This is a really, really strong proof of concept, but I was a little disappointed that some of its potential went unfulfilled. Home Safety Hotline has a great art direction and creeped me out quite a bit. It's possible that I just have a big weakness for admin/tech support games like Papers, Please and its ilk, but this game was a lot of fun.
Normally I'm the first to praise a horror game for brevity, but here I felt like it was missing just a little something to take what an interesting idea and send it to the moon. The setup is subverted a little bit here and there throughout, but it never really reaches the crescendo that truly great horror demands. The gameplay too needed an extra wrinkle or two, as at the end of the day, you really are just answering a series of questions with no time limit.
Home Safety Hotline is definitely a little underbaked, but I like so much of it that I find it hard to hold that against it. Instead, I'll say that those potential points of criticisim make me want a sequel that can iterate and improve upon the already great stuff that's here and flesh it out into a truly brilliant experience. For now though, Home Safety Hotline is a surprisingly spooky way to spend an evening.
Normally I'm the first to praise a horror game for brevity, but here I felt like it was missing just a little something to take what an interesting idea and send it to the moon. The setup is subverted a little bit here and there throughout, but it never really reaches the crescendo that truly great horror demands. The gameplay too needed an extra wrinkle or two, as at the end of the day, you really are just answering a series of questions with no time limit.
Home Safety Hotline is definitely a little underbaked, but I like so much of it that I find it hard to hold that against it. Instead, I'll say that those potential points of criticisim make me want a sequel that can iterate and improve upon the already great stuff that's here and flesh it out into a truly brilliant experience. For now though, Home Safety Hotline is a surprisingly spooky way to spend an evening.
I never really understood these games where the horror is mostly present when you're NOT doing well. If you pay attention and are good at the game (I feel like I was, I mostly had perfect scores until the very end!) most of the horror is stuff you'll have to look up on YouTube. It seems common in this scene of games, what's up with that?
I'm fond of this game, though! The horror that is there is entertaining enough, there are some interesting ideas here. When you beat the game you get to see some developer artwork and commentary, and it's clear that this wasn't just some quick job to capitalize on what YouTubers would make a viral video on. It's funny, too. I also am realizing I'm a sucker for games that have interfaces that resemble older operating systems!
I'm fond of this game, though! The horror that is there is entertaining enough, there are some interesting ideas here. When you beat the game you get to see some developer artwork and commentary, and it's clear that this wasn't just some quick job to capitalize on what YouTubers would make a viral video on. It's funny, too. I also am realizing I'm a sucker for games that have interfaces that resemble older operating systems!
Press on, employee.
My friend Larry has been acting a little weird lately. He keeps standing in the corner staring at me, telling me we should play Home Safety Hotline in a voice that's not his, and there's this really horrible smell like rotten eggs that's been filling up my apartment. I don't know if it's related, but Larry - who has taken to crawling on the walls and ceiling - showed me the trailer and explained that it's created by Nick Lives, who previously worked on Hypno Space Outlaw. I was intrigued and then partook in a large feast of cornmeal that had been curiously laid out on the dining room table, as the voices in the walls demanded.
Home Safety Hotline sits the player down with a bestiary of common home hazards ranging from bees to Boggarts, house flies to Dorcha, which the player must refer to in order to properly diagnose the problems of callers who are currently in various states of duress. True to the real-world experience of working in a call center, the loop of taking a call and finding a solution can be a bit rote, and much of the challenge is borne from callers providing inaccurate or conflicting pieces of information. On some level, it almost feels like a Loveline simulator. Lot of calls about kids getting eaten tonight... Must be a full moon.
Caller: It... It... It stole me...! It stole me!! I'm not me anymore, I'm... it took me! I can't see myself anymore, I'm gone! Help me!! Help me get b--
Adam: Alright, I'm putting her on hold. Sick of her already... Drew, how many times do we get calls like this and the answer is always carpenter ants?
Drew: All the time.
Adam: Helen? Get yourself some Raid, babydoll.
Those expecting the heavy puzzle solving and obtuseness of Hypno Space Outlaw might then be a little disappointed with how straight-forward Hotline is, but it's really more a vehicle for some very imaginative and entertaining writing, and the excitement of seeing new entries in the bestiary unlock during each subsequent shift dulls how samey most nights are on a mechanical level. You won't hack into a bunch of weird databases or decipher codes here, and Hotline's central mystery doesn't leave many unanswered questions by the end of its short 3-4 hour run, but that's fine. In fact, after biting into several incredibly long games over the last couple of months, it's preferable.
