic in
places, but for what ever reason I was not particularly moved. But,
as I said, it was nice and there was nothing audible which distracted
from the game.

There
is no voice acting, all dialog is through captions. This worked just
fine and I personally prefer this to voices which don’t quite get
it.

The puzzles were a combination
of logical and inventory and they were all fair. Clues were there
to be found and if a hot spot was rather small, it was helped along
with a small sparkle. Overall, they were quite enjoyable.

The game play is very good.
The interface is point-and-click. The hot spots are generous, but
just in case there are two helps. If a spot is particularly small,
there is a small star which occasionally blinks over it. There is
also a Hint button which highlights all hot spots on the screen.

The
game progresses very nicely – it is usually obvious what needs
to be done next. There is a bit to explore, but it never overwhelms
and you don’t have to cross the entire country time and again on errands.
The story, such as it is, unfolds at a good pace.

It is the story line where
the game gets a little silly. I won’t get into many details, but there
are many plot devices brought into the game which are never developed.
For example, the detective is supposed to be sensitive to psychic
phenomena. Good, there are games out there based solely on this premise.
But her ability allows her to have a couple of lucid dreams at the
beginning and that is it. We never see it at work again. The result
is a story which feels rushed and trite in several places. However,
it does hold your interest and the ending was fine.

The
biggest complaint you could bring against Hotel is
that it is a bit short – it can be played in ten to fifteen
hours. However, it only costs $7. (Webmaster’s note:
At Big Fish, $6.99 is the Big
Fish Game Club price [PC/Mac]; otherwise, it’s $9.99. The game
may also be downloaded at Amazon
Digital [PC, US only] for $6.99.)

Putting it all together,
you have a very nice, short, game at a very good price. It was fun
to play and I would like to see more from Cateia Games.

PC System Requirements:

• Operating system: Windows
  XP/Vista/Windows 7
• 1 GHZ CPU
• 256 MB RAM
• 350 MB Hard disc space
• Sound: Any Sound Card
• 32 MB 3D video card
• DirectX®9

Mac System Requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.4. or higher
• Intel or PPC

iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad:

• OS 3.0 or later