Retro Review – Hotel Dusk Room 215

<p>Visual novels found a great home on Nintendo&&num;8217&semi;s DS and <em>Hotel Dusk Room 215<&sol;em> is no different&period; This is a great&comma; lengthy&comma; mystery visual novel that everyone should get their hands on&period; Nintendo released this title January 22&comma; 2007 in North America and it was developed by Cing&period; It even got sequel but it was unfortunately only released on the other side of the pond&period; This is in part due to Cing going out of business soon after releasing <em>Last Window&colon; The Secret of Cape West<&sol;em> so they weren&&num;8217&semi;t able to get it published in the US&period; Luckily the DS isn&&num;8217&semi;t region locked so I will be enjoying the further adventures of Kyle Hyde in a few weeks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story drives everything forward and it sets itself apart from many other point-and-click games immediately at the start&period; The setting is in a hotel in Los Angeles in 1979&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not just any hotel though&semi; this is Hotel Dusk and it&&num;8217&semi;s said to have a room that grants wishes&period; You play as Kyle Hyde&comma; an ex police officer with a dark past that now finds himself as a traveling salesman&period; You find yourself at this hotel at the behest of your boss and to track down your one time partner&comma; Brian Bradley&period; As you explore the hotel you meet the other guests and slowly discover that everyone staying at the hotel is tied to one another by chance&period; Each chapter allows you to close out one mystery only to see another larger one in the future&period; The game does a nice job of tying everything up in a nice little bow&period; I won&&num;8217&semi;t be the one to tie that bow for you though&&num;8230&semi; you&&num;8217&semi;ll just have to spend a night at Hotel Dusk&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;120356" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-120356" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-120356" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;02&sol;26142330&sol;Hotel-Dusk-2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Hotel Dusk Room 215 - Nintendo&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-120356" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Hotel Dusk Room 215<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Nintendo&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Being a visual novel&sol;point-and-click adventure game there really isn&&num;8217&semi;t that much to boast about or describe in terms of gameplay&period; The one neat concept that Cing used though was the fact that you have to open your DS as a book to play the game&period; On the touch-screen you control Hyde with the stylus through the hotel in a top down perspective&period; On the 2nd screen you see what Hyde sees&comma; the doors&comma; windows&comma; guests and other points of interest as he travels the hallways&period; When you are in a room searching for clues there&&num;8217&semi;s a magnifying glass icon for points of interest&comma; click on this and you are brought into a close-up of the area where you can shuffle through items to find out what is important to your cases&period; Cing has found unique ways to use the touch screen by making certain interactions different than any other game&comma; you have to double click on items to pick them up&comma; you can bowl via the touch screen and so on&period; They kept it very interesting and they were insanely creative with the puzzles and interactions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What I really enjoyed was the artistic look of this game&semi; all the animations look to have been hand drawn and really nail everyone&&num;8217&semi;s emotions perfectly&period;  The style reminds me of an animator I use to see on television every now and then named Bill Plympton&comma; except the game keeps most of the characters in black and white&period; Plympton used colored pencils for a majority of the animations and art he would make and <em>Hotel Dusk<&sol;em> follows that look&period; I also enjoyed the music in this game&period; Throughout your entire stay you will be accompanied by music&comma; and it just fits so well&period; After hearing it for several hours you realize how much fun a life soundtrack would be&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m sure mine would be filled with lots of Wahh&comma; Wahh&&num;8217&semi;s&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;120357" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-120357" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-120357" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;02&sol;26142418&sol;Hotel-Dusk&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Hotel Dusk Room 215 - Nintendo&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-120357" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Hotel Dusk Room 215<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Nintendo&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>If you use to love the point and click adventures of yesteryear then this is the title for you&period; This title does lack most of the humor from fan favorite point and click adventures&comma; but what it lacks in humor is carries in mystery and intrigue&period; While it does have somewhat of a slow start the last few chapters really pick up and begin to tie all the lose ends together&period; I loved the artistic style&comma; the time period&comma; the characters and just the overall feel of this title&period; When you need a break from all the huge intense set piece games that have grossly large shoulders&comma; then <em>Hotel Dusk<&sol;em> is the game for you&period; It is a nice pause from the glut of shooters and high impact games that we get now&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;