My only real complaint is that the game only leverages audio queues once, and calls rarely share the same answer, which trivializes the late game through a simple process of elimination. Otherwise, I am so into what the game is going for that it feels like targeted content. It's hard to dig into specifics without spoiling some of the more inventive entries or giving away the plot, but I do appreciate how ranged and varied a lot of Hotline's creatures are. You'll frequently diagnose problems caused by benign beings like toilet Hobbs, which enjoy cleaning your bathroom and can be placated by providing them a single egg at night. You'll also have to deal with more abstract and frightening entities like memory wisps, which essentially give their victims Alzheimer's. No cure for that, you have to let them run their course. What can you say other than "good times?"
Maybe I'm predisposed to whatever kind of weird horror Nick Lives is putting out into the world (Night Signal looks interesting and I'm way into the premise of Please Insert Disc), reviews on here appear more mixed, but I do think this is worth checking out if you want something short, simple, and backed by some really fun writing. I have to go now, the soil is calling me...
My friend Larry has been acting a little weird lately. He keeps standing in the corner staring at me, telling me we should play Home Safety Hotline in a voice that's not his, and there's this really horrible smell like rotten eggs that's been filling up my apartment. I don't know if it's related, but Larry - who has taken to crawling on the walls and ceiling - showed me the trailer and explained that it's created by Nick Lives, who previously worked on Hypno Space Outlaw. I was intrigued and then partook in a large feast of cornmeal that had been curiously laid out on the dining room table, as the voices in the walls demanded.
Home Safety Hotline sits the player down with a bestiary of common home hazards ranging from bees to Boggarts, house flies to Dorcha, which the player must refer to in order to properly diagnose the problems of callers who are currently in various states of duress. True to the real-world experience of working in a call center, the loop of taking a call and finding a solution can be a bit rote, and much of the challenge is borne from callers providing inaccurate or conflicting pieces of information. On some level, it almost feels like a Loveline simulator. Lot of calls about kids getting eaten tonight... Must be a full moon.
Caller: It... It... It stole me...! It stole me!! I'm not me anymore, I'm... it took me! I can't see myself anymore, I'm gone! Help me!! Help me get b--
Adam: Alright, I'm putting her on hold. Sick of her already... Drew, how many times do we get calls like this and the answer is always carpenter ants?
Drew: All the time.
Adam: Helen? Get yourself some Raid, babydoll.
Those expecting the heavy puzzle solving and obtuseness of Hypno Space Outlaw might then be a little disappointed with how straight-forward Hotline is, but it's really more a vehicle for some very imaginative and entertaining writing, and the excitement of seeing new entries in the bestiary unlock during each subsequent shift dulls how samey most nights are on a mechanical level. You won't hack into a bunch of weird databases or decipher codes here, and Hotline's central mystery doesn't leave many unanswered questions by the end of its short 3-4 hour run, but that's fine. In fact, after biting into several incredibly long games over the last couple of months, it's preferable.
My only real complaint is that the game only leverages audio queues once, and calls rarely share the same answer, which trivializes the late game through a simple process of elimination. Otherwise, I am so into what the game is going for that it feels like targeted content. It's hard to dig into specifics without spoiling some of the more inventive entries or giving away the plot, but I do appreciate how ranged and varied a lot of Hotline's creatures are. You'll frequently diagnose problems caused by benign beings like toilet Hobbs, which enjoy cleaning your bathroom and can be placated by providing them a single egg at night. You'll also have to deal with more abstract and frightening entities like memory wisps, which essentially give their victims Alzheimer's. No cure for that, you have to let them run their course. What can you say other than "good times?"
Maybe I'm predisposed to whatever kind of weird horror Nick Lives is putting out into the world (Night Signal looks interesting and I'm way into the premise of Please Insert Disc), reviews on here appear more mixed, but I do think this is worth checking out if you want something short, simple, and backed by some really fun writing. I have to go now, the soil is calling me...
