Old style gaming without violence (Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS))

Member Name: julwhite

Product:	Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS)
Date:	29/04/09 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A deep and atmospheric game

Disadvantages: Possibly a bit wordy and linear in gameplay

Hotel Dusk : Room 215 is a detective and puzzle game for the Nintendo DS. It reminds me of games I used to play on the Amiga which were essentially point and click adventure games, where the game play and storyline was relatively set but gave the player lots of different options to explore the world built up by the programmers.

The game appealed to me, as I'm really not that good at games which involve fighting other characters and jumping from platform to platform with precision timing, primarily as I'm hopeless at them and progress takes a long time.

The plot is important to the game, and you take the role of the main character, Kyle Hyde, and you have to track down your missing friend by exploring the hotel. The game is set in 1979, in Los Angeles.

In terms of game play, you will have to like reading to enjoy playing this game. There is a lot of it, and it would be fair to say that the product is more of an interactive book than a game in the way that many gamers would be used to. Like the old Amiga games that I mentioned earlier, the story line is linear and although there are options and puzzles to resolve, you will have to follow the plot line through.

Graphics wise, there are some superb drawings and the different angles to add atmosphere to the game. The graphics being in black and white seemed to me to quite a brave thing to do, and although there is some colour, the black and white images do work and they work well in my opinion.

The game is currently just over fifteen pounds on Amazon, but you may be able to find it cheaper by shopping around. Although how long the game takes to play will of course vary from person to person, I'd estimate that it will take a good twenty hours of game playing to complete, so it's not an expensive option given the amount of time you'd spend playing it.

Overall therefore, the game won't appeal to many due to the sheer weight of text in the game, but I enjoyed it. I also hope that this genre of game is continued, involving more thought than shooting ability!

Summary: A definite buy if you've a fan of this genre