An interactive novel
Hotel Dusk is an interactive visual novel. You can see what is happening while you're reading and starting the events yourself, but gameplay takes a backseat while the story does drives the game.
The story focuses around Kyle Hyde, a former police detective whose partner Bradley went rogue three years ago. The only clue he has is Hotel Dusk, and following that lead is the only thing that Hyde feels might shed some light on why Bradley betrayed him all those years ago. The various characters you'll meet in Hotel Dusk all have a past, and all will be developed and intertwined through the course of the story.
At times you'll have to interview people, and depending on your questions you can scare them away and you'll have to start over. While portions of the conversations can't be skipped, if you've read it before you can fast forward the text slightly, although some events need to be repeated which can be frustrating. There are also several minigames spread throughout the game that take advantage of the DS's features, such as using the stylus as a pen for connecting dots, or closing the lid to flip something over. For the most part difficulty of the interactive portions is mixed, you are either subtley guided towards your next task or you're left entirely in the dark about what to do next much like in classic point and click adventure games where you have to try just about everything to see what works and what doesn't.
By the time I had finished the game, it did leave me with some minor gratification, I felt that Hotel Dusk could have used some more tweaking involving some helpful hints during the unguessable scenarios that require a walkthrough. Other than that, if you're patient and willing, Hotel Dusk is a good read.