Solid little game. Not scary, just sometimes off-setting that borders on quirkiness. I feel like they could've done a lot more with the story, however, and the ending was a bit tone-deaf. Regardless, definitely suggest playing it, as the gameplay loop is quite satisfying.
My spouse and I played this in the living room, and it was a great game for date night. They're legally blind, so I had to read the bestiary text aloud - I ended up with a super sore throat, but it was so worth it! Hanging out and trying to figure out which critter fit the caller's problem was a great time. We ended up finishing it in one sitting.
The silly little creatures are fun, and a lot of the callers call in with pretty ridiculous problems. Some are sad, but it wraps around into being funny when you remember they're just getting an info packet with the words "We can send over a memory wipe package" or "Just ignore your fake dog". I would NOT want to live in this universe. The ending song after you're promoted reminded me of something out of a Jim Henson company flick.
The price for how long the game is doesn't bother me. We've had more expensive dates, and fifteen is a cheap date.
The silly little creatures are fun, and a lot of the callers call in with pretty ridiculous problems. Some are sad, but it wraps around into being funny when you remember they're just getting an info packet with the words "We can send over a memory wipe package" or "Just ignore your fake dog". I would NOT want to live in this universe. The ending song after you're promoted reminded me of something out of a Jim Henson company flick.
The price for how long the game is doesn't bother me. We've had more expensive dates, and fifteen is a cheap date.
This review contains spoilers
I'm now one of the elite employees
A fun game to stream. Took maybe 2 hours or a little over to complete, so it is only really worth a grab if getting on sale.
𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓻𝓮
𝓤𝓝𝓔𝓜𝓟𝓛𝓞𝓨𝓔𝓓
𝓤𝓝𝓔𝓜𝓟𝓛𝓞𝓨𝓔𝓓
This review contains spoilers
Home Safety Hotline is a “supernatural tech support simulator” developed by Night Signal Entertainment, a company which only recently released their first game “Night Signal” back in late 2022. The game was developed by Nick Lives, who had the idea for this game ever since he was a child when his grandmother got him a Dungeons & Dragons manual. Fascinated with the idea of a “bestiary”, he attempted to create titles based on the idea a couple of times from an art based fantasy game where you attempt to test dead bodies to 1-800-BESTIARY. Comments on Youtube would lead Nick down a rabbit hole woth “Analog Horror”, an aesthetic that would throwback to 80s and 90s found footage and low resolution camera grain. How do I know all of this? Once you beat the game you’ll actually get an Art Book where Nick goes behind the scenes. Speaking of Nick, how did I get into this game? I’m unsure if I found it first due to my love of Analog Horror or old throwback graphic games or if my buddy Nick (not Lives but an actual friend of mine) found it first but he told me about it through watching Vinesauce I think? Eventually he just gave me 20 dollars and told me to buy this game so we could play it together.
The plot is rather simple: you play as an unnamed recruit at the Home Safety Hotline, a call center where you give information on a variety of threats to people who call in looking for advice. At first you only get a few normal ones (ex. termites, bees or house fires (which is hilarious because why would anyone call a safety hotline and not realize what a house fire is)) but over the course of the week you’ll get access to more entries and calls; some of these entries range from funny to downright scary. The gameplay section will be here too because the gameplay is simple, you read entries and give answers. What’s REALLY interesting about this game is it’s world; whether you’re reading emails from someone who seems to be crazy and is sending you emails from a hole in the wall, to random videos that pop up over the course of the week on your computer that show you a bit of an insight into the lore, it’s fascinating to take in. If you get 100 percent accuracy each day, you’ll also get fake discounts expensive and hilariously stupid s h i t that you can’t even buy. Luckily if you fail a bit, you can choose to reset your weekly progress from the Home Screen on your computer, and all the answers are scripted so if you need a guide there’s one down in the links. You’ll learn that Home Safety Hotline isn’t all that’s cracked up to be once the “Crazy Email Guy” and the Prank Caller eventually disappear by mysterious means. Eventually on the last day, you’ll be given a final trial by “the people from the soil” who ask you riddles. You’ll have to identity which creatures correspond with what and sometimes it can be a doozy when you think you know the answer to what the issue is, only to learn that it’s something more benign (funny tip, house fires only shows up on the last day as a bit of a Chekhov's Gun). Once you beat the game (and through hints like the Prank Caller’s last words), you’ll learn that Home Safety Hotline is run by a bunch of Faes. The guy who lived in a wall? A previous employee who got turned into a mouse. Prank Caller? Same thing. If you get a horrible accuracy rate, you fail and get turned into a mouse. If you succeed however, you’ll get an ending where Carol (who speaks in yee ol’ english) appears to you in a forest FMV style and gives you a crown, and from here you get a promotion. Then the credits roll while a bunch of strange looking people in goofy costumes dance and sing.
