Hard Boiled Gaming

I've been playing Hotel Dusk: Room 215 for the Nintendo DS for the past couple days and its a great little crime story reminiscent of a James Ellroy or Elmore Leonard novel. The visuals are stunning giving the gamer a real film noir quality to the game. In a cool twist, Hotel Dusk requires you to flip the DS on its side and read it like a book which only enhances its pulp fiction quality. You are Kyle Hyde, an ex-cop in the late 1970's, who has switched careers and become a traveling salesman but hasn't given up hope on finding his supposedly dead partner, Bradley. Following his boss' orders, Hyde checks into the seedy Hotel Dusk which is full of mysterious characters all of which seem to have a dark secret from their past. Could this Hotel have something to do with his ex-partner? Answer: Yes. This interactive mystery can get tedious at times while you search the hotel for things to do and some of the tasks that you are supposed to complete are, at times, laughably easy. Ultimately, however, Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is a lengthy but stylish neo-noir mystery that makes excellent use of the touch screen. Also, the main character kind of looks like a badass version of me. Here's the trailer:

You can read a more complete review at Gamespot.