"Even small problems can't bring this title down!"

Last year I bought a game called Trace Memory and I loved every minute of it. The artwork, the style and the story were all just superb. So naturally when I found out that Cing, the company responsible for Trace Memory, had come out with another game, I was quite eager to pick it up.

If you haven't played Trace Memory here's a quick summary of what kind of game it is. You control a girl named Ashley as you explore a mysterious mansion. You solve riddles, find clues, and through your persistence and efforts a complex and emotional story unravels itself bit by bit. Aided by a ghost named D, you work your way through the mansion till you get to the final shocking conclusion. It's played out a lot like a book with chapter breaks and A LOT of dialogue. It's a little hokey at times, and there's defiantly a slight sci-fi element towards the end, but the thing that saved this game so much is how well written it is.

So now a year later in comes Hotel Dusk: Room 215. I had a lot of expectations for this game and they were all blown away. This game takes the “search for clues” style of game play that was established in Trace Memory and ups the ante a bit. Some improvements include the introduction of 3-D environments. Trace Memory had 3-D hallways and rooms you walked through, but you could only search pre-rendered scenes of these gorgeous rooms. In this game you can actually see everything in 3-D and the textures and detail are astounding. You control Kyle Hyde via the touch-screen on a 2-D map, and on the other screen is a 3-D representation of what he's seeing.

To drive the detective novel aspect of the game home you'll actually hold the DS on it's side as if you were holding a book. This gives you a larger viewing screen for the characters you'll meet. In Trace Memory the characters never moved. You saw pre-drawn stills, with specific poses for how the character was feeling. In Hotel Dusk there is actual animation on the characters. The sketch-book style drawings come to life and actually gesture, shuffle, wince, smile and cry as you interact with them. And talk about a FULL cast of characters! Trace Memory had only 6 characters you ever met in the entire game, and for the most part you only had 1 in which you could talk to. Hotel Dusk is much deeper and more complicated. Each character has their own back story and problem. As you proceed through the game you'll have to listen carefully to what they say, interrupt them when something important comes up, and occasionally have to weed out the lies they're spewing.

The writing is top-notch too. Kyle Hyde is you're average hard-boiled 50's style detective. He says things bluntly and uses peculiar slang (such as “gotta get all your ducks in a row”). To some people he might come off as a bit of a jerk, but if you're familiar with the old Film Noir detective you'll come to understand his personality better. Each character has their own way of speaking. The wanna-be writer likes to speak in prose, the old lady talks sweet, and the busy busy maid is always ready to chew your ear off. At first people don't really care for you, but as you make your way through the lies and situations that spring up, they come to trust you better.

I mentioned that the game is set up in chapters. The usual layout of the game will involve you setting out with a specific task you need to do, but then getting interrupted by some other event. After a couple of sleuthing, you'll eventually have to interrogate someone. If you do a bad job you'll lose the game, so it's very important that you read carefully. The interrogation involves them telling you something, and you guessing one of two choices. If you choose wrong you'll loose, and while most of these choices are pretty straight forward, some of them are really tough and I had to play through several times before I got it right.

When you come across a clue of some kind, occasionally it prompts a “mini-game” where you'll have to do a specific event, which can range from sharpening a pencil to rewinding an audio cassette. I've heard people say that the controls in these games are a little lacking, but I didn't have any problems with them. They were all pretty straightforward to me.

Trace Memory was a very short game. You could beat it in 3 hours MAX if you knew exactly what you're looking for. You can't say the same for Hotel Dusk. This game is LONG. Each chapter taking up a good hour or two to complete. There's 10 chapters in all, and I found my ticker running up to the 18 hour mark by the end. People who loved Trace Memory but thought it was too short will definitely be happy with this game. I know I was. However, this length brings me to the one thing that bothers me about the game.

Like most chose-your-own-way stories, you're not really choosing your own way. What you are doing in reality is being led very carefully through a precisely planned plot. This being the case, there were a few times when I found myself jumping ahead and not being able to do what I would naturally LIKE to do. For example (no spoilers) early in the game you break your key to your suitcase. You comment that you need a wire to pick it. Being the detective that I am I immediately found a wire and used it, but found it was too small. I needed a “thick” wire to get that lock picked. My immediate reaction was to FIND a thick wire. And I did with the coat-hanger behind me. I could click on it, and Kyle would remark that it might be useful, but nothing would happen. I would spend hours on end trying to find ways to get that damn coat-hanger off the wall to no avail. Finally I gave up and continued with the story only to find that the SOLUTION was in the second chapter!

What really bugged me about this game is that I always knew what I WANTED to do, but could never do it because I had to instigate an “event” before it would allow me to do it. Like the coat-hanger incident, I found myself spending hours just roaming the halls trying to find the person I needed to talk to so I could continue the story. I would pace up and down the halls knocking on every door, hoping that ONE of them would start that event that I needed to get the story moving. This was the ONLY thing that bugged me. Towards the end of the game I started to get a sixth sense of how it all worked and was able to pin-point the events better, but at the start of the game I had a real struggle.

Be careful when playing this game around other people. My girlfriend tried to talk to me when I was at the final conclusion of the entire game and I answered her rather curtly. Sure I was just playing a “game,” but being interrupted at that point is like watching a really involved movie and right before the chilling climax you get a phone call and have to pause it. It's hard to get back into the “zone” you were in after that.

In the end, the game's story makes up for it's shortcomings. The animation is fantastic, the plot is long and complicated, the characters are all believable and fun, the artwork is just superb and beautiful, and the game just keeps throwing in twist after twist right up to the very end. I am really happy with this game. It may not be as colorful and as emotional as Trace Memory was, but it's still a great story that'll keep you entertained for a LONG time. Plus it has 3 save slots compared to the 2 on Trace Memory! Woo! I can let my friends play and not worry about them accidentally saving over my game!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/21/07