This review copy of HOTEL BARCELONA for Steam was provided by CULT Games.
From the conceptual mind of SUDA51 and the directorial action of Hidetaka ‘SWERY65’ Suehiro, developer White Owl’s latest game HOTEL BARCELONA is finally out. While announced in 2021, it had flown under my radar until a trailer for it played during the SIX ONE INDIE Showcase on May 22nd, 2025. Although captured by its illustration and artwork, its action gameplay didn’t look that strong, leaving me optimistically skeptical. Now, finally able to try it for myself, I can say the results were rather surprising.
STORY
After a vulnerable tutorial session in the woods, nervous wreck U.S. Federal Marshal Justine Bernstein awakens to the brash voice of a caged spirit. Sitting upon the bed of a vintage hotel room, this voice belongs to the Imprisoned Serial Killer from within her, DR. CARNIVAL. What led the two here is a mission gone awry: last night, as Justine was escorting a mob vigilante to the titular Hotel Barcelona to take care of the criminals present there, several figures were lined up in the road, forcing Justine’s vehicle to crash into the woods. As a result, that vigilante was left dead, and now there’s no one else to do the job.
However, all is not lost. If the mob character can’t do it, DR. CARNIVAL assures that Justine could instead. By taking control of her body, Justine’s hair is flared red, an eye-patch is donned, and she gains a confident stature with an open blouse; as dawned within the tutorial, the power that lies within her will allow the two to get rid of those criminals. But the interest towards this journey’s end is far more personal. The pact that ties Justine and DR. CARNIVAL together, as formed by her father, will lead them to The Witch who killed her father. The Witch of Hotel Barcelona.
As progress through the story is made, in either death or success, HOTEL BARCELONA houses a simple yet interesting narrative. Although both characters are on a quest for vengeance, Justine and DR. CARNIVAL, a human and a serial killer spirit, are always in conflict. Despite how one would assume of his character, DR. CARNIVAL is a rather honest man who stays true to himself and the depth of the situation at play. He may not say more curious details when unasked or if not properly phrased, thus leading to unassured trust. However, his brutal honesty about the depths of vengeful murder and disdain towards humans weaponizing morality to justify their actions makes him incredibly compelling.
Thus, as an unassured protagonist herself, Justine’s aversion to comfort in potentially taking a life is a fantastic contrast. It’s a natural response given the ramifications it holds within others’ lives, let alone the act of killing someone in general. But if it’s believed that vengeful killing is still justified, how can one easily decide what they should do? These two incongruous value systems held between DR. CARNIVAL and Justine created an engaging story that encouraged questioning my extremities and moral judgments.
Aside from the protagonists’ interactions, HOTEL BARCELONA keeps the curiosity alive with a few other optional characters. Outside of mandatory initial introductions, none of the other four attendants requires talking to; however, doing so will provide momentary chuckles, world-building, player introspection, and gameplay benefits. My favorite had to be the bartender, Charles Grady, who had a strange desire for dismembered ears. Not only was his voice soothing to listen to, but his wisdom, kindness, and hope for Justine to find the solution she may deem best provided comfort. It reminds me of encountering elders who, despite being a stranger, immediately desire to cheer you on towards your aspirations.
GAMEPLAY
Unbeknownst to me, Justine waking upon her bed after failing the tutorial was a sign of what kind of game this was. HOTEL BARCELONA isn’t a horror game, despite initial teases. Rather, it’s a 2D-Action Roguelike inspired primarily by subsets of horror films. The hotel and the surrounding area are split into four areas, each featuring a boss inspired by films like Friday the 13th (1980) and Species (1995), presumably. I haven’t seen too many thriller or horror films myself, only a few like Ready or Not (2019) and The Lawnmower Man (1992). But players will find themselves also stepping into the role of a killer. When it’s time to leave the suite, DR. CARNIVAL will take over Justine’s body, turning her into a slasher as well.
Image: Source Gaming.
