From Cing, the developer who brought us Trace Memory (Another Code), comes the best interactive adventure game to appear in a long time. Like Trace Memory, Hotel Dusk is more of an interactive book than a game and this time around Cing has seen fit to develop the story and the characters to lengths that haven’t really ever been seen in the game medium before. By now we’re all used to the grandiose incoherent action flick storylines usually found in the blockbuster games of today and for that reason alone Hotel Dusk is a giant breath of fresh air. So if you like a good murder mystery and like the idea of it all unfolding via your control on the DS then this may be the early 2007 treat you’ve been looking for.


In Japan it's "Wish Room."
The unique ideas that this game presents begin initially with how you’ll be holding the DS while playing. At all times you’ll hold the two flaps like an open book, just as if you’re reading from the pages of your favorite noir murder mystery. Like in Trace Memory you move the main character around by tapping the screen and examine things by doing the same. Like most adventure games you’ll also be examining and interactive with things via some icons at the bottom of the screen and using specific items during certain story events. Thankfully though, you won’t be frustrated with a bunch of ridiculous puzzles like those that have hampered adventure games of the past. Instead you’ll be too busy enjoy the story and grinning at the quirky ways the game has you using the DS’ unique capabilities.

That being said, if you’re not up for a whole lot of reading and some seriously slow pacing in the storytelling department then you should steer way clear of this one. While there are quite a few small puzzles and a lot of walking around, you’ll spend 90% of your time in conversations. You of course have to manipulate these conversations to get the information you need but nevertheless they’re still pretty slow and extremely text heavy. On the other hand if you enjoy a good story none of these small issues will matter since the game does so well with character and plot development.