This is a game I picked up purely on hype. When it came out in the states it came in under the radar and this piqued the interest of many game journalists. It seemed to polarise opinions, you loved it or hated it. But for the most part, it had more lovers than haters so I decided I wanted to give it a go.
In summary it’s a partially animated, story based adventure game for the Nintendo DS which involves wandering around a hotel, plodding your way through the story. You play as Kyle Hyde an ex-cop who is at the hotel to find some items for his boss and to further his own agenda of finding an old friend.
On the whole, I’m enjoying it. I’m quite a reader, and love immersing myself in a story. However, I have to say that I’d rather be reading this book than playing this game.
My biggest critisicm is how damn linear it is. At any point there is one, and only one, thing that you have to do to progress the story. For example you need to talk to a particular person or find a particular item. If you don’t know what you need to do, you find yourself wandering around trying to stumble on that trigger and it completely takes you out of the story. There’s even been a couple of times when I’ve had to look up a walkthrough in order to continue, the cardinal sin of game design.
On the positive side, I loved the art style and the animation. The characters were compelling and the localisation was outstanding, it’s hard to believe this game was originally Japanese.
This game is a perfect example of the fact that 6.5 – 7.5 is a good score. I’m glad this game exists, I’m glad I played it, and I would recommend it to someone who has similar interests, but it sure doesn’t deserve an 8 or 9.
