I might as well say right away that while Last Window was pretty good, I think Hotel Dusk was significantly better.
Story: It's been said before, but it starts off far too slow, and even later in the game, things can kind of drag sometimes. The narrative just didn't seem as compelling this time around, even as personal as it is. Anyone else have the same feeling?
Where specific characters are concerned, my favorites were definitely Dylan and Will, followed closely by Tony, Marie and Rex. Dylan's just priceless because he keeps shifting back and forth between being helpful and being obnoxiously (and disturbingly) interested in your private affairs, as well as other people's! It's delicious just to watch, and the fact that he turned out to be a plant from Nile just made it even better!
Gotta be honest, Will was giving off the sleaziest vibes when I first met him, but that just made me interested (I especially loved those chilling smiles of his)! He didn't disappoint, either! Putting a gun to Kyle's back after finding the latter in his room, then pressing the verbal attack afterward...I don't exaggerate when I say that the confrontation between Kyle and Will was my favorite part of the game, where I felt the most interested and emotionally invested (not coincidentally, I thought the dialogue for that part outshone most of the rest of the game's script, as well).
As for Tony, I can see why people thought he was so similar to Louie, but I appreciate the differences between them. I didn't think much of him initially, but I liked him better after Kyle's "little talk" with him.
Marie, I always thought she was going to be an interesting character. And she was, but I actually liked her better when it was heavily implied she was a fraudster/murderer (is something wrong with me, or what!). Rex, too, got some of the more interesting dialogue in the game, but it's too bad he wasn't as important as a lot of us thought he'd be.
Surprisingly, I thought Kyle and Rachel's relationship was actually diminished in this game compared to Hotel Dusk. Their interactions consisted mainly of Kyle saying, "Look this stuff up," and her responding, "You got it." Yes, I know he did plenty of that in the original, but they actually found time for genuine conversations in that one. Heck, Kyle had more interesting chemistry with Marie than he did with Rachel.
Mila's appearance, ehhh...I LOVED her in the original, but as was mentioned before, she really added nothing to this game. Almost makes me wish she hadn't been included to begin with.
Music: Definitely some good stuff going on here (special mentions to Misty Time, Twilight Sad, City Dyed Purple, Sharp Edge, and Deepening Distrust), but the overall quality of Dusk's music was just higher, at least in my opinion.
Final point: There's a reason 90% of what I just said was devoted to blathering incoherently about the characters and story, and that is that Hotel Dusk shone because of its fantastic characters and dialogue. Last Window definitely had good things to offer, but as a whole, it just didn't measure up to the amazing package that Hotel Dusk was. To those of you actually made it through this wandering excuse for a review, thanks for reading! Hope you got any sense out of it.