My thoughts on the plot are as follows: it’s really fun and makes me ask questions. The Fae that run Home Safety Hotline, why are they running it? What else lives in this world? What’s the morality of the Fae? Truth be told, while I got a lot of the background lore, while doing research for this game I didn’t realize the amount of foreshadowing this game truly had. Between the entries on mice being “useless” to the logo being a celtic knot (shoutout to TVTropes for this). What does a promotion entail? There are creatures from folklore like Trolls and Goblins but are there other creatures beyond this? The lore, while it can be funny sometimes, also gets kind of freaky and existential. Some of the entries are downright terrifying, with some of the solutions including “screw over someone else”, “abandon your house” or “make peace and accept your fate” (shoutout to the Dorcha for being the scariest entry). The gameplay aspect of the game I feel fits perfectly, and the only thing one could really wish for is a sort of randomizer though that would require A LOT of voice lines and more work, of which I’m not sure one could do with how small of a scale this game is.
The art direction isenjoyable, again a throwback to the 90s with a distinct parody of Windows 95 chosen for the game’s style. You can switch the colors around in the Options Menu, but for the most part you’ll be seeing a Lime Greenish color. Getting calls will show you a digital picture of their face, sometimes with distortions or glitches. Actually looking at the entries themselves will reveal the same thing (with the loading times being slow-ish which fits into the era), pictures that have obvious photoshopped creatures in it that look unrealistic but fits perfectly at the same time. This will be most of the game outside of the Ending Cutscene, which will be a slower styled FMV video but with more fluid movement. The sound design to the game is also immaculate as hell, between the voice acting and the lofi music by David Johnson that just gives me this image of old 90s cyberspace. Starting with the soundtrack, while there are only a handful of tracks (the most memorable being Safety First, the main menu track) that are displayed in game, each one again has this soothing lofi essence that really encapsulates to me in my mind what this older styled hold music would sound like. It’s easy listening and gets a big thumbs up for enhancing the atmosphere. The voice acting is spot on for the tongue-in-cheek tone it’s going for, with the actress playing Carol and the doofus playing the Prank Caller (I never will get tired of the name Buzz Goober lol) just knocking it out of the park with the goofy vibes. Everyone who does the customer voices are actually great, mixing in that old crunchy low poly sound effect that garbles their voice just feels perfect to me. Speaking of sound effects, everything from clicking on computer apps to listening to the sounds that certain cryptids make just, I have no words for how immersive it is. The only other note I have for this is that sometimes it’ll be obvious when a female voices a male’s role but honestly I find it hilarious and campy, feeling right at home with the game’s vibes that it enhances it.
Overall, my time with Home Safety Hotline was pretty damn good, a fun little romp that both had me thinking a lot by the time we hit the end. We ended up playing by basically reading through the entries before making guesses on what the answer was, looking it up after to see which one was right or if we were right to begin with. Most of the time, we were spot on and in all honesty this game has a party game vibe to it. It has heart while also sprinkling in bits of creep factor. One of these days, I’d love to give “Night Signal” a try just to see what that was like, but they’re also in the middle of developing a new project titled “Please Insert Disc” that gives PS2 throwbacks. Home Safety Hotline is 15 dollars; I sunk in about 4 hours of gameplay time and since my buddy Nick handed me a 20 I wasn’t really concerned about the main price? Otherwise wait for a sale.
