Dark Alleys: Penumbra Hotel

Dark Alleys is a one-off horror adventure game by ERS Studio, who went on to make many more games in the HOPA genre. While I did enjoy it for a number of reasons, it’s fairly forgettable and feels strongly in the shadow of my favorite HOPA Fright.

So ya, it’s got nice hand painted environments combined with real FMV characters - an instant win for me. It takes at a creepy mansion and motel, has solid tough puzzles, and doesn’t have a single hidden object mini game which was a nice change. It’s basically a point and click fmv horror game.

But it’s not nearly as distinct or memorable as fright, despite both being at a run down motel with fmv characters. I enjoyed it but it’s at the bottom of my list of recommended games over on Big Fish’s site. But that comes after trying and abandoning maybe 15 others, so it is still a better experience than most. I’m excited to check out the studios other titles around that time and see if anything stands out a bit more, because they have the art direction down.