There is, I think, no greater faux pas in our image-obsessed society than trying too hard. Anything too obviously keen to impress, too overbearing in its affect, is intolerable whether quality or not. We want sprezzatura, elegance, and honesty, not to be hit over the head by someone very clearly trying to extract some very specific emotion.
This is what I thought about as I played some Hotel Barcelona earlier today, which possibly tells you everything you need to know right there. A collab between outre auteurs Swery and Suda51, Hotel Barcelona should be right up my alley. I love Deadly Premonition (Swery), I enjoyed Flower, Sun, and Rain (Suda)—these are two great tastes that should taste great together.
Instead, I mostly found my time with the game exhausting. Hotel Barcelona puts you in the shoes of Justine, a US marshal who shares her body with the soul of a serial killer, as she repeatedly murders her way through a bunch of monsters. This should not, ordinarily, be her job, but the guy whose job it was died when Justine crashed the car carrying them both at the game’s start, so here we are.
And here you are, in a roguelite 2.5D side-scrolling thing that doesn’t feel quite right in the hand and is constantly trying to convince you of how kuh-razy it is with every character interaction. There’s a monster who lives in your closet and sells upgrades! There’s litres of blood spurting everywhere! Justine transforms from wilting wallflower to bodacious babe at the start of every new run! It’s a feast for the senses that never satisfies because it all feels like it’s desperately trying to persuade you of something—that it’s wacky and edgy and cool. But nothing can be cool that so clearly wants you to think it’s cool.
The action itself feels stiff in the time I’ve spent with the game. Everything about how Hotel Barcelona is laid out feels like it wants to be fast-paced, nimble, dodge-heavy, but your attacks alternate between feeling ineffective or feeling slow as hell. Meanwhile, visual feedback is low. Have I dodged an attack? Have I parried it? Are my enemies near death or at full health? It’s impossible to say because your subtle movements fade too easily into the general carnival of colour and blood and guts.
It’s a shame. Like I say, I’m a fan of both these devs, but this collab just didn’t hit for me like their earlier, individual works managed to. Where the strangeness of Swery and Suda’s early games feels like it was come by honestly, this feels too much like it’s playing it up, and it’s not all that fun to play, to boot.
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