A collaboration between Swery and Suda sounds like a dream, but Hotel Barcelona feels like a nightmare to play.
The likes of Killer 7 and Deadly Premonition are somewhat cemented as cult classic video games at this point. Both are bizarre, janky, and unapologetically weird, but also loved by those that play them thanks to just how quirky the stories and characters are. Even if the gameplay was occasionally somewhat obtuse or a little awkward, it could be overlooked thanks to how enjoyable everything else was. With the leads on those two games coming together like some sort of super group to make Hotel Barcelona, I was hoping for that quirkiness to be cranked up to eleven. Whilst there certainly is a fair chunk of that, the actual gameplay itself is so unsatisfying that it utterly switched me off from the story.
That story has an interesting concept at least. You play as US Marshall Justine who crashes her car in the middle of nowhere, only to wake up in the titular hotel. The problem is there’s no way to leave the hotel unless she, along with the soul of a serial killer known as Dr. Carnival, can slay all of the other killers residing in and around the hotel. Does it make sense? No. Does it have to? Also no. Dr. Carnival fills you in fairly early that an entity known as The Witch is keeping you trapped at the hotel, and by eliminating the other killers you’ll become strong enough to confront her and escape.
The plot develops as you successfully take down killers, and it’s told fairly well by a cast of bonkers characters, which is par for the course considering the devs. I particularly liked Frances Francis who is introduced by informing you that they like Tim Curry and also having sex with women. It’s helped that the character art is really well done during the cutscenes. Everyone is super detailed and absolutely pops off the screen. Huge credit to the art team that put these together.
Sadly, it’s the gameplay between these bits that is a bit of a let down. Hotel Barcelona is a roguelite, meaning you’ll head out on a run to beat a killer, only to likely fail and need to start that run over, but this time empowered by the resources you collected along the way. Each run is a 2.5D hack & slash affair, with you taking on a variety of enemies with ranged or melee attacks. Justine is equipped with a melee weapon and ranged which can be changed and improved through spending those resources between runs.
Fairly by the numbers so far, but the issue is that the combat is so utterly lacklustre. It doesn’t matter which weapon you use, nothing feels like it has any impact at all thanks to the outrageously floaty feeling controls and impossible to figure out hitboxes. Every attack feels anaemic, even when they cause substantial damage, and the complete lack of feedback when you’re hit or land a strike of your own means you can end up dead before you know what’s going on. The ranged attacks are even worse, with Justine’s guns feeling about as powerful as a strongly worded email.
It’s not helped by the art style which, when compared to the character art, is muddy and hard to read. This is only exacerbated by the obnoxiously large foreground objects that conspire to block your view of the action. It’s frustrating and simply isn’t fun to play through a run, regardless of the outcome.
There are a couple of silver linings at least. I quite liked the Phantom mechanic, in which an exact copy of your previous run will play alongside your new attempt so long as you follow the same route. They’ll do exactly what you did in your previous attempt, so they can be quite powerful when fighting a boss. It kind of reminds me of Super Time Force and its use of previous failures to power up your next effort.
I’ll also praise those bosses in terms of design, with each one and their associated stage being based on a different horror movie trope. Secret labs and cannibal restaurants are fun settings considering the theme of the game. I did like that the first boss was essentially Jason from Friday the 13th but with a baseball outfit rather than a hockey mask. It’s just a pity that fighting them still isn’t any fun, especially when failure means having to trudge all the way through the stage again.
Hotel Barcelona has all the ideas but none of the execution. With gameplay that turned me off within five minutes of playing through a stage, it’s really hard to recommend this to anyone, even those who are die hard fans of Suda and Swery. The story and character art are much more engaging, and I think I’d enjoy this far more if it were a visual novel rather than having to force myself through a weak hack & slash gameplay loop to get to the interesting story. I think it’s safe to say that this is a hotel you shouldn’t check out.
Hotel Barcelona is available now on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.
