The Forgotten Doritos' Horror Game
"By confronting your fears can you then find the light."
-Hotel 626
For you who haven't heard of it before, you read the title right. And for those who already knows or taking a guess right now, you are (probably) also right, the horror game we are talking about here is a browser game called Hotel 626. A great flash game that is unfortunately no longer available.
The first time I discovered this game was when I had a sleepover at my friend's house...a couple of years ago. Perhaps 5 years ago if I remember correctly. At that time this game was scary enough for me to keep me from going to the bathroom alone at night. But when I recall this game right now I think it's not as scary as Silent Hill or Amnesia, or.. Outlast or whatever.
As you can see on the notification on the screenshot below, the game only available between 6 pm to 6 am. But you can bypass it by changing the time on your computer. If you play around the specified time or bypass it, the page will lead you to a "check in" section.
Firstly, the player start by checking in into the game, type in your name and email in the website's front page. By the time you are in the front page the site already tried to scare you with...that face on the right as if someone is somehow stuck/fused within a wall and pushing their face through while screaming at you. A good start.
After you check in, the game begin with you awake in your hotel room in the middle of the night, putting on your shirt and get out of the room for some reason, to see the creepy corridor of the hotel and begin the horror; run away from creepy 'darkness' that swallows the entire room chasing after you.
This 'darkness' is one of the horrors you have to get away from pretty much each time you complete a stage and get out of the room to get to the next stage. Aside of this 'darkness', not all of the enemies in this game are ghosts, some of them more like crazy people like in Outlast instead of ghosts.
There were no clear story as to who the protagonist is, where and what the hotel is, what is going on, and why there's no Doritos. So the objective is as simple as to get out of the horrid hotel. There are 10 stages each with their own creepy and unique puzzles or just task to do to get out.
One of my most terrifying moment is on the sing a lullaby to a baby ghost. With the mouse I had to turn the cursor in circle to crank up the music box not too slow and not too fast, otherwise the baby will wake up, eyes turns pitch black, and then a jumpscare.
But after successfully putting the ghost toddler to sleep it's not over yet. Next thing I had to do was walk really slowly and carefully because the floor creeks, and this time I had to balance the cursor right in the middle of a bar that indicate the noise level.
On the screenshot of a sleeping ghost baby above, the lullaby is sing through the mic, but in my case I was using the mouse. That's one of the unique feature of this Doritos horror game. It uses your microphone, and your webcam, and your actual cell phone.
While the microphone is optional, your webcam (if you have one and enabled) will be used without your knowledge and you'll find out that the game has been taking your picture since the beginning when you reach the 8th stage. And you'll get a phone call with directions of the way out, but I don't remember about this one.
Quite brilliant isn't it? Using the webcam to take the player's picture (although it's kinda unsafe or inappropriate) and make it a part of the game, require you to listen carefully to the game's sounds if you want to beat the game, and also did I mention that the game is live-action? All of those resulting in an immersive horror game, way too good to be a browser game.
Just watch this "let's play" video if you want to see how it is. (It's not mine)
Fun Fact:
Hotel 626 was an advertisement game made to promote Doritos' two new flavours they brought "back from the dead" back in 2009 during Halloween. Though there wasn't any Doritos to be seen in the game. (See, it wasn't a joke. But still, dry).
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I never heard about this one. I'll have to check it out. My favorite was Dominos Pizza Yo Noid game for NES.
Ooh.. Dominos Pizza have their game too. This Doritos' horror game is no longer available, they took it down for an unclear reason. Too bad, the game's cool
agreed!
man !!! that's so scary
i dont like play those games wtf !
Well that's how horror game supposed to be
7-Up had two mascot inspired games. One was Spot and the other was Fido Dido. There are a few of these types of games, unfortunately. lol
This Doritos one actually looks pretty good.
Dominos Pizza, KFC, 7-Up, Doritos, and God knows what else. What's with video game and foods & drinks?! Lol
I agree. There is some kind of subliminal connection between gamers and quick to eat foods and drink.
Holy cow, I remember playing this game back when it was announced. This thing was sinfully good considering it was made as a promotional tie in for a snack food. Thanks for the awesome review and memories, @gaming-stuff!
You're welcome!
True, this game was too good to be what it was and now I remember when I played this with my friend I kept asking "This is a browser game? This is a flash game? This is a browser game?" lol