Home Safety Hotline

 PC
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 4 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. Hardcore Gamer
    Jan 31, 2024
    80
    Home Safety Hotline is a unique game in both the adventure genre and the horror genre, using deduction-based gameplay to great effect as folks attempt to decipher just what kind of gnome or fantastical fungus is plaguing each caller. While it could have been tougher, the cleverly-designed blend of supernatural phenomena and sharp comedic writing with a nicely dark edge will keep players hooked until the end. The prospect of working at a call center for things that go bump in the night sure is terrifying (although that goes for any job at a call center, period), but here, it's a job worth tackling.
  2. Buried Treasure
    Jan 30, 2024
    80
    Oh, and it has a very brilliant, and extremely reachable ending (something I think too many post-Papers Please games make unrealistic for most to ever see), followed by a new game+ that will address any lingering questions you may have. I know this has received more coverage than some other games featured on Buried Treasure (including some pretty huge YouTube attention I wasn’t aware of until after reviewing–it’s fair to say our audiences don’t overlap much), but for some bizarre reason this hasn’t extended to reviews, and all-important review scores, so here we are. Home Safety Hotline is certainly too repetitive, lacking that one extra twist that would have propelled players to the ending, but its imagination, writing, and performances ensure it succeeds.
  3. GameSpew
    Jan 22, 2024
    80
    As a whole, Home Safety Hotline doesn’t outstay its welcome, and it’s an absolute treat for lovers of folklore or fans of the uncanny. I never thought I’d say it, but this is one call centre I’ve absolutely loved clocking into.
  5. Edge Magazine
    Jan 25, 2024
    70
    With a little more mechanical variety, this might've been a minor classic. [Issue#394, p.106]
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  1. Rock, Paper, Shotgun
    Jan 16, 2024
    Home Safety Hotline is definitely in the Daniel Mullins vein of game ideas, where a game starts as something and becomes something else, and while Home Safety Hotline is very thoughtful and has a brilliant framing, it never fully transformed. Which is perhaps ironic, given the ending.