Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (Nintendo DS)

Kyle Hyde, a former New York cop, gets by with a salesman’s job. He’s sent to Hotel Dusk, a hotel in the middle of nowhere, to search for some particular items. But, as he spends the night there, the secrets and past of the hotel’s guests reveal themselves. What is so special about Room 215? What do these people have to hide? It’s up to you to take control and find out.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is an adventure game from the creators of Another Code. The player takes on the role of Kyle Hyde as he searches through Hotel Dusk. You hold the DS in the same manner as you would a book to play. The game takes place in two different perspectives: the touch screen is used to navigate top-down through the hotel, while the top screen displays a first person view of your surroundings. You can strike up a conversation with the guests, and when you do, Kyle, along with any questions you have, appear on the touch screen. The person you’re questioning appears on the top screen. When interrogating people, you can stop them at points in conversation and press them for information. However, if you’re not careful, you’ll arouse suspicion and may even get kicked out of the hotel.

The game also features different kinds of puzzles, ranging from physically using your inventory to manipulate objects (such as jiggling a wire in a lock to pick it), or completing logic puzzles, like assembling a jigsaw. Hotel Dusk also features a unique art style: the characters are drawn in an animated sketchbook-type fashion. Some scenes feature a partially watercolored look, but most of the time the characters themselves appear in black and white.