Have you ever found something weird in your house? Perhaps you go down to the basement and find a growing, festering mold in a damp corner. Maybe you don’t recognize that antique mirror sitting in your attic, or you’re sitting on your couch, looking around the room, and somehow everything just feels incorrect. Recently launched on Steam and already boasting a big, 9/10, ‘very positive’ rating, a fantastic new horror game imagines a warped and surreal suburban America where demons, cryptids, and malevolent, sentient fungi are treated like everyday household problems. Push aside the high action of Resident Evil. Take a break from Dead by Daylight. The scariest thing in the world is operating a customer service helpline during the ‘90s. This is a game that deserves a lot more attention.
Home Safety Hotline is a visionary new horror game from Night Signal Entertainment. As the newest employee of the eponymous hotline, your job is to provide vital household management advice to a range of callers and customers.
Concerned dads, panicked soccer moms, young couples investing in their first property – if they’ve found black mold, busted pipes, or chipped plaster, they’ll call you up, and you’ll send them an information pack on how to solve the problem. Mechanically, it’s very simple. You listen to their descriptions (“I keep finding these weird little holes in my walls”), check your database for the likeliest cause, and fire them a solution. Simple.
Except some of the customers are complaining about giant, furry growths climbing up the stairs, or mysterious men standing in the corner of their bedroom. Your database includes all the usual household troubles – termites, raccoons, blocked faucets – but also ghosts that eat people’s memories, “an invisible, odorless collective consciousness” that stores domestic waste, and ‘Fracture Hobbs.’ “Fracture Hobbs are not dangerous on their own,” your database reads, “but the fractures and cracks they cause can lead to foundational issues in the home. Like any other Hobb, they are also capable of metamorphosing.”
Diagnose your customers’ problems correctly and you’ll be handsomely rewarded. Get them wrong, and people will call you back, angry, confused, and often in the process of being devoured. Your computer terminal is straight out of the mid ‘90s, complete with low-resolution JPEGs, dial-up-style internet, and Windows ‘95 sound effects.
Scary, funny, and unique, Home Safety Hotline is one of the first must-plays of 2024, and yet, it’s being tragically overlooked. 371 people played Home Safety Hotline on Steam on launch day – as of this writing, only 57 players are online. This is one indie game that is being totally slept on. You can, and should, try it for yourself right here.
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