Hotel Dusk is entirely a throwback to retro text based games, but with some promising DS gameplay that really shines. You play the game horizontally (Brain Age style) and only use the touch screen. By conversing with the local hotel guests, bits and pieces of the back story of the mysterious hotel come about, as well as parts of your own past.

You play as Kyle Hyde, a New York detective who’s in search of elusive information that has slipped away from his past. He’s been searching for his missing partner, Brian Bradley. Bradley was shot in a NYC docks in the ‘70s, and has been missing ever since. From the time when he was shot, Kyle has been living in Los Angeles, away from all his old friends and past memories.

The entire game takes place in the Hotel Dusk, a hole in the wall in Los Angeles. Kyle quit the force, and now is working for Red Crown, a company that “finds things that don’t want to be found”. Interesting.

You control Kyle through the hotel by using the stylus only. By reading through pages of dialogue from other characters, you try to find Bradley and discover what happened in the hotel’s past. Thankfully, all the characters are interesting and talk realistically. The writing in Hotel Dusk is spot on – characters use lingo from the ‘70s, and it doesn’t sound forced or fake.

Another one of Hotel Dusk’s strong points is the art direction – it’s one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. Characters are in a gritty pencil drawing style (much like the “Take on Me” music video) and they actually look like real people. The hotel is a little run down, and you can tell from the ugly paintings on the wall and torn up couches.

There is also some great DS innovation in Hotel Dusk. To take your detective notes, you actually take notes using the stylus. To open doors, you touch the doorknob, and knock on the doors in a similar fashion. It’s hard to believe that no one else has used the DS touch screen so well.

One of my particularly favorite parts of the game was the dialogue. I mentioned it earlier, but it really should be rewarded. I loved talking to the different characters and finding their reactions to my different responses. All of the dialogue was really well translated and localized for the American audience. All of the characters are gritty, down-to-earth, and simply have an intangible quality of being real. It’s as if you could find them in an apartment complex down the street.

Hotel Dusk isn’t without some weak points, though. The story can drag on a little bit, and the text moves pretty slow in some dialogue. And when you really break it down, it’s a little bit like a fetch quest to find other people. Essentially, it’s a little bit linear. However, it still is a fun and fresh DS experience.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Hotel Dusk is an impressive and innovative title for the DS. Perhaps there could be a regeneration of the text based adventure genre on the DS? For its great innovation and interesting art design, Hotel Dusk Room 215 gets an 8/10.