One of the biggest crimes of the Isle Tide Hotel is that it isn’t even so bad that it’s funny. It does not merit playing apart from sheer morbid curiosity and no justification for recommending it.
Let’s start with the formalities, so we can get out. The Isle Tide Hotel is an FMV mystery thriller where you play Josh, a man who is looking for his estranged daughter who has disappeared. There is something sinister going on in the Isle Tide Hotel. Can you solve the mystery and save your daughter?
In this FMV game, you talk to characters, make decisions, and the story adapts. But the characters you encounter are strange. In addition to talking in riddles with dreamlike cadence, they are also vaguely embarrassing, like watching your mother reenact Twin Peaks after a few drinks. The characters are annoying. Most are. Neither intentionally nor unintentionally, there’s no laughter here.
It’s an interesting premise, but the mystery never takes off because we’re given not enough meat to chew on, and we’re just bored by the time the secrets start coming out. Ultimately, it’s a series of bizarre interactions culminating in a confusing maze of identical rooms — or at least that’s how it felt in both runs. It’s a frustrating end to a frustrating game.
I think you’d get more out of it than we did if you buy into the mystery and can tolerate the obnoxious characters. After getting lost in the maze, bamboozled for what felt like an hour, we didn’t care anymore. We’ve played it twice and got different endings. Maybe there’s an ending that’s awesome but we didn’t see it.
Pros:
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Quite intriguing.
Cons:
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Stupid puzzles.
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Never a true story.
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The worst characters.
This game gets 3 over 10 from me.
