Backloggd Review: Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Originally written on Backloggd
I don't really know how to feel about this game in total. I played with an instant text cheat and with a walkthrough, and I know for certain that without those I wouldn't have finished it, and so I can't help but think it's really flawed at its core. The walkthrough part maybe wouldn't have been necessary, but I think there's quite a few pieces that wouldn't have felt as smooth to play or would've been really tedious to find. Mostly in terms of requiring specific items that normally you'd only find by scouring every detail of the environment, which would be even slower than the game already is. However, I can't help but really love the rest of the game honestly. The mood and tone is just so well set, with the hotel's environment, all of the sketchy character portraits, and the tone of the dialogue. The music is great as well, though I'd say that suffers a bit from DS crunchiness as well as the game tending to switch around a lot so you only hear the first 10 seconds of stuff a lot of the time. As mentioned, the basic gameplay is kind of lacking, because it's slow, and there's really not much thought you need to put into it. You scour the environment, talk to people, and do very simple puzzles (or in one case near the end a super obtuse puzzle). But I think it's weirdly nice to be able to walk around and look around the hotel. And similarly, while it changes literally nothing, the conversation interruptions and questions add just enough dynamism that it feels a bit more like a conversation. So I think in the end I do enjoy the fact that it's interactive, and think it wouldn't work as well as a visual novel or anything - I feel like it'd take away from the sense of space the hotel gives, and the sense of interrogation the conversations have. Also it does know how to pull off some fun tricks, like when you have to sneak around by a different route with Mila from Rosa's room to not get caught by Dunning in chapter 9, I think.
As for the story, I think it was a really solid mystery! The mystery itself is satisfying to uncover and solve, and I think it's really good in just about setting up the next reveal so you kind of feel like you're uncovering it. Like, they confirm every step right after you've just figured it out and are pretty sure of it. The structure is really nice as well, with everything revealing itself to be tied together. However, I like that while they're all connected together, they're not all integral to the core mystery. Helen and Summer are both looking for Alan, who is connected with Nile to the core mystery, and Kevin & Melissa and Iris are looking for Grace who is connected with Nile and Dunning as well. So it creates a nice sense of interconnectedness while not feeling too conveniently well-connected or way too tangled up of a mystery. But I do like how they still have hints and stuff to certain mysteries that you learn from other storylines, like the introduction of Osterzone and the angel painting comes through Summer's bookmark (curse that box :kyle:) even though he's not at all connected to it. So I think in that sense it'd benefit from a replay so you can pick up on all the little clues they leave early on, not necessarily as hints as much as they're just seeds planted in your brain so you pick up on stuff easier later on. As for the actual story of the story, I guess the mystery is pretty standard, but I really think the focus lies on the characters. They feel very typical for a kind of noir 1970s detective story, but ultimately I think they're all really three dimensional and feel... real. It seems like they're all genuine characters who struggle with their life and are searching for answers, and while by the end things are not perfect, they're learned stuff and made a next step, but still have further to go. In a worse story, I think they all would've had a perfect happy ending and I think that would've felt so much worse, and so much less personal and touching. Similarly, in a worse story, Kyle would've been the stereotypical alcoholic bigot who hates people who then turns around. But while he's gruff, irritable and damaged, from the start he wants to find answers, not just for himself, but for others, because he wants to help them.
I dunno, I think this story was more affecting than I expected for myself, and the more I think about it, the more I really appreciate it. So yeah, I think it's a really interesting little game, just make sure to play it with cheats and look up a walkthrough whenever you have even the most remote amount of challenge.