Judging from the early screenshots released, Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel was a title I was really looking forward to review however, Christmas came early for me with the arrival of a preview unit from our friends at Akella and Lighthouse Interactive.
Based on a story by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, popular Russian science fiction writers, Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel (aka Inspector Glebsky’s Puzzle )is a present day setting in the Alps. Peter Glebsky, a police inspector is vacationing at the Hotel and it comes as no surprise that he gets dragged reluctantly into a murder investigation.
During the preview we assume the role of Peter and it allowed us a good old nosey around the hotel and to familiarise ourselves with the guests. Our first tasks were pretty straightforward such as defrosting ice and matching numbers to colours, nothing too tasking to start with however, this games strength will not be in it’s puzzles. The essence of Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel is the fabulous storyline.
The hotel is populated by a rather eclictic group of people – along with the hotelier and dog Caleb we have the eccentric Mr Mozes and his beautiful wife, Simone a scientist, Eisenheim a hypnotist, Alyssa who has a motorbike and Sandra the non too bright maid.
There are also suspicions that the hotel is haunted by a mountaineer who died in an accident not so long ago and the hotelier invites Peter to investigate. Reluctantly, after an avalanche traps the guests and staff, Peter begins to delve deeper into the hotel and its residents. With the arrival of two new guests just before the avalanche it is obvious that the guests are not unknown to each other and a fresh murder really opens up the story. This is where my preview ended and where I believe the storyline divides to give us alternate endings.
The architecture of the hotel is quite outstanding with some beautiful iron design work, rooftop conservatory , perpetual motion machine and cellar. Sometimes I just stopped on screen and took a good look around ! Each of the guest’s rooms are differently furnished and laid out too giving a fresh feel for every room on entering.
While the preview did have a nice soft almost mystical music score sadly the English voice over files were not yet ready. These will have a huge impact on the game when complete – eg. Scrolling through the dialogue tree when talking with Sandra was irksome at times because of her stupidity but with the right voice actress she could become the story’s comic relief.
You will more or less be able to roam freely (up until now within the hotel) without any restrictions and your location will affect the other guests’ locations as will your behaviour ie. If you’re rude to another character they will not offer any information or assistance.
I had a lot of fun with the preview of Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel although the puzzles so far haven’t been too difficult, there were a lot of asides. Mealtimes – you had to select a varied diet from the buffet or be the subject of the other guests’ barbed comments. Minigames – A popular addition to point and clicks in the Russian territories (remember The Good, The Bad and The Sober) however unlike The Good, The Bad and The Sober it’s not necessary to complete them to progress. So far I’ve been skiing, and played poker, darts and billiards.
If the preview is anything to go by then the completed version of Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel looks very promising indeed after doing a quick internet search for the book it looks as though the story is about to explode where my demo ended. I can’t wait now for the full version !
