The Obscure DS Game Corner - Hotel Dusk: Room 215

What with exams and revision taking over my life lately, I've found less and less time for 'hardcore' console games. So I've naturally been drawn towards the Nintendo DS, and it's expansive library of bite sized adventures. Now, I would still definitely consider myself a 'hardcore gamer', so I'm only playing games I deem suited to my style, and not patronising. In the hopefully-regular blog, I'd like to write about an obscure, mature, 'hardcore' DS game I've been playing. This week, I'm going to start with what could well prove to be my favourite game on the system for the foreseeable future; Hotel Dusk: Room 215.

You play boozy ex-cop Kyle Hyde, who quit the job after shooting his partner. He's now a salesman, but he works for an old contact of his from the force. If this doesn't sold film noir enough yet, it's set in 1979, it's all in a beautiful black and white art style, and you're looking for someone- the aforementioned partner. Now, if you're the kind of person that found the cut scenes in Gears of War 2 too boring and drawn out, this is most certainly not the game for you. It clocked in, for me, at a meaty 17 hours of gameplay, which was comprised of about 90% talking to people, and 10% puzzle solving. And that is a LOT of talking.

So it's good that the dialogue is just so good. You'll question whether this really was made in Japan, as the classic American detective delivers cutting one liners so perfectly fitting the tone of the game, and the film noir genre it represents alone on the DS, that you'll think it had to be penned by an American mystery novelist. The story is superb, and, despite a slow start (read; VERY slow start) really gets its hooks into you, and it does come to a very satisfying conclusion, with, surprisingly, alternate endings. If you're looking for a good mystery novel, and you own a DS, you might just be better off picking this up. To reinforce just how like a book the game is, you hold the DS on its side, in the style of Brain Training. You really get into the zone with the game after a while, and you'll be surprised at how quickly your playtime clocks up, as you get into a 'just one more plot reveal' kind of thinking.

The puzzles are good, too, and are very much grounded in the real world, with the most 'outrageous' thing you have to do being, very minor spoilers, breaking down a wall with a hammer. They're logical, and some make great use of the system, some even requiring you the close the DS and open it again. Perhaps because they are so logical, they are a little easy, but it felt to me as if the puzzles were there to intersperse the plot development, rather than the other way around.

All in all, Hotel Dusk is a great play/read, and one that you will struggle to put down after the first hour or so. It features easily the most mature story on the DS (and by mature, I don't mean violent or with sexual content…) and some of the best developed characters in any game I've played. However, the admittedly crawling pace will be a (perhaps justifiable) turnoff for those with shorter attention spans. But that would be a shame, as those who get into it are sure to find a rewarding, lengthy adventure with a great ending. It's also cheap now, being over two years old, so it's definitely worth a try if you like your games to have a little more brains than they do brawn. Now, to close with a terrible pun, this is one hotel you won't want to check out of! A-ha.