Witch 4 Hotel

The developer has long specialized in mixing eerie atmospheric storytelling with adult animation. Witch 4 Hotel continues this proud (or shameless, depending on your tastes) tradition. Picking up after the predecessor, the newest entry attempts to blend past and present timelines in a haunted hotel scenario - presumably because we've all decided spooky hotels are the new creepy castles.

For fans of the developer's style, Witch 4 Hotel is a familiar cocktail of unsettling ambiance and titillating spectacle. Newcomers, meanwhile, might feel as lost as Chelsea and Melissa wandering around said spooky hotel without Google Maps. But hey, at least there's unlimited sprint now, so you can zip through the empty hallways faster than my enthusiasm faded after the third playthrough.

Spooky Shenanigans

Witch 4 Hotel's main gimmick is a dual-protagonist setup. Players swap between Chelsea in the present and Melissa in the past, making choices intended to ripple forward through time. Conceptually intriguing but practically executed with the subtlety and precision of a toddler flinging mashed potatoes. The interplay between timelines only meaningfully occurs a handful of times, leaving me wondering why the developer bothered beyond the initial pitch meeting.

Melissa's sections feel overly simplified, offering the complexity of assembling IKEA furniture with instructions, while Chelsea's segments swing erratically between excessively simplistic and frustratingly obtuse. Suppose you loved the series' earlier installments. In that case, this unevenness won't be a deal-breaker. Still, newcomers expecting well-balanced puzzles might be cursing more than the witches involved.

Where Witch 4 Hotel excels - and I admit this grudgingly - is its atmosphere. The return of a "Dark Hour" - this time rechristened the Wolf Hour - is genuinely captivating. Despite the repetitive backgrounds making some floors look identical, the art team deserves praise for beautifully oppressive color palettes and artful cinematics. Yes, I get it's a budget production, but a bit more visual diversity wouldn't hurt.

On the subject of visuals, the animations have seen considerable upgrades from previous installments. While the series' signature inconsistency in movie-style animations remains (charmingly) intact, scene animations have thankfully been elevated. They're vibrant, appealing, and precisely what you'd expect if you're here for the entertainment. However, even in the lewd game sphere, one can't help that there's an X-factor missing to make Witch 4 Hotel feel like a complete game.

Ghost-nut-busting

Ultimately, Witch 4 Hotel isn't a bad addition to the developer's growing repertoire. Still, it doesn't fully realize the creative potential of its premise. It offers a decent enough spooky atmosphere and improved animations, but gameplay and narrative execution feel as thin as the bedsheets draped over your clichéd hotel ghosts.

Round-Up - Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Fantastic, atmospheric art direction
• Greatly improved animations
• Intriguing dual-timeline concept

Cons:

• Gameplay mechanics remain underdeveloped
• Uneven complexity between past and present segments
• Limited narrative depth