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Wonderfull story, Not so wonderfull gameplay.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I really enjoyed Hotel Dusk in almost every aspect. The game is basiclly a sort of interactive novel, Tons of dialog in this game make for quite the story line. It feels almost like a mystery/detective novel but with a phycological thriller twist thrown into play. The characters you meet throughout the story are well thought of and really interesting. Each one has there own story to tell and puzzles to be solved. The art style is amazing, I have never seen any game look this good on the DS system. The animations when you interact with characters are spot on, They convey emotions and it really puts a realism into the game. The music is brilliant, I really do love it. I even went as far as to get the OST for this game and put it on my mp3 player. It is perfectly fitting for the vibe the game creates. As far as actual "game-play" goes, You have your puzzles and small "quests". Each one is pretty easy but i did find myself looking on the net for help at a few parts. The only problem with the puzzles is there is not enough of them. You spend alot more time talking to characters and interogating them than you do solving puzzles. They could and should have atleast doubled the amount of puzzles/mini games in it. Made more use of the touch screen and mic. They did do some uniqe things however that I have not seen on other DS games. Overall this is a really solid title. If you are a fan of books I think you will love this. I know I did. The replayability of this game is nearly non-existant however, Altho im sure in 5 years or so I will want to play it again (not a bad thing really). The Joystiq guys put this well when they called it a "choose your own adventure interactive novel" . Just trust me on this and buy this game. I played it for several weeks every night for a few hours.. Its a long game so you do get your moneys worth. Have fun!

Awesome mystery!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: February 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have nothing bad to say about this game. Good story, multiple endings and long enough to get your money's worth. The replay value on this is very high as well which makes this game a winner

Great game for adventure/mystery lovers with puzzles

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is a great game that incorporates a 3D atmosphere on the left(top) screen of the DS and a map overview on the right(bottom) screen. You gather objects that you can use to investigate things that you become curious about as the character progresses through the story. Cut scenes are presented in either slideshow format or something of an animation done with few images. This does not take away from the game but instead adds to the games atmosphere. I suggest this game for people who like Pheonix Wright but are looking for something more adventure oriented. The game takes a while to complete, and sometimes you may find yourself frustrated, but there are chapters that enable you to save and come back to a part of the chapter you left off, as if you stopped reading the story and came back and are now able to view what you might have forgotten. The stylus is used much in the game to choose objects to present to people and move around the Hotel. The thumb pad is able to be used but only to a certain point.
The only reason I give this game 4 stars for overall and 5 stars for fun is because if you have the original Nintendo DS things sometimes may not be as clear if you were to instead use the DS Lite. There animations, although may seem primitive, are definitely well used and produced in the game. I suggest anyone who like adventure games with an indepth story to it to buy this game. This is one of those games up there with Killer7 in the sense of its depth and Pheonix Wright in the sense that it can be humorous at times.
Graphics: 5 (very detailed graphics on the left screen when you walk around)
Sound: 4 (atmospheric music fits very well with each scene, although sometimes a song may seem repetitive)
Story: 5 (very indepth and interesting, and utilizes the puzzles and objects you collect VERY well)
Gameplay: 5 (Hotel Dusk utilizes both the top screen and bottom screen of the DS in a unique way: you turn the DS sideways and use the stylus on the bottom screen to direct where you want to move and the left screen is a 3D first person perspective of what you see and look at around you)
Overall: 4 (GREAT game, but there were times where I had to get some help from GameFAQS, but it is definitely a game I will keep for a long time)

Another excellent title and worthy spiritual sequel from the makers of Trace Memory

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

An enthralling experience, it feels like you're reading a good novel, but with interactive elements. The characters are very well-written, their dialog suits them perfectly. There are some spots where the action grinds to a halt, when you're clueless as what to do next, but then you have this "Eureka" moment (your mileage may vary :)

Overall, a very recommendable game to the intellectual gamer with long attention spans

We need a second one!!,

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Yes we do indeed, because this game is so great. It leaves you wanting more. Well, it did me anyway. It took me 4 days to complete so it's just about long enough without been too long. But I wouldn't of minded playing for longer. I won't go into the story, as you can read the other reviews for yourself. But it really should be owned by everyone who has a DS Lite. It reminds me a lot of 'Titanic - Adventure out of time. Which is an old PC game. Ive played the first 2 Phoenix Wright's also, and this game is on a level with those, as been my 3 favourite games that I own.

Walking around the hotel and getting to know people and their stories is great. And i agree with another reviewer, it is a bit like LOST where the characters lives and pasts all seem to have something to do with one another. Sometimes, when you question people, you can go for the nice questions (which you should do or it's game over)! or the harsh ones, and telling a little girl that it was her fault her mother left was so tempting! I know i'm evil, but I didnt. So the story is so clever, and the way the characters are drawn are so clever, definately reminds me of the video for Take on Me by A-HA.

I must also say that when I read the reviews in the uk before buying, I noticed the ones that said you would need to be near a computer to read walkthroughs, because you'd definately get stuck, and i was like 'oh no, i'm good at these game, i won't need no walkthrough.' Well, i did - 4 times!! :) So my big head is back to normal now. I recommend the same for you guys, be prepared to get stuck a few times and need help.

I don't understand the people who criticise this game for it's amount of dialogue. What do they expect? It's a detective game, detectives have to ask questions and learn about people's lives. So of course there would be a lot of stuff to read. But I loved learning about characters lives. I'm now awaiting the third Phoenix Wright installment, and I know I will love that too!!