Links:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/HomeSafetyHotline
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT6cFzMQzTM&ab_channel=VHS
https://horrorgamenews.com/home-safety-hotline-answers/
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
The plot is rather simple: you play as an unnamed recruit at the Home Safety Hotline, a call center where you give information on a variety of threats to people who call in looking for advice. At first you only get a few normal ones (ex. termites, bees or house fires (which is hilarious because why would anyone call a safety hotline and not realize what a house fire is)) but over the course of the week you’ll get access to more entries and calls; some of these entries range from funny to downright scary. The gameplay section will be here too because the gameplay is simple, you read entries and give answers. What’s REALLY interesting about this game is it’s world; whether you’re reading emails from someone who seems to be crazy and is sending you emails from a hole in the wall, to random videos that pop up over the course of the week on your computer that show you a bit of an insight into the lore, it’s fascinating to take in. If you get 100 percent accuracy each day, you’ll also get fake discounts expensive and hilariously stupid s h i t that you can’t even buy. Luckily if you fail a bit, you can choose to reset your weekly progress from the Home Screen on your computer, and all the answers are scripted so if you need a guide there’s one down in the links. You’ll learn that Home Safety Hotline isn’t all that’s cracked up to be once the “Crazy Email Guy” and the Prank Caller eventually disappear by mysterious means. Eventually on the last day, you’ll be given a final trial by “the people from the soil” who ask you riddles. You’ll have to identity which creatures correspond with what and sometimes it can be a doozy when you think you know the answer to what the issue is, only to learn that it’s something more benign (funny tip, house fires only shows up on the last day as a bit of a Chekhov's Gun). Once you beat the game (and through hints like the Prank Caller’s last words), you’ll learn that Home Safety Hotline is run by a bunch of Faes. The guy who lived in a wall? A previous employee who got turned into a mouse. Prank Caller? Same thing. If you get a horrible accuracy rate, you fail and get turned into a mouse. If you succeed however, you’ll get an ending where Carol (who speaks in yee ol’ english) appears to you in a forest FMV style and gives you a crown, and from here you get a promotion. Then the credits roll while a bunch of strange looking people in goofy costumes dance and sing.
My thoughts on the plot are as follows: it’s really fun and makes me ask questions. The Fae that run Home Safety Hotline, why are they running it? What else lives in this world? What’s the morality of the Fae? Truth be told, while I got a lot of the background lore, while doing research for this game I didn’t realize the amount of foreshadowing this game truly had. Between the entries on mice being “useless” to the logo being a celtic knot (shoutout to TVTropes for this). What does a promotion entail? There are creatures from folklore like Trolls and Goblins but are there other creatures beyond this? The lore, while it can be funny sometimes, also gets kind of freaky and existential. Some of the entries are downright terrifying, with some of the solutions including “screw over someone else”, “abandon your house” or “make peace and accept your fate” (shoutout to the Dorcha for being the scariest entry). The gameplay aspect of the game I feel fits perfectly, and the only thing one could really wish for is a sort of randomizer though that would require A LOT of voice lines and more work, of which I’m not sure one could do with how small of a scale this game is.
The art direction isenjoyable, again a throwback to the 90s with a distinct parody of Windows 95 chosen for the game’s style. You can switch the colors around in the Options Menu, but for the most part you’ll be seeing a Lime Greenish color. Getting calls will show you a digital picture of their face, sometimes with distortions or glitches. Actually looking at the entries themselves will reveal the same thing (with the loading times being slow-ish which fits into the era), pictures that have obvious photoshopped creatures in it that look unrealistic but fits perfectly at the same time. This will be most of the game outside of the Ending Cutscene, which will be a slower styled FMV video but with more fluid movement. The sound design to the game is also immaculate as hell, between the voice acting and the lofi music by David Johnson that just gives me this image of old 90s cyberspace. Starting with the soundtrack, while there are only a handful of tracks (the most memorable being Safety First, the main menu track) that are displayed in game, each one again has this soothing lofi essence that really encapsulates to me in my mind what this older styled hold music would sound like. It’s easy listening and gets a big thumbs up for enhancing the atmosphere. The voice acting is spot on for the tongue-in-cheek tone it’s going for, with the actress playing Carol and the doofus playing the Prank Caller (I never will get tired of the name Buzz Goober lol) just knocking it out of the park with the goofy vibes. Everyone who does the customer voices are actually great, mixing in that old crunchy low poly sound effect that garbles their voice just feels perfect to me. Speaking of sound effects, everything from clicking on computer apps to listening to the sounds that certain cryptids make just, I have no words for how immersive it is. The only other note I have for this is that sometimes it’ll be obvious when a female voices a male’s role but honestly I find it hilarious and campy, feeling right at home with the game’s vibes that it enhances it.
