I did not know what to expect when I took on Norwood Suite. Knowing nothing about the game I went in with many questions. I finished the game with many more. What originally drew me in was the unique art style of the game from images online, and the game is definitely unique. Norwood Suite works to make the unusual the norm and creates a hotel where there is always more than what meets the eye. From the art on the walls of the hotel, the unnerving character designs, and constant musical iconography thrown into the game, there is a lot to take in. During your time in Norwood Suite you meet unicyclists, a cook that is more obsessed with playing Zo than making good food, the representative for a drink called Blue Moose with questionable long term health effect, and many others. Something that really brought out the essence of this game was the use of music both in dialogue and the environment. A combination of jazz and techno music reflected what this game was all about, the old clashing with the new.
Developed in 2017 as an adventure game by Cosmo D, this ‘embedded narrative’ game has you exploring Norwood Hotel, a place where wayward musicians, the staff battling threats of new management, and the memory of Peter Norwood, live. The game is filled with music in both the visual and auditory sense. The music is not just in the background but a physical part of the world coming from radios in all the hotel rooms along side the characters’ dialogue. This is a fitting detail for a game focused on the impact of music. It also has its share of unsettling aspects and moments that made my heart skip a beat, like the creepy old man at the concert knocking you out for ruining DJ Bogart’s performance. A fair reaction all things considered. But there is no fail situation in this game, well that is unless you are like me and the game breaks and makes becomes impossible to finish the game, but that is a rare case. Being dropped off at the hotel with a job not quite clear to you, you navigate the halls of Norwood hotel, both those open to the public and the secret tunnels that make up the nine tableau. By doing so you learn about both the past of Peter Norwood alongside the current residents of Norwood Hotel and their struggles.
Before discussing my interpretation of the game’s story I feel I must first discuss the gameplay. I would be lying to say it was not a frustrating endeavor to play this game. It may have just been because of my laptop but there was a continuous battle to get the game to behave correctly. From struggles to open the game, a slow opening loading screen, lagged movements, misloading of areas, characters, and dialogue, multiple game crashes, and worst of all a misload of the game the made it impossible to finish the game during the final stretch without starting all over, it would be an understatement to stay I have some gripes with the game. However looking past all the exposed wiring and creaky floorboard that Norwood Suite provided, there was a lot to be learned from this game. From the humorous dialogue, odd fetch quests, and secrets of Norwood to uncover, there are layers upon layers of story.
I decided not to discuss it in class but the ending of Norwood Suite turns the game completely on its head. That is to say that it is revealed that DJ Bogart is a robot revealed when his head explodes from the audio of the CD you brought him. And moreover, Peter Norwood was also a robot all along as this explosive event happens within a room full of robotic Norwood parts. Freaky. Also confusing. Your guess is as good as mine as to why this is the ending honestly. But according to the developer Cosmo D. “Both Norwood and DJ Bogart are the embodiment of musical ideals. Past and present, people have flocked from all around to see them and be close to them, their creative energy, their inventiveness.” While Cosmo wanted Norwood Suite’s ending to be something for the user to interpret, the themes of the past and the present shine throughout the game.
As I see it, within this hotel there is this rift between old and new throughout the game and the interactions you observe. You meet the old staff of the hotel and Modulo company trying to take over management. You meet a daughter that has come back to the hotel that her old man worked at and reminisces about her time there as a kid while preparing to be on a panel for the conference the next day. There are students and artists there to learn more about the famous artist Peter Norwood that went missing. And then those that are there to enjoy DJ Boggart’s 300th consecutive concert. And at the center of it all is Norwood and Boggart showing different generations of music and the impact they have had. But of course, shocker, neither of them are real, at least not in the fleshy human way.
So what kind of story does this all tell? It is revealed through the nine tableau that Norwood did not treat his colleagues well. He can be seen acting aggressive towards them in large images in the secret halls of the Hotel. Yet Peter Norwood is seen as a genius of his time and many have come to the hotel to learn more about this musical idol. DJ Boggart is treated in a very similar way and he is ready to move on to bigger and better things and would be doing so if not for you accidently killing him. Both are placed on a pedestal, and yet are unfaced as false idols while the real connections are under your nose the whole time. By helping those in Norwood Hotel you there more about their stories and see them interact with one another. They are the real ones making the music here, quite literally as their voices are music. It is not the long gone Peter Norwood or DJ Boggart locked behind an eight-piece costume door. If you were to speed through the game, as I did on my second run to actually finish the game, you might reach the ending but you would miss the story. The dialogue shared by the characters show a much deeper story and focus more on the present and the lives of the characters, a much more interesting plot in my opinion than uncovering Peter Norwood’s deep dark secrets or going on a DJ Boggart assassination quest.
Intermittent Mechanism 