Hotel 626, a PT-style Doritos Horror video game where you’re trapped forever

Believe it or not, potato giant Frito-Lay’s strangest mash-up was the combination of video game horror and a famous tortilla chip brand to create something unusual: Hotel 626. Sure, it’s clearly a promotion for Doritos, but it’s also a transgressive format for 2008, when media like Twitch were still in their infancy and YouTube or Twitter were still gaining traction. And despite its limitations, it was an experience in itself.

What is Hotel 626? In technical terms, it was a horror game designed for web browsers that you played using both your PC screen and your microphone and webcam. It only lasted about 15 minutes. or less if we choose a fixed frame, but it doesn’t matter what you did because no matter what you do you will be trapped in their world. And the fact that we write in the past tense is not accidental, since the game has completely disappeared from the Internet. We’ll get to it.

The game came out just in time for Halloween, and from the very beginning it was clear that Doritos was behind the initiative. However, this was not just a promotion of the taste of their snacks, but a superb combination of modern first-person horror games with the ingenious elements of modern Scape Rooms, encouraging us, the players, to break the fourth wall and let’s use our computer as a tool play. Trying to survive its horrors.

So much so that the game used our photos during the game, he mixed them with the actions of other real players, and only as we progress in the game, between panics, do we realize this. That they did this to us. Today it would be looked at differently, and it would have legal implications, but if we put it into context, this experiment achieved exactly what it set out to do: leave us uneasy. First of all, when after this special experience we received phone call.

Hotel 626, the amazing horror created by Doritos

Unlike other games created using Flash or for browsers, Hotel 626 I had two prerequisites for playing: the first was to reserve a hotel room, which served as an excuse for us to provide an email address and phone number, create an account and activate everything required, including some consent. Among other things, for access to microphone and webcam.

The second requirement was much more interesting because, as its name suggests, it could only be accessed Hotel 626 hours during which the experiment was active: from 6 pm to 6 am. The reason for the latter? You had to play at night, no matter what. If possible, in the dark.

It makes sense that they didn’t wait until it went viral (or anything close to that in 2008) to push the initiative. SnackStrong, the creators of the project, created their own mockumentary. Making it clear that this has nothing to do with previous Doritos initiatives.

On a visual level, Hotel 626 It was more or less a pre-packaged tour of the damned hotel, starting with cliches from movies and video games of the time. From the magnificent film “1408”, released just a year earlier, to “The Ring” or the game saga “Project Zero”. Looking forward to the style of first-person environmental horror that will finally take hold among the successful and also the retired P.T. Kojima or the latest version of Silent Hill: The Short Message.

In fact, at the beginning there’s more to it than just a creepy setting: we have to photograph a scary silhouette looking for a jump scare (or scream scare) in a closed room. Quite a cliché. However, as we progress through the Hotel, we see that the riddles become more and more confusing:

• We have to use our computer’s microphone so we don’t have to sing anything to a sleeping girl in the middle of nowhere.
• We have to deliberately increase the volume of the PC sound in order to hear among the whispers the combination to escape from the room in which we are with a tied up madman.
• Later we have to find our photo among a room full of Polaroids with portraits of other players. Moreover, the photo was taken by the game itself without prior notice.
• And if that weren’t enough, at some point in the game, before ending the experience, we will receive a phone call to receive instructions on how to escape, following the exact instructions.

As we have already mentioned, many of these ideas could not be realized today. Not without more specific permissions. In a manner Hotel 626 This is the type of terror that could only be carried out in 2008, when the media existed but there were no such restrictions on the part of users. And yet the experience did not end there. A few weeks later, after a period of time during which you may have forgotten that you were playing it, one day at 6 o’clock in the afternoon you receive a new call that tells you:

“You can never leave the hotel. And there is no escape from its horrors.”

Does Doritos’ offer seem surreal to you? As an example, here is the complete Hotel 626 game played by DrossRotzank.

And, if you prefer jump scares in English, here’s another one in which PewDiePie He checked into a hotel and left those who listened to him with red ears in their headphones.

As expected, this promotion soon became a phenomenon that, unfortunately, was more or less forgotten decades later. And SnackStrong gave it an even more confusing sequel: Vault 626.

Vault 626: a lot more horror, but a lot more advertising

Initiative Hotel 626 it had enough depth to take the idea to the next level, so SnackStrong upped the ante, starting with two even more promising bases: instead of a damn hotel in Vault 626 We would be locked and defenseless in an insane asylum, and the procedure for entering it would simply be to obtain permission and authorization from Facebook, which were largely standardized among Internet users. Needless to say, the latter gave a master key to the creators of the new nightmare.

It would seem that those who returned to this experience were cured of their fears, but Vault 626 He knew how to put a new spin on the same idea: he used photos of our Facebook contacts in some of the puzzles, and also played with how close we were in front of the camera to create fear. Besides, of course, a much more intricate and visceral plot that took advantage of our visit to the shelter. And yet this sequel destroyed all the genius of the original game.

To solve an essential puzzle to continue Vault 626 Our ingenuity and courage were not enough: we had to buy a bag of Doritos and that we used the included promotional code. This was not an effective means of off-screen immersion, but it did achieve exclusion of the player from the entire experience.

Needless to say, it is currently impossible to access any of these experiences. Both addresses Hotel 626 How Vault 626 They lead nowhere, and given current privacy controls, it is very unlikely or downright impossible to recreate both games. They are both children of their time, and they came out when they had to come out. Neither before nor after.

Since then, we’ve seen the entertainment industry evolve, the type of information being transmitted has become more and more secure, and we’re not going to deny it, there are still snacks and drinks that provide content for successful video games. Will we see such fears again? Just in case, Always cover your webcam when not in use.

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