"Why did you do it?" (Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS))

Member Name: MI9to5

Product:	Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS)
Date:	06/11/08 (141 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Intriguing and compelling

Disadvantages: No character voices

After buying my Nintendo DS just over a week ago I have since purchased Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and have been totally hooked on the game. That is until today when I finally finished the game.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is a fantastic detective style game that focuses around ex-police officer turned salesman/private detective Kyle Hyde and his one night stay in Hotel Dusk on the 28th December 1979.

Three Years previously Kyle was a member of the LAPD and after receiving a phone call that his partner Brian Bradley had turned on him and the rest of the police constabulary, Kyle went looking for him. Confronting him on the docks he pulled the trigger of his weapon and shot Bradley who fell into the waters. A body however was never recovered and since that day Kyle has been chasing shadows trying to find out anything and everything he can about Bradley's dealings. Why had he done it?

Now in December 1979 he has been sent to recover items that don't want to be found for a client and so with his front as a salesman and his boss Ed and his receptionist Rachel on the phone he sets of to Hotel Dusk to find the specified items. What he discovers however is far from what he expected but will the nights antics bring him any closer to answering the question that has plagued both his waking and sleeping moments since that fateful day three years ago.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is played by holding the DS like a book and using the stylus to navigate the world. The Right hand screen (the touch screen) contains an overhead view of the hotel, rather like a map, and it is by moving the stylus across this screen that you can make Kyle walk and interact with objects. What Kyle can see in front of him will be displayed on the left hand screen. Throughout conversations however a picture of the character Kyle is speaking to and their speech will replace the overhead view on the right hand screen. The right hand screen will also change to a picture of Kyle himself.

The game is very simple to navigate as at the bottom of the right hand screen are 4 boxes containing other options, which light up as necessary; a door symbol, a person symbol, a magnifying glass symbol and a notebook symbol. Clicking the door symbol when near a door will allow Kyle to interact with the door; either knock on it or open it. Clicking the person symbol near another character will begin a conversation with them and clicking the magnifying glass symbol will make Kyle take a closer look at something. The notebook symbol will either open Kyle's notebook or take you to the options menu where you can choose to look at the hotel map, read up about characters or save / load the game.

The graphics themselves are quite unique yet the simple style of rather unfinished looking drawings quickly grows upon you and is overall very effective. The characters also have a somewhat natural look too them despite the drawing sof them often being grey and sketchy.

It is this natural feel to both the characters appearances and they ways in which they interact with each other and Kyle that makes the game so impressive. Their unique characteristics are superbly designed to make the game interesting and intriguing. Intrigue also comes from the games nature itself, which is as you have probably guessed one of mystery as Kyle tries to untangle the web of information, secrets and lies that he learns over the course of the night.

The puzzles themselves aren't exceptionally difficult but do require the player to use their brain rather than simply relying on being told what to do. What I liked best about the game however was that I didn't find it too predictable. I hadn't cracked the mystery after thirty-minutes playing time and even at the end of the game found myself being shocked by some of the revelations that I had not expected.

Despite my praise however there is one bad thing about the game and that is the sound. The background music is quite irritating after you have played the game for a while and I found myself turning the sound on my DS off. Furthermore despite their being a lot of dialogue between the characters, none of them have an audible voice, which did annoy me a little as concentrating on all the text was a little hard-going at times.

Even with it's negative points, which I must add are greatly outnumbered by the positive aspects of the game, I would highly recommend it to other people. All in all the game took me nearly 26 hours to complete, which think is quite good and there are still some extra points within the game that I missed. For this reason I therefore think that the game does have a replay ability factor but could only be played once more after the original run through.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 can be readily purchased from most good game retailers as well as online. Bought new it costs around the £20 - £25 mark but can just as easily be bought pre-owned. My pre-owned copy cost me £14 and looked like it had never been played. All in all therefore this game is one I would with great enthusiasm recommend to all Nintendo DS owners that like a bit of mystery and intrigue.

Summary: A great game that will keep you hooked