The skinny on Hotel Dusk:
- Slow start, but it introduces you to many characters along the way, making it interesting.
- The actual in game graphics are muddy as hell to give it a painting look, but the cutscenes and stuff like that are quite stylish and approachable.
- The adventure gameplay is pretty good. It's standard point and click, with logic based puzzles through character interaction, rather than stupid "put the square into the square hole!" Resident Evil breed. Which is a good thing.
- Solving puzzles utilizes the stylus in interesting ways, like picking a lock with a thick piece of wire. It's not anything innovative, but the puzzles for the most part utilize the DS's touch features in some neat ways.
- The story is pretty interesting, to say the least. It's got a noir vibe going on, and honestly, the game feels like Silent Hill without the monsters and fog, if that makes any sense.
- The dialog in this game is really colorful. It's got 1920's and 30's slang down pat, which gives to the games noir feel.
- The game offers a few innovative features for the adventure genre. Depending on your conversations with people, you can point out what they say out front or simply talk soothingly so they don't feel pressured. Depending on the mood, you can piss them off. On the flip side, if you gain their trust and be nice you can get new clues or new details about certain characters. Depending on your choices during puzzles or conversations, you can have a game over. A game over occurs when you get kicked out of the hotel, so don't piss people off.
I have a few problems with the adventure elements sometimes. You can't take any clue or item at any time, you can only take it depending on the situation, so it makes the puzzle solving linear. That's not a problem though, because the conversations you have with the people in the hotel make the game pretty non linear in some fashion.
It's a fun game.
