The Gamer's Quarter

[internisus]

I finished Hotel Dusk last night. I really really really really really liked it! It has recognizable roots in Trace Memory's design, but it's a longer and more serious game and story. I can't be certain after only one playthrough, but a little experimentation showed branching non-critical conversations to yield varying results, meaning that certain parts of characters' stories are discovered optionally. This sense of non-linearity pervades the game in some regards, but it is also firmly anchored by set events and game-critical conversations that I like to think of as boss fights.

Many will likely be of the opinion that these set events keep the game feeling too rigid. For example, I found myself very frustrated at one point when I received an item without any urgent context and, wandering about the hotel, could find no one to talk to. I spent 15 minutes looking around every room and knocking on every door with nothing to do. I had to resort to gamefaqs in this instance to discover that there was a tiny adventure gamey thing that I had missed which would allow me to learn more about the item. Only after doing this was I able to continue -- or even just find someone to talk to. I also expect many of you, my peers, to be irritated by some of the physical DS gimmick puzzles, which, again, are a clear throwback to Trace Memory. Fortunately, there are a good number of straight and hard-boiled little puzzles -- my favorite is using a computer terminal near the end of the game. I would have liked more information-based interaction with practical objects like that. Besides that example, however, most of the detective action comes off as pretty light stuff. Neither the puzzles nor the deductions are difficult for either the gamer or the detective in you.

Another problem with the game's structure is that it renders the very cool notebook nearly moot. When I began the game, I immediately started in on the notebook, writing down times for promised meetings with certain characters, the hours for the restaurant, etc. However, since going to such meetings and locations is the only way to progress time in the game, and since Kyle reminds himself mentally at such times anyway, there's really no point to using the notebook in this way. The only other consistent use I had for it was keeping track of what happened 6 months, 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, 7 years, and 10 years ago, and that was purely for the fun of keeping the story straight as it slowly unraveled. Basically, there was no practical need to keep track of anything at all with the notebook, and that disappointed me a lot.

Despite these shortcomings, I feel pretty comfortable saying that this is the most enjoyable game I've played for the past two years. Where to begin? Well, we all knew in advance about the art style, but let me tell you, it is used to exceptional effect in the expressive animation of the characters. Guys like Kyle and Dunning are made intensely memorable by a perfect match of dialogue style and animation; the ways they cock their heads and squint their eyes and gesture with their hands vividly accompany their respective Raymond Chandler and relaxed country text-speech. Naturally, all of the character design is spot-on, and, of course, the writing is exceptional, to the point where even reading the thorough summaries for chapters you've completed is a joy.

It might -- and will, I imagine -- be said by some that the plot is hackneyed, since everything boils down to one very big set of coincidences, but I'm not the sort to mind that. Actually, I rather like that kind of story, so long as there is an indication of forces that have planned for such coincidences to come together, and in this case I feel that it works just fine. The story is much longer and more complex than Trace Memory, which is to be expected, considering that Hotel Dusk is a 15-20 hour game and that it involves a much, much higher dialogue-to-exploration ratio than its predecessor. Let me tell you, that complexity gave me a number of really nice high sensations during intense interrogations at the ends of some of the earlier chapters in which I began to see how the pieces might fit together and how the seeds for future sub-stories might relate.

The late '70s noir setting and the music round out the game's flavor beautifully. You can examine pretty much every object in the hotel, and some of Kyle's comments are so dry that I laughed out loud from time to time. For instance, upon looking at yet another wooden table in one room, he said, "It's a bookcase. Wait, no, that's a table. My mistake." The game is by turns coy and sinister, but, I feel compelled to repeat, it is a joy throughout. I was so delighted that I immediately started to play the first chapter over again after completing the game, just to see some faces again.

It seems to me that Hotel Dusk is a testament to the visual novel format's ability to render an involving story in a very different fashion than a book. As I said, the game is fundamentally linear and controlled, but it doesn't always feel that way, and in the case of conversations, there are definitely branching possibilities and optional chunks of development that one might miss. But more than that, the simple fact of your interaction and the subtly earnest presentation grant this story a strength it likely would not find in print form. That is not to say that the story would not work as a book -- it is good enough that, if written properly, I can certainly see it that way. However, as a visual novel / adventure, it is a far more endearing and charming experience. I've played precious few visual novels, and all, I believe, have been here, on the DS. I wish even more now for more of them.