Buy this game, immiediately!

Great until you get stuck

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: February 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is great when it's great. The noir stylization is well considered, it makes great use of a lot of the DS's functionality, but there are certain moments when the next step in the story is so obfuscated that it becomes hard to move on. I've currently been stuck at one part of the story for almost a fruitless hour, which makes the game less fun for playing during a commute.

So, the game is really good, I'm happy to see something this sophisticated for the DS, just know there are some awkwardly difficult moments in the game.

Hotel Dusk

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: February 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I enjoy this game very much. If you don't like text based games this isnt the game for you. I love them and wish there were more. I finished both Phoenix Wright games and Trace Memory. I hope more come out soon.

sleeping pill

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: April 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game is fun and unique. However, the dialogue is kinda slow, and you can't speed it up by pressing a button. Sometimes you get stuck and just do nothing over and over, till I have to read a walkthrough faq online.. And one funny thing is, It makes you fall asleep. I like to play at night, and everytime I play on bed after like 15 minutes, I can hardly keep my eyes open. I have to struggle to continue the dialogue and save, but I wake up in the morning with the game still on. Is like I took a magic sleepign pill, I have never felt so sleepy that I can't stay up to press some buttons before I can 'save'!.

I've played worse.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: November 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I won't say that Hotel Dusk is a bad game, but it's not a great game either, which is a shame because it wants to be so much better than it is.

The plot is simple enough at the outset. The story takes place in 1979, and centers around an ex-New York City cop turned travelling salesman named Kyle Hyde who's spending the night at a hole in the wall called Hotel Dusk. He's spent the last few years in search of his ex-partner, Bradley, last seen taking a header into the Hudson River after Kyle was forced to shoot him for going rogue, but Kyle's hunch is that Bradley's not dead. As the story progresses, Kyle gets to know the other patrons of the hotel, and discovers that not only are their lives intertwined with one another's, but with his own as well.

The story is beautifully written; there's plenty of humor to be had, the characters are extraordinarily well-developed, and although the dialogue occasionally lays on the 1970's American cop-movie stereotypes a little thick for my taste, the fact that Hotel Dusk was originally developed and released in Japan shows that the designers clearly did their homework. (It's not always clear whether Hotel Dusk is meant as an homage or a parody, though, because although it's clear that the designers took great pains to intertwine the characters' backstories, at times it feels like they're stretching credibility just a bit.) The game also makes good use of the DS's touch-screen capabilities, including an option to play either right- or left-handed, a necessity since the DS is meant to be held sideways, like a book; and it supports the Rumble Pak, although in such a weirdly limited fashion that I have to wonder why the designers bothered at all--if you don't have one already, don't bother buying it for this game, because honestly, you won't miss it. But truly, especially when compared to other games, the dialogue and story are what make Hotel Dusk shine.

So what's my problem with the game? I actually have a few. First, at the end of each chapter, the game requires the player to take a short quiz on everything that's happened so far (something that gamers familiar with Cing's previous DS title, Trace Memory, will find familiar). At first, it seems innocuous enough; but after second or third quiz, they just seem silly and even a little bit insulting, especially since they don't seem all that useful in keeping the player up to speed. This is compounded by the fact that the designers provide the player with an in-game notebook for just this purpose, although with only three "free" pages--the rest are used for puzzles and such--your space is extremely limited. (Also, although the player is supposed to simply write things down with the stylus as if on a piece of scrap paper, the game tends to make your handwriting look worse than it actually is. My advice: Write large!) Another issue is with the way the game handles conversations. Frequently, in the course of talking to another character, the conversation comes to a halt and the player has to choose one of two possible responses; while this does help the conversation to maintain a more natural flow, if the choice you make turns out to be wrong, it's entirely possible that the game could end right then and there, or at least damage your relationship with said character. Besides, some of the conversations are pretty long, another reason why the ability to save in mid-conversation would be handy. My biggest beef, though, is with one puzzle in particular, which sees Kyle locked in a room in the basement with his oxygen running out. The game assumes that the player has picked up a certain item in an earlier chapter; if not, the puzzle becomes a great deal more difficult, involving lots of tedious guesswork, and at least one save-and-restore since Kyle will most likely suffocate before the player stumbles across the solution. It wouldn't be so irritating if the item in question weren't so easy to overlook. Similarly, another puzzle requires you to walk past a certain point in a hallway; since that point happens to lie right next to the wall, the player can walk past it a thousand times without ever activating it. While I have to give Cing credit for avoiding the "walking dead" scenario (which I consider a hallmark of bad puzzle design), these instances still seem needlessly annoying.

Like Trace Memory, Hotel Dusk has several endings, depending on actions you've taken over the course of the game, as well as a "starred" game which is essentially a replay of the same game but with minor differences. Unfortunately, Hotel Dusk seems like a step backward from its predecessor; for all its triumphs as a work of fiction, as a game, it falls somewhat flat. I won't say it's not worth playing, but I can't say I'd recommend paying full-price for it.

S-L-O-W by today's standards

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 10
Date: March 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Boring. I bought this game because it seemed neat that it was a myster story and you had to hold it like a book. Oh, boy is it like a book! If you like comic book mysteries you might enjoy this more than I did. It just takes so long to get to the point. Talking and talking.... and talking-- and you have to press the darned button after ever sentence! I'm used to Adventure of Zelda-- this just plods along, no real action, the most suspense is when you pass someone in the hallway. The ONLY reason I'm still trying to play it is out of pride-- and I paid [...]for it.

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