When I heard about Hotel Barcelona and found out it was SWERYS Lovechild (known for Fatal prediction) and SUDA51 (No more heroes), I was all in. A 2.5D Roguelite where you play as an American federal marshal whose body is left over by a scary and mysterious serial killer, strangely named Dr. Carnival, and works together to kill other murderers living in a scary hotel? It sounds incredible, right? On paper it is a solid idea. But in fact playing Hotel Barcelona Isn't as fun as it seems, and it's a shame.
So, as I mentioned, the assumption is that the protagonist, Justine, ends avenge for her father's unclear death and takes her to the hotel Barcelona, where a bunch of crazy serial murder lives. The hotel stops being your base, where Justine “wakes up” when you die during a run. She collaborates with Dr. Carnival, a serial killer with many secrets, to take down the evil.
There are only a handful of scenes and managers to get through Hotel BarcelonaBut they are essentially 2D-sided dungeons with several rooms and a last manager at the end. There are about three main stages you need to complete before fighting “Final Boss” and rolling credits, which took me about 6-7 hours.
I know it doesn't really sound like a lot, but the beginning of Hotel Barcelona is not too weak heart. Even in normal difficulty mode, enemies and managers can hit hard. And without many opportunities to heal, to ensure that Justine stops in good health before Bosskampen proved to be challenging.
I wanted to enjoy the loop to run through the levels, but after some deaths I found that most of the levels were quite similar and inseparable from each other. All enemies feel the same; The backgrounds are a disappointment; and overall the art style of Hotel BarcelonaExcluding the wonderful 2D portrait character during conversations, the enemies and the world's blurred structures do not make much to me, and I thought it was visually disappointing. What I will say is that the animated manager introducers are quite cool to watch, but since you will die to these managers a lot they will get over the line.
At the hotel you can use your collected resources to buy new weapons, upgrade your skill tree, play Pinball, exchange items with a bartender and add some modifiers to make the game harder to get more rewards. And as I mentioned, you will die a lot in the game, but something I liked with the roguelike aspect is that there is phantom that will join your driving if you have died on that stage before.
You can have up to three at a time, and they will basically mimic the whole game in that scene. So they will fight their enemies, but will still be able to attack managers and enemies on your Playthrough. This really came in handy when I had problems with a manager, and then we would two or three kick their butt immediately.
As far as the battle and weapons in Hotel Barcelona Go, I didn't love how it felt. It is a bit clumsy, and the influence when you attack enemies just is not satisfactory. There are Katanor, hammer, saws, shotguns, flametrowers and a few other types of weapons as well. Still, I usually got stuck on the starting type because it felt the most comfortable and useful. At the beginning of the game I will be honest, the battle felt terrible, but when you unlock more combinations and parrying and avoiding options on the skill tree, it starts to feel a little more playable, but at the end of the day it never gets stuck with me, and it is so frustrating.
Behind the fucking battle in Hotel BarcelonaThe shiny stage design and the annoying difficulty, there is actually an interesting story and story that made me want more. I expected to get a lot more lore bits every time I came back to the hotel after dying, but it just didn't happen. There are not many cuts in Hotel Barcelona Either, and it is a shame because the few who are there are quite fun to watch, like intro.
I can't talk much about what's happening between Justine and Dr. Carnival, but the relationship between the two is quite compelling, and I will probably remember that aspect before the battle and the actual game of Hotel Barcelona. I think I wanted a neat and super satisfying battle system, as No more heroesBut this is just a weak roguel that could have dug a little deeper in its mechanics and story.
There are some great secrets to find when the credits roll, which I thought it was more fun to figure out than Main Story Mission stuff, but even then it doesn't push the needle for me to think about this game on a higher Echelon for the roguellitic genre. Unfortunately, there are only too many games that have done better than this.
- Published
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September 26, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / blood and gore, partial nudity, strong language, use of drugs, violence, users interact
- Developer
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White Owls Inc
- Publisher
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Culture game
- Multiple players
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Online Co-OP, Online Multiplayer
- Compelling story
- Cool boss and character design
- Level design kept me want more
- The story ends too quickly
- Not enough Lore
- Dull battle and roguelike elements
Hotel Barcelona Emissions on September 26, 2025 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X | S. Game Rant received a PC code for this review.
