The Softboiled Allure of Kyle Hyde
This is a reprint of the Games essay from Issue #88 of Exploits, our collaborative cultural diary in magazine form. If you like what you see, buy it now for $2, or subscribe to never miss an issue (note: Exploits is always free for subscribers of Unwinnable Monthly).
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As the Nintendo Switch 2 ushers in a new generation of fun on the bus and by the bedside, it’s important to remember that handheld gaming wasn’t always like this. 20 years ago, long before I had the chance to play Mario Kart in HD with HDR, I made my greatest memories squinting at a pair of grainy, 192p screens.
Hotel Dusk: Room 215, developed by Cing (sadly now defunct) and released in January 2007 for the Nintendo DS, wasn’t exactly a system seller. It had no recognizable Nintendo mascots, no monsters to tame and no magical world to explore. To the contrary: The world of Hotel Dusk was mundane, resulting in about 99.9% of DS owners overlooking it.
But those who did partake were treated to quite the pleasure. Set in late-’70s Los Angeles, Hotel Dusk tells the story of the brooding Kyle Hyde: An ex-NYPD cop who quit the force after being betrayed by – and later shooting – his partner. Three years later, Hyde finds himself at the titular Hotel Dusk, where he encounters a trail of clues suggesting his partner is, in fact, alive.
On the surface, this caper is similar to any you’ve seen or read before. Hyde canvases the hotel, grills various guests, gathers evidence and inches himself closer to the truth with every passing hour. When he’s not sleuthing, he’s cursing – critiquing everything from the hotel (a dump) to its owner (a bum) to its people (a pain). Hyde is as hardboiled as they come.
That is, until he isn’t. Where fellow detectives like Philip Marlowe and Jake Gittes seem content to dine with their demons, Hyde opts for a different path. His journey is filled with pain, to be clear, but he always seems to find compassion. That young girl he scolds for blocking the stairs? She becomes a friend. The bellhop he once bullied as a cop? Now a close confidant.
Relationships are at the heart of Hotel Dusk, accentuated by a unique rotoscope animation style that gives each character a depth of expression you won’t find in a book. In a nice nod to its inspirations, however, the game is played by rotating the Nintendo DS 90 degrees – as if you’re reading pages from your favorite mystery novel.
In any other situation, holding a device the wrong way would make you feel brainless. When playing Hotel Dusk, though, you feel empowered. Here’s a guy in Detective Hyde who has the stones to roast half the people in this hotel, yet also the heart to realize he’s kind of an asshole. Masculinity rarely sees that sort of moral culpability, especially from a white, straight man who is used to shooting a gun.
That is Hotel Dusk’s real legacy. Not the sideways DS gimmick (as fun as it is), but the commitment to a world where kindness and compassion can melt even the most callous of hearts. I’ll take those emotions over cutting-edge graphics any day.