Each level, broken down only into a few rooms, sports side-scrolling combat and platforming via hacking, slashing, and shooting. The more blood that is shed, the more rewards there are to reap. Within the stages, each time Justine attacks an enemy, her Splatter Gauge will fill, giving access to buffed stats and a screen-nuke when full. Thus, it’s always encouraged to keep the enemy’s blood gushing, even post-execution, as hacking their chopped bodies will also provide splatter. Some enemies will attack from afar, and you can do the same with an equipped handgun or shotgun, but the distance will not provide splatter. Additionally, going without violence or touching any water will gradually or instantly reduce the Splatter Gauge, ridding the buffs alongside it. Alongside the path to the boss being on a three-minute countdown, depending on the level, HOTEL BARCELONA intends to make the player a swift killer. Even faster when they’re fighting alongside themselves.
Despite being fodder, enemies both big and small will find a multitude of ways to stop Justine in her tracks. Travelling in groups, throwing molotovs from higher platforms, difficult parry timings, and even stage hazards led to plenty of deaths in my first hour alone. However, as the hex placed on Hotel Barcelona sets everyone in a recurring loop of suffering, traces of Justine’s soul are left behind. These pieces of the past take the form of Slasher Phantoms, remnants of the player’s recently failed runs that follow alongside in subsequent attempts. However, unlike a Ghost that only retraces the past like in a racing game’s time attack, HOTEL BARCELONA’s phantoms also feast for vengeance. Their violent actions persist, damaging enemies who may run into them, and thus allow the player to quickly progress further than before and still reap the rewards.
In fact, as a rougelike, HOTEL BARCELONA features a lot of mechanics and design decisions that encouraged me to invest more time in it. Aside from providing the Splatter Gauge, every enemy killed drops resources of bones, teeth, and ears. With these individual currencies, players can interact with residents of the hotel to purchase new weapons, trade one currency for another, or vouchers for immediate boss reattempts. Most importantly, currencies are utilized for the skill tree that grants access to expanded combo routes, stat buffs, and more. Some of the paths for growth are blocked until defeating a boss and collecting their heart. However, where the skill tree sees its strongest utilization is in its placement. In addition to the support of Slasher Phantoms when re-attempting a level, choosing to recontinue after death redirects straight to the skill tree. Since resources are only revoked when entering into a level, either post-failure or from Justine’s suite, this redirect allows the rewards of murder to be immediately capitalized upon. Thus, providing a loop that incentivizes trial and error, up until eventual success. Should the player happen to succeed, defeating the boss and deciding to proceed straight into the next level, the encouragement will continue to ramp up.
Where HOTEL BARCELONA can see a shifting tide of enjoyment is within its difficulty. Given that the player can fail the tutorial, without a way to reattempt it (to my knowledge), my first hour saw plenty of death due to difficulty adjusting to the unknown controls. Then, even after getting accustomed, the assortment of enemies that could pop out and swarm me, tanking game performance, caused great frustration. Additionally, unless one of the doors to the next room featured a healing perk, there wasn’t a way to heal and thus required incredibly cautious gameplay towards the boss.
Unfortunately, once at the boss, the player will still need to avoid the chance of receiving unfair damage. Whether it be an immediate attack upon loading in, moments where an animation, such as a roar, isn’t communicated to also be an attack, and difficulty evading attacks that one would imagine they wouldn’t even be susceptible to from behind the boss, all add to the feeling of unfairness. All those factors led to my entire playthrough being done in easy mode. While HOTEL BARCELONA was still challenging on easy, factors such as 10% health regain on every door, more vouchers for boss reattempts, and the highly damaging screen nuke that made mincemeat of stamina bars made the game far more tolerable.
As mentioned previously, clearing a level and progressing immediately into the next will provide incentives to keep the streak. Upon a clear in general, Justine’s currently equipped weapons will gain enhancements and passive abilities that provide further buffs depending on the environmental conditions randomly decided at the beginning of a stage. Although there is a limit to the number of abilities each weapon can gain, the strength enhancements will occur each time a stage is beaten, even if it was cleared previously. Thus, rather than taking a skewed gamble at the casino that can be found during levels, replaying stages could easily provide the same potential, plus currency. Although I didn’t do that, I took pleasure in Frances Francis’s card game; the buffs allotted can make most enemies become one-hit kills.