Overall, my time with Home Safety Hotline was pretty damn good, a fun little romp that both had me thinking a lot by the time we hit the end. We ended up playing by basically reading through the entries before making guesses on what the answer was, looking it up after to see which one was right or if we were right to begin with. Most of the time, we were spot on and in all honesty this game has a party game vibe to it. It has heart while also sprinkling in bits of creep factor. One of these days, I’d love to give “Night Signal” a try just to see what that was like, but they’re also in the middle of developing a new project titled “Please Insert Disc” that gives PS2 throwbacks. Home Safety Hotline is 15 dollars; I sunk in about 4 hours of gameplay time and since my buddy Nick handed me a 20 I wasn’t really concerned about the main price? Otherwise wait for a sale.
Links:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/HomeSafetyHotline
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT6cFzMQzTM&ab_channel=VHS
https://horrorgamenews.com/home-safety-hotline-answers/
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
I tried this totally on a whim and was pleasantly surprised with how incredibly well put together it was! There's about nothing more I could really ask from this. I'd like to say more but honestly I'd have to recommend picking it up with as little knowledge as possible.
Cool and eerie little indie game <3
i really wanted to love this game but, it just doesn't go far enough with it's ideas, it had so much potential for world building and it really just didn't hit, the monsters are cool and gameplay loop is ok, but man, this game just feels so underdeveloped.
A man died because he turned off his lamp and it's my fault
Pretty much Observation Duty x Hypnospace Outlaw. Pretty cool little game but not much to it.
it's fine enough i guess? it's a cute concept that kind of gets dull by the end, though it's not long enough to really be anything more than a little tedious and mildly disappointing. very cheesy and campy.
- Interesting idea, kinda reminiscent of Hypnospace outlaw but for monsters.
- Short and sweet, doesn't overstay its welcome.
- The voice acting is good enough, and the dialogue is funny to carry the playthrough.
- Thought the main mechanic would be harder but its actually easy to play this.
- Short and sweet, doesn't overstay its welcome.
- The voice acting is good enough, and the dialogue is funny to carry the playthrough.
- Thought the main mechanic would be harder but its actually easy to play this.
Reading the art book and finding out the lead dev used to work at Evermore Park makes this game make more sense. Not necessarily scary, but it feels more accurately like a weird FMV game from the mid-90s than people trying to do conscious parodies of the style. Nails that feel of a bunch of actors getting together and putting together a weird interactive project (see: MODE, Plumbers Don't Wear Ties, Night Trap).
This feels very underdeveloped. Gets boring to play because yeah reading about Toilet Gnome or Wine Sprite is not that fun after seeing dozens of similar entries. After 2 or 3 in-game days I thought to myself "Is that really it?" and unfortunately it is. The idea is there, it's really cool, the visual style is also there, but the gameplay makes it feel soooo empty.
fun but a little unfulfilling
Short and sweet game that while very charming, I am glad I picked up on sale. Customer service gameplay mixed with the child-like awe of flipping through a Dragonology 101 book. LOVED that the art book was included at the end and the developer explained their process - it kinda shot up the review by half a star, I found a lot of enjoyment in it : ]
I wouldn't say this game is scary, but it's quirky and unique in a way that is compelling enough to keep a players attention through the gameplay of "listening to phone calls and reading".
I wouldn't say this game is scary, but it's quirky and unique in a way that is compelling enough to keep a players attention through the gameplay of "listening to phone calls and reading".
"Ma'am, I'm afraid you've got a severe case of Neighbor Door. You're gonna want to see a doctor for that."
A pretty clever game, though I don't know if I would spend $15 on it again as it was only around 2 hours long and didn't have too much gameplay. Home Safety Hotline definitely comes off as a game that would be popular with streamers, and low and behold when I looked up the game on Youtube to see other people's experiences, the first thing I saw was Markiplier's face LOL.
Home Safety Hotline is a fun idea for a game, and is done in a super aesthetically pleasing way, its just that the gameplay starts to get a bit monotonous, and around the 4th or 5th day I realized that this was just what the entire game would be. I thought there would be more of a twist with the ending, and instead found you just watch what looks like a film some college students put together and then the credits roll. Don't get me wrong, it was cute/silly, but I couldn't tell if the game was trying to do an actual horror-kinda thing or something goofier. Oh well, it's not that serious. I would recommend Home Safety Hotline if you're looking for a short, creative, spooky game to play in one night!
