Himuro said:What does Hotel Dusk do to separate itself from the pack? What do other adventure games do that HD doesn't?
I think coming out in the last year and not being tied down to 'oh I played that when I was 12' is a huge plus.
It also happens to be excellent with a nice visual style.
The most important thing about adventure games is they story. Everything beyond that is there to compliment that - especially puzzles. Hotel Dusk failed on many levels. Me? I'd prefer replaying Grim Fandango for 99th time instead of playing Hotel Dusk.
The genre is varied enough to support many different kinds of games within the larger adventure context. Phoenix Wright is also considered an adventure game and it's mostly about solving a mystery with case specific puzzles.
Hotel Dusk happens to be more of a story heavy adventure and it's not like its a completely alien thing, games like it have been quite common on consoles in Japan for quite sometime.