HOTEL BARCELONA’s combat is very fun. With combos, sweeps, and launchers that lead into air combos, it began to feel similar to Devil May Cry 2’s better half (Lucia disk). It has action combat that is akin to movement found within fighting games, with the same satisfying feeling, and gunplay as an optional tool, rather than gameplay clutch. Unfortunately, these combat performances and juggles can’t be performed on bosses, even within their downed state. Furthermore, that general satisfaction can no longer be enjoyed once enemies begin to die after just one or two hits. Upon reaching such a level of strength, it would be presumed to play on a harder difficulty setting. However, as HOTEL BARCELONA’s unfair aspects are still present, I felt deterred from doing so to avoid a potentially frustrating experience. There are other ways to provide a challenge aside from difficulty options, via the concierge’s bondage offers. By asking for these Special Requests, the player can impose their own limiters, such as: touching water will kill you, 1 HP Mode, no dodging allowed, and more. I tried some of the simpler ones, but overall, I think my interest lies in replaying the game on harder difficulties first and discovering how to access the optional levels.
PRESENTATION
HOTEL BARCELONA’s biggest issue arises from its poor graphics and optimization. Aside from the standard resolution options and vsync, the only graphic options are: Best, High, Medium, Low, Lowest. Although my laptop passes the minimum system requirements and my PC passes both minimum & recommended, the game fails to keep a stable framerate in combat, no matter the setting. The lowest settings remove a visual effect that provides the game with needed depth between the foreground and background, so playing on that wasn’t optimal at all. But, even when playing on Low or Medium settings, there were still many instances where the framerate would fall into the 20s. I wouldn’t be surprised if the combined detail of spraying blood, ragdoll limbs, dropped currencies, and even Slasher Phantoms happened to be the culprit. This doesn’t make the game unplayable, but it does create instances where playing well is hampered by the game itself and not the player.
Additionally, as I was utilizing Steam’s detailed FPS-tracker when playing, it struck me that HOTEL BARCELONA’s UI could use more customizable options. As the tracker, in its most comfortable position, places itself over the level countdown, timing out amidst a good run happened a few times. Although that is a specific issue that can be easily avoided, as it was an issue of my own making, the game’s UI still comes across as quite crowded with details that can even distract from level hazards. A setting is provided to change the UI size, but it only alters the size of the text and not the scaling of the UI symbols and design itself. This, combined with how the camera awkwardly follows Justine’s every slight movement, focusing on the UI and the game at the same time, is quite the task.
However, despite these issues, HOTEL BARCELONA still features inspiring aspects within its presentation. The 2D animations preceding each boss are psychedelic and vibrant, giving some insight into each slasher’s misfortune. The illustrations of each character feature stylized decisions that I could see influencing my art, featuring very warm hues of our more kind attendants or solid contrasts that make vile killers look cool, in their own messed-up way. HOTEL BARCELONA’s harkening towards slasher and horror films is also strong, introducing each stage with its own illustrated film poster before slicing it apart.
The voice acting, although stilted, was very charming. Each character sounds like an average person who was asked to fill the role, but given the setting and inspirations, it makes many of the performances feel earnest. As for the music, most of it wasn’t too noticeable despite being present. But two vocal tracks kick in at the endgame that were able to cap off the stay in the funniest way possible.
VERDICT
Although the issues within HOTEL BARCELONA could hamper the experience for some players, there is still a lot to enjoy. Its graphical presentation is its worst issue, and I hope that can be fixed sooner rather than later. But the unique roguelike experience, fighting game akin combat, and moral dilemmas between Justine and DR. CARNIVAL made for an incredibly satisfying title that knew when to tap into the wacky side of its inspirations for unexpected hilarity.
Thank you to AShadowLink & NantenJex for editing and proofreading.
HOTEL BARCELONA: Despite graphical issues, HOTEL BARCELONA features a fun and unique roguelike journey with combat akin to a fighting game. It's moral dilemmas between Justine and DR. CARNIVAL make for an incredibly satisfying title that knows when to tap into the wacky side of its inspirations for unexpected hilarity. – PhantomZ2
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