3/5
Home Safety Hotline is a fun idea for a game, and is done in a super aesthetically pleasing way, its just that the gameplay starts to get a bit monotonous, and around the 4th or 5th day I realized that this was just what the entire game would be. I thought there would be more of a twist with the ending, and instead found you just watch what looks like a film some college students put together and then the credits roll. Don't get me wrong, it was cute/silly, but I couldn't tell if the game was trying to do an actual horror-kinda thing or something goofier. Oh well, it's not that serious. I would recommend Home Safety Hotline if you're looking for a short, creative, spooky game to play in one night!
3/5
Really love the aesthetics of this game, the monster pictures and subtle menace of the descriptions. Good for a couple playthroughs, but I think adding a few more cases and shuffling the calls could add a good deal of replayability. That said, the linear playthrough is solid and satisfying, and plays in to the sort of corporate horror I crave
a game you can truly tell was made with passion and love by its creators. less scary and more batshit insane, albeit that's not a bad thing at all. there were multiple "aha" moments with regards to the story and the analog horror aspect of things as well as making reading about monsters fun. highly recommend! go in blind!
I adored this little gem. Just a fascinating little creation that dropped me straight into a perfect, lived in little world. No exposition dump, no reasoning, just 'do your job' and it's perfect for it.
I originally gave this 4 stars but as I think about it I've changed to 5 because I think it done everything it set out to do perfectly well. I love the Beastiary feel and the growing dread that comes with each day.
Highly recommend people spend the 2 or so hours checking this out
I originally gave this 4 stars but as I think about it I've changed to 5 because I think it done everything it set out to do perfectly well. I love the Beastiary feel and the growing dread that comes with each day.
Highly recommend people spend the 2 or so hours checking this out
Great presentation but I didn't find this very fun.
Some pretty funny and cool ideas. I like the concept, and wish it went a little more in depth with its concepts, maybe some more variation, but I think it'singenious, hilarious, and compelling. Loved seeing the creator's insights after the fact and hope he follows that type of thing to further ends. The soundtrack is also pretty dope. A worthwhile experience
A eerily captivating horror point-and-click. Distant cousin to Hypnospace Outlaw; more railroaded than the latter, but still clearly related. Its roots are firmly seated within internet horror. Gemini Home being the clear inspiration, though genre staples like SCP Foundation also came to mind throughout my playthrough. Yet despite its inspirations, Home Safety Hotline manages to maintain its own identity throughout.
I went into this excited to dig into some neat world-building, but wasn't expecting the game to actually scare me. Some of the phone calls, especially those resulting from fail-states, sent chills down my spine. Absolutely stellar voice-work elevates the experience. Wonderfully creepy cryptid illustrations leave a lot to the imagination. The retro-PC UI allows for a couple of creepy moments through the removal of player autonomy.
We aren't even a month into 2024, and it's already started off with a stellar horror experience. Home Safety Hotline is a chillingly delightful surprise that doesn't spoon-feed you scares. Absolutely worth checking out if you're enjoying the current wave of independent horror.
I went into this excited to dig into some neat world-building, but wasn't expecting the game to actually scare me. Some of the phone calls, especially those resulting from fail-states, sent chills down my spine. Absolutely stellar voice-work elevates the experience. Wonderfully creepy cryptid illustrations leave a lot to the imagination. The retro-PC UI allows for a couple of creepy moments through the removal of player autonomy.
We aren't even a month into 2024, and it's already started off with a stellar horror experience. Home Safety Hotline is a chillingly delightful surprise that doesn't spoon-feed you scares. Absolutely worth checking out if you're enjoying the current wave of independent horror.
Cool concept and well done while it lasted. Surprisingly well voice acted, with a few of the callers being actually distressing. Only real gripe is the total lack of replayability. The calls you get every playthrough are the same and in the same order, meaning once you know the answers you are set forever. Some sort of Infinite mode or similar would be pretty cool and be a fun way to keep replayability.
I've got no clue what is going on story-wise, but it is quite fun to memorize all the hazards and try to deduce what the client needs. You're not allowed to ask follow up questions or anything but there's no time limit (afaik) so it wasn't all too hard