![]() ![]() The moments where the interface is slow, the sound distorts, or an image is badly compressed convey a strong sense of wrongness and unease. I was born in 1990, so I felt right at home with the Home Safety Hotline interface. It’s very effective analog horror, complete with mouse and keyboard sound effects. The more authorization you unlock, the weirder things get, and the slide into weirdness is punctuated by new agency videos and deranged emails from a former employee. The horror comes from getting a glimpse at another world, one where mirror nymphs lurk in the woods to steal your face or a portal might quietly open in your basement. Home Safety Hotline has none of these things. There’s a checklist of things you’re likely to encounter in short horror games: jump scares, the protagonist narrating their actions, creeping through dark hallways. Despite its length, it’s memorable and refreshingly unique. Even if you want to try for all of the endings and explore each outcome, this is a relatively bite-sized game. Home Safety Hotline is the kind of game that can be knocked out within a couple of hours. When I see a caller, I get to guess whether I’m getting a new inquiry, getting yelled at for a slip-up, or about to get a crank call from a bored teen. I also get a few crank calls, just to keep me on my toes. If I make an oopsie doodle and misdiagnose the issue, I receive a follow-up call that ranges from irritated to active murder. If all goes well, I won’t hear from them again. I listen, check my database of home hazards, select the appropriate one based on the information shared, and then send the caller an information packet. Once I’m clocked in for the day, I receive short calls from concerned citizens. The game plays out on a 1996 PC where I can check my email, watch promotional videos, and log on to the customer service terminal. At first, I mostly deal with mundane pests, but as I continue to do well and earn more trust from my superiors, I get to handle heavier cases with creepy cryptids. Similar to Control’s FBC or the SCP Foundation, the Home Safety Hotline is an organization dedicated to managing supernatural emergencies in the real world. Since it’s the ’90s, everyone can afford a house, and they’re likely to encounter issues like mold, mice, or a strange metamorphosis occurring in their basement. In Home Safety Hotline, it’s 1996, and I’ve just started my new job as a phone line operator for the titular hotline. I had forgotten that tension until I played Home Safety Hotline, an analog horror game from Night Signal Entertainment. If anybody messed up even a little, a person could die. We would wipe, sanitize, and clean every utensil and service, but I was also very aware that we were a bunch of minimum-wage workers, some of whom came into work less than sober. When I was a teenager, I worked at a fast food joint, and I clearly remember the stress and anxiety I felt when a customer with a severe allergy came in. ![]()
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