"The most exciting and gripping story in a game I've come across in a long time"

This is a point-and-click type adventure game, in which you play ex-cop Kyle Hyde who is looking for his missing partner. You are staying in a small, run down hotel, whose guests' stories, although seemingly unrelated, end up intriguingly entwined.

Graphics~ 8/10
The pencil drawn characters which inhabit this game are quirky and original and stand up to a lot of watching them without getting boring. They work nicely with the background of the game, and give the game a lot of character. The items that you pick up look quite realistic and also work well. The basic map on the right screen (if you are playing right handed) isn't beautiful, but it serves its purpose. The only complaint I have to make about the graphics is that the first person view that shows on the left screen when you are walking around can be quite pixellated and the characters tend to look flat and imprecise. However, having said this, it gives the game a great deal more depth than it would have if the only view of the hotel was the map.

Sound~ 9/10
There are about twenty-thirty different songs that play in this game. Depending on which character you're talking to, where you are in the hotel, and what situation you're in, the mood of the music changes. Personally, I enjoyed the songs that played, and I thought they were quite individual, however I can certainly imagine that many people would find them quite irritating. Apart from the music, there are not many sound effects other than the humming sound of speech and the opening and closing of doors, both of which are used quite effectively.

Gameplay~ 9/10
There are two main parts to the gameplay. One is walking around the hotel finding and using items, and one is conversation. When you are looking around the hotel, you have the option to zoom in on some part of the room, and then look individually at some items. A strength of the game is that you can examine objects which don't have a significance to the story. It isn't like some games where you know what to pick up because it is the only thing that you can select. I think that this part of the game is pretty well designed, although moving around only on the map can sometimes get a bit tedious.

Conversations in the game are quite well designed in that you have a certain amount of choice in what you say and what questions you ask. This makes it seem much less linear, although in actual fact most of the time one choice will allow you to progress through the conversation, and one will either earn you a game over or a loop back to the same choice. This makes it seem much less linear than it actually is, but it works so hey =D
Overall, the gameplay is very slow, but it more than makes up for it in story and dialogue (which is excellent).

Story~ 10/10
Excellent. It really draws you in, and makes you want to know what happens next. It's fairly complicated, and teasing the truth out of the various guests at the hotel is pretty satisfying, if long-winded. It is, especially towards the end a very exciting story, and in my opinion the climax does it justice.

Difficulty~ Medium
The game isn't particularly difficult, the puzzles can take a bit of working out and some of the conversation choices are tricky, but overall it's fairly straightforward. Most of the difficulty is in knowing where to go next, this is because sometimes there are things that you can't find, or take, until you have done something else, which can be somewhat off-putting. I think it's about the right difficulty- its not so easy that you'll fly through it, but its not so hard to have you giving up.

Overall~ 10/10
I think this is an excellent game, which is definitely worth buying if you have a little bit of patience. It's not completely flawless, but in my opinion the good bits make up for it, and I wouldn't be doing it justice if I didn't give it 10/10.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/15/08

Game Release: Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (EU, 04/13/07)