No matter whether it is the online variety, or those that take place on the phone, call centres can be infuriating. You might spend hours waiting in a queue to get through to an advisor, only for someone to hang up accidentally, or to be put on hold for more hours, rarely with the problem being solved. And that’s without mentioning the hold music that is played.Â
But sometimes, as I am on hold, I think about the poor people who have to do this job. What must it be like with the abuse or hatred aimed at them? Surely it would be worse if your mortal soul was on the line? Welcome to the Home Safety Hotline.
Home Safety Hotline’s story is one of the most bonkers I’ve ever played, but it is most definitely one of the more positive elements of the game.
You play an unnamed worker who you never see or hear from. You start the game on a PC home screen, with some emails and thumbnails, including a welcome video from Home Safety Hotline where you are going to be working. Here you log in, clocking in to begin work. There’s a first phone call from your supervisor with words of encouragement and corporate speech and then you begin your shift.
What happens next focuses on those people who ring up, describing any problems found in their house. Some of these will come with descriptions like “I can hear strange noises coming from the walls”, and so you are left to try and work out what the problem is from a list of issues. Could it be mice? Or is it black mold? Or bats? You send the client the information about the possible pest or issue, and then wait for the next call.
It’s when you start to get strange calls from distorted people that Home Safety Hotline starts taking a turn down a weird avenue. It’s about then that the descriptions of problems become stranger, as the list of options you can choose from includes things like “Stair Slug”, “Troll” or “Wine Sprite”. At the end of the shift, you get an accuracy grade on how well you have dealt with the customer’s descriptions, and the advice given. Get a low percentage and you are soon fired and there isn’t a good ending for you. Do well and your supervisor will reward you, and everything will be revealed…
The story is great, strange and hard to grasp, but it is something that will stay with you. The writing from the characters (customers) is good and the descriptions of all the entities the developers have created are fantastic. There are also strange videos you can watch in between shifts, like one about hiking that takes the darkest of turns, as well as a funny one about mice.
It plays easily too. The gameplay is very simple, very much a case of pressing A to answer the phone, putting them on hold, and selecting an option to match the customer’s descriptions. It’s a hard game though, and you have to really sit and listen, reading the description to get it right. However, going down the list of entities can be a long process, so much so that by day 5 of working there, I wished it could have been sped up a bit.
Visually, Home Safety Hotline has a 90’s PC design to it, one that is effective and works well. Little thumbnail pictures of the people who ring up appear and when some of these pictures are distorted and weirded-up, the design works brilliantly. There is some video work as well that I loved, complete with some B-movie feels to it; very much a perfect choice.
Sound wise, Home Safety Hotline comes with great voice work with all the customers fully voiced; again, slowly getting more bizarre and scary. Â
Strange, unusual and a lot of fun, Home Safety Hotline is like David Lynch meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The actual gameplay loop is highly original and it’s enjoyable to try and work out the right choices from the descriptions given. It’s not going to be for everyone, but those who love their games on the weird side will want to start a shift with Home Safety Hotline immediately.
Buy Home Safety Hotline on Xbox –Â https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/home-safety-hotline/9p9nx35p7vnx
From Pests to the Paranormal: Home Safety Hotline Now Available on Consoles – https://www.thexboxhub.com/from-pests-to-the-paranormal-home-safety-hotline-now-available-on-consoles/