[Shapermc]

[internisus]

Nah, nothing I said was at all spoiling. If you're referring to the codebreaker puzzle I mentioned, that doesn't reveal anything. Don't worry. Also, the reading comprehension level in this game is far above Trace Memory. It's a much more mature game overall, and the story involves a lot of dark, adult secrets of things in characters' pasts. Don't let Trace Memory's childish nature turn you off to this.

[SuperWes]

One question: Didn't you use the notes section to keep track of the stars with numbers on them for the (I'm assuming optional) vending machine puzzle?

-Wes
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[helicopterp]

I started playing this morning, and the sticker numbers are the only things I have kept track of with the notebook.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

[Dracko]

[helicopterp]

I haven't made it too far, but I think you would really dig the presentation, Dracko. Hotel Dusk is very consciously a genre piece. It comfortably settles into the conventions of noir and adventure games at the onset, and will probably test the limits or depth of both as it progresses. And there are no invisible walls to speak of.

One aspect of the game I find compelling so far is the way that time acts as a very legitimate boundary for the adventure at the beginning. In addition to numerous locked doors in the hotel, there are areas that are timed to open as you play through. That the restaurant will open for dinner at 6pm and breakfast at 7 30am and the bar will open at 9pm adds a structure that feels much more organic than arbitrary lock-and-key puzzles. The self-contained nature of the setting (a single hotel) and pace (chapters based strictly on time) ensure a controlled unknowability critical to mystery narratives. The feel of the game is at once alive and rigid.

I plan to play a lot more when I get home.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

[internisus]

I couldn't figure out how to get a coin for the vending machine!

But yes, I did keep track of the sticker numbers.

Big deal.

[Dracko]

[Ethoscapade]

will i like this game if i hate film noir and have never enjoyed any strict "adventure" games apart from phoenix wright?

[internisus]

hm that is a difficult question as i cannot relate to your situation there

uh



MAYBE







hey do ya'll reckon there's a spectrum running between IF and adventure games?

[Dracko]

[SuperWes]

Personally, from what I've played, I like the Phoenix Wright series better. But as soon as I finish up Justice for All I'm going to start playing this again.

For the record I've never really been that into adventure games. I like Phoenix Wright because it does away with a lot of the extraneous bullshit. Hotel Dusk seems to include that bullshit, but it does so in a novel enough way that I'm ok with it.

-Wes
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[internisus]

I didn't realize how much I was loving Hotel Dusk until the end of chapter 4. No real reason, that's just when it clicked for me. Hard.

I was passionately in love with Pheonix Wright for a long time, but Justice for All disappointed me so much that it's turned me off of the form, I think. Hotel Dusk was exhileratingly refreshing for me after that.

I don't think there's much of a comparison to be made between the two, though.

[dessgeega]

i've played this a little. on the presentation:

as someone who's never played brain training, i like the holding sideways. a lot. it feels very intimate in as narrative a game as this. and the equal weight this orientation gives to both screens is much better suited to showing both sides of the conversation at once than if one speaker was above and one below. when the ds isn't opened flat they're even facing each other. and scribbling notes is such an obvious way to use the touch screen that it can't help but be brilliant. and in-game note-taking is well suited to a mystery adventure game.

more when i've played more of it.
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[helicopterp]

I'm in the last chapter. So much of this game just works. I find the idea of a mystery narrative in this format fascinating--and beyond that I can't help but be wrapped up in the deliciously pulpy (but not campy) plot. This is a dark game and a focused game. The relatively limited environment of the hotel really does wonders for the game. Re-examining details almost always feels necessary rather than a chore, and the game is careful with its pace. As the hotel opens up, new restrictions keep cropping up: this isn't just a gameworld that blooms, but one that carefully expands and contracts in near synchronicity.

It really is a hell of a game.


P.S. The last section is devious and wonderful and I'm still working on getting past it.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

[SuperWes]

I'm still playin' it!

Still hatin' it!

-Wes

EDIT: For a frame of reference, here's what I said elsewhere:

[dmauro]

Free yourself. Just stop playing. You don't have to finish it!

