I needed this.
After about 3 weeks of action adventure games, I wanted nothing more than to curl up on a couch, parsing through some text in a narrative heavy adventure. Hotel Dusk delivered upon that and more. It wasn't long before I was hooked by the deepening mysteries of not just the central narrative, but of all of these distinct characters interacting with one another in this overarching tale where everyone's struggling to find some meaning in their trials and tribulations. Coupled with its animated and hand drawn character visuals and classy noir tunes, Hotel Dusk feels and plays like a fantastically engrossing and cohesive mystery novel with practically every loose end tied up at its culmination. There are some rough edges with certain touch screen puzzles due to their solutions/controls (though the majority of them are serviceable at worst and still thoughtful at best) and many potential game overs if you don't keep track of the bigger picture, the overall experience is more than enough to make up for these chinks in the armor. This is a great hidden gem, most definitely one of many among the DS's expansive library, and you owe it to yourself to give this tightly constructed mystery a run through. I am absolutely looking forward to playing Last Window in the near future.
After about 3 weeks of action adventure games, I wanted nothing more than to curl up on a couch, parsing through some text in a narrative heavy adventure. Hotel Dusk delivered upon that and more. It wasn't long before I was hooked by the deepening mysteries of not just the central narrative, but of all of these distinct characters interacting with one another in this overarching tale where everyone's struggling to find some meaning in their trials and tribulations. Coupled with its animated and hand drawn character visuals and classy noir tunes, Hotel Dusk feels and plays like a fantastically engrossing and cohesive mystery novel with practically every loose end tied up at its culmination. There are some rough edges with certain touch screen puzzles due to their solutions/controls (though the majority of them are serviceable at worst and still thoughtful at best) and many potential game overs if you don't keep track of the bigger picture, the overall experience is more than enough to make up for these chinks in the armor. This is a great hidden gem, most definitely one of many among the DS's expansive library, and you owe it to yourself to give this tightly constructed mystery a run through. I am absolutely looking forward to playing Last Window in the near future.