After spending months with a “Mixed” rating on Steam, director Hidetaka “SWERY” Suehiro was proud to announce that White Owls’s action roguelike game, Hotel Barcelona, achieved a “Mostly Positive” rating on June 8. SWERY attributed the game’s more favorable reception to several factors, including the massive “Under New Management” patch from March, as well as support, feedback and reviews from players.
When Hotel Barcelona initially released last September, many players praised it for its world-building, presentation, and unique Slasher Phantom system that lets you fight alongside deceased versions of yourself. Unfortunately, issues with game balance and optimization, coupled with the use of AI-generated content, led to divided reception, netting it a “Mixed” rating on Steam.
Eager to turn the game’s reputation in a more positive direction, White Owls dedicated the first few post-launch months to listening to user feedback and implementing updates to address the most immediate issues (the developers also made sure that all AI-generated content was removed from the game). These updates culminated in March’s Under New Management patch, which drastically changed the flow of movement and combat, as well as enemy and level balance.
Work on Hotel Barcelona is far from over. The developers released the game’s first add-on piece of content, Late Check-Out DLC: From Dusk Valley to Grandall Estate, on April 24, and are constantly introducing updates that add free content and fix existing bugs. If they keep this up, the game may well be on its way to earning a “Very Positive” Steam rating.
Hotel Barcelona is available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows (Steam).
