Hotel Dusk: Room 215

"How would you like to refinance on your mortgage? *click* Hello?"

Stuff here with what the world needs now, Film Noir, sweet Film Noir That's the only thing, that there's just too little of. Hotel Dusk: Room 215, for the Nintendo DS.
So Kyle, are you feeling this sexual tension too?


Well, depends on who you ask, I suppose. Normally I would say yes; the smokey atmosphere, long brown dusters, and an assortment of Fedora's. Some dame with too much makeup on, in a slinky nightgown. One of those long cigarette holders in her mouth, and she kisses the cop and they both end up dead. Oh yeah, and people talking to themselves.

This game, Hotel Dusk, attempts to bring you that Film Noir feel. Does a pretty good job too. The odd characters, the mystery, the twists and turns of the plot. That smooth Jazz trombone and xylophone, lingering in the background. Smooth enough to make you want to take up smoking and coffee, just so you can really get interacted with the game.

Well, Hotel Dusk attempts to do that for you. Choices for your character to make in every conversation, puzzles left up for your stylus and you to figure out, and a couple of minigames to round things out. In my opinion, things don't get rounded out near enough.

Kyle Hyde's story is a familiar one, a former cop, running away from his dark past. But as most will come to know on this crazy ride called life; your past always catches up with you. An old Hotel in the mix, what's supposed to be a routine sale for Mr. Hyde turns into one mystery unraveling, then another, and then another. Until you start to realize this is no ordinary Hotel, and that there's no such thing as coincidence.

The story starts off too slow, and throughout the game Kyle Hyde has some weird conversations, assumptions, and is just plain nosey. I stick with the awkward moments, and sayings, playing along with the game trying to throw me off. But I've played the fool before, even slipped a couple Jokers in my hand. But just when I thought I'd had enough of the slow start, and the funky, boring puzzles. The coincidences start to show up, and the plot thickens (The plot does get more interesting, the score I give when all's said and done is due to the strange ways character's say and do things).

There's a lot to do, and sometimes, the game is not so forgiving on your choices. I got a game over early in the game, making the wrong choice on what to say. It was a coin flip, 50/50 chance. Tends to make a man paranoid, and think maybe this coin's hit the trouble train, and the engineer had one too many at happy hour. Not sure what I'm saying? Well get used to it pal, there's a heap o' strange sayings in this game.

The art style, graphics, and animations are a real treat. While the character animations don't change all that much, the grainy Film Noir style is easy to see. Hotel scenery is completely pixelated, and characters are hand-drawn, with several facial expressions, ranging from frustrated to confused, and amused. Some interesting cutscenes from Kyle's past are presented early in the game. However, these cut-scenes are really the only visual story-telling, and it's not long before you've seen the same events unfold so much that they lose their impact.

I struggle, with how to describe the gameplay. Because the story unfolds as it will, your few choices won't affect anything, and the minigames/puzzles made me feel like I wasn't really needed to complete them. Kyle is fully capable of putting things in his suitcase and taking things out. Kyle is fully capable of solving a really simple puzzle for a little kid. This game is presented like a Novel, so maybe it should have played more like one, where all you do is turn the pages and immerse yourself in the story. The interactivity, for me, was little to none.

Gameplay: D+
Audio: B+
Graphics: B+
Story: B

Replay Value: Average

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 04/07/09

Game Release: Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (US, 01/22/07)