As someone who hates to clean their own house, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Sunset; a game that has you playing as a housekeeper. Thankfully, Tale of Tales puts a rather unique twist on the concept by telling a remarkably engaging story while dropping you into a 1972 period piece set in Anchuria, a small Latin American country undergoing a military coup. You play as Angela Burnes, a recent out-of-work college graduate who grudgingly takes a job as a housekeeper for Gabriel Ortega. Once a week you’ll clean this man’s luxurious penthouse apartment – a man whom you’ve never met, but whose secrets you’ll uncover during your weekly chores.
From a design standpoint there are some obvious parallels to other “walking simulator” games like Gone Home and most recently, Homesick, but unlike those other pure exploration titles Sunset actually attempts to simulate the mundane life of a housekeeper while managing to keep the game from slipping into a dull routine of chores and tasks.
Each week you’ll arrive for work and your list of tasks will be found on a note in the penthouse elevator. Each task requires a varying amount of time; sometimes short like arranging photos on a desk, to longer chores like washing the dishes or doing laundry. Completing your assigned tasks will only take a portion of the time you have before being forced to leave at sunset, leaving you plenty of spare time to snoop around Mr. Ortega’s spacious apartment, and this is where the real fun lies.
While it’s not terribly challenging to get your work completed, there were days where I would lose track of time while snooping and be forced to go home without completing my list, but there seemed to be no repercussions for my poor performance. There are routine discoveries to make each new day at work like finding a vast assortment of reading material scattered about the residence – each triggering a Steam achievement. There is also an odd calendar on the wall that you can obsessively correct each day you work, but the real core to all the snooping is in learning just who and what your boss really is and how it could impact the life of you and your family.
In addition to new chores and discoveries there are also ongoing points of interest that will evolve over the course of weeks and months – locations and items that you will want to revisit each time you come to work. If Sunset sounds a bit like a work simulator you might be right, but with only three or four tasks to do each day there is plenty of time left for old-fashioned snooping…err…adventuring, and the game does offer one of the more original presentations.
The blend of authentic Latin American accents and music really helps immerse you in the culture while the neon-like pinks, yellows, oranges, and reds filter over the environment creating a convincing sunset atmosphere that spills in through the enormous windows into the modern interior of the apartment. You can’t help but get caught up in the mystery, intrigue, and drama that unfold the more you play the game.
Sunset is admittedly a short game with your career lasting only 44 days and some days only lasting around ten minutes. For achievement hunters, you may be compelled to replay the game to find any missed books or other trophy triggers, but there is no real replay value to Sunset. Then again, it’s only $20 and can often be found on sale for half that, so use your own judgement. I was impressed with the polished design, not only the presentation but the seamless use of either mouse and keyboard or an Xbox 360 controller. The designers even used color coded dots on their pointing reticle to match up with the controller buttons – very slick.
While I hate to use the word “game”, I will say that Sunset is a great experience, especially for those looking for a casual pastime endeavor that you can immerse yourself in without having to worry about winning or losing. Who would have thought that housework could be therapeutic – perhaps not as therapeutic as snooping around a stranger’s apartment, but there is no denying the rich atmosphere of the presentation and the story being told, and if you really dig that music as much as I did you can download the OST for only $4 and enjoy the masterful work of Austin Wintory even when you aren’t pretending to work.