[SuperWes]

[dessgeega]

i was stuck in this game yesterday, and the problem turned out to be that i hadn't asked a character every possible question available to me. when i did it made another character appear in the lobby, and talking to her made another character call the phone in the lobby, advancing the story. so this is yet another adventure game where chaotic events are mapped to the player's actions, in totally non-causal ways, to suit the narrative. the clock doesn't even advance until you talk to the right people. it'll stay 5:30 for hours if you let it.

the dialogue could stand to be trimmed, too. and the end of chapter quizzes break any sunspense of disbelief there is. let's make sure i've got everything straight by asking myself a bunch of multiple-choice questions about the plot. what is this, famicom detective club?
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[Six]

[dessgeega]

i just finished chapter 4. the story and presentation are so good it's a pity the game is so bad.

the last express does the small group of people with secrets staying in a small space much more effectively. i can't feel like i'm being sneaky and clever rummaging through someone's room if the game shoves me in there yelling "find the plot point!"

spoilery question: another hotel guest, coming up the stairs, told me that the hotel owner was searching people. i stashed or returned all the stuff i shouldn't have had. i felt smart, even though the game had given me a pretty unsubtle prod in the side. but i completed the chapter without getting searched! does the search happen after i've forgotten about it? or do you only get searched if you're carrying something incriminating? because the latter would turn a puzzle that makes sense into just another way for the player to lose.

the fusebox is clever.
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[internisus]

The fusebox is not clever. The fusebox is terrible. Touching the DS in two different places at once registers one touch directly between them, making the task obvious but impossible. I only managed it after ten minutes of trying to switch from one to the other lightning-fast so that the game wouldn't register the first switch falling. That was probably the worst "puzzle" in the game.

Regarding your question, I do not know the answer, since I did just as you did and actually had that question myself. However, judging from how easy it can be to say the wrong thing in conversation during that time and draw suspicion to yourself, my guess would be that there are consequences to ignoring the game's warning. I agree that this and other scenarios are less effective for not allowing you to experience the dodging of the bullet.

Cing does such a good job with story and presentation that it feels like they just need to change out one guy at the top of their team (responsible for game design, of course) and they would be wonderful. It's rather frustrating when a game shows so many signs of being a top-class work but gets dragged down by stuff like this.

[helicopterp]

[Six]

[dessgeega]

i liked the premise of the fuse box. i imagine that touch screen problems could make it a pain, but i had no problem with it. i put the stylus on the right switch. right light went on. put it on the left switch. right light went off, left light went on. put my nail on the right switch while the stylus was still on the left. presto!

i just finished chapter seven. i'm a bit disappointed by how every chapter is character-of-the-week drama. but at least every character's story has turned out to be connected to the central plot somehow. also, louie has turned out to be a pretty robust character. his growing relationship with the protagonist keeps me playing.
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[dessgeega]

i think part of the problem with the character-of-the-week episodic structure of the game is that the most clearly dangerous of these happens early on. that being, of course, the jeff angel chapter. this episode features breaking and entering, planted money, burglary, a hidden gun, and the threat of police involvement. once all this has been resolved, none of the other personal drama feels nearly as grave. the chapters that succeed it involve searching for wine labels and trimming christmas trees.

[GilloD]

I had a lot of reservations about picking this up, but a long flight and a lot of downtime in airports made me think it was a good idea. I'm still slogging through it, but here's something that drove me crazy: Louie: HEY DUDE. HERES THE KEY TO ROOM 217. ITS FULL OF INTERESTING STUFF.

Kyle: Great, Louie, Thanks

So, I wander on over and the room is full of great stuff (Although, Kyle seems less than surprised that Bradley was actually there). I pack up what I can find and WHAMMO. Dunning ends my game in the hall. I mean. Why bait the player like that?

I've put it down for about a week, but I'm pondering grabbing it again tonight and pushing through it some more. It's better than Phoenix Wright, at least.

[dessgeega]

well, it makes sense - you're sneaking into a place you're not supposed to be, so it makes sense that you should glance up and down the hallway before you go in to make sure no one sees you. the problem is the character who spots you is placed there at the moment you're given the key - to serve as nothing but an obstacle. if you talk to the character before entering, you can continue the game. if you don't, your game is ended the moment you leave.

it's just another of the ways in which the game's scripted plotting undermines the feeling of doing real investigation and snooping.
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