Sunset Review: Cleaning More Than Just an Apartment

Sunset is the newest title from Tale of Tales , who’ve brought us such games as The Endless Forest and The Path .

. Surreal surroundings and serious material aren’t shied away from by these developers, and while Sunset isn’t surreal in setting, the story feels unreal, though unsettling in its possibility. While there are aspects of the game that are simply frustrating (more on that later), the overall feeling I got from Sunset was more of a confusing emotional experience. That is by no means a bad thing; a little bit of thought in a game’s storyline can go a long way, and Sunset ‘s story is nothing if not thoughtful.

Angela Burnes is an American living in a fictitious Latin American country called Anchuria. She has an engineering degree, but is now an immigrant cleaning up the luxurious apartment of a curator by the name of Gabriel Ortega. The game starts out simply: Angela, her reflection glinting off of the inside of an elevator, is headed up to the penthouse with a to-do list. Mop the floors, polish the silver, fetch the mail…it’s all very routine. Everything changes when the player learns about Angela’s brother, the leader of a rebellion against the oppressive regime of Anchuria. How this rebellion started is not clear. What becomes more apparent is that Angela has a very important role to play in the resolution of this conflict. Gabriel Ortega is not what he first appears to be, but Angela’s influence becomes his, during the hour before sunset each week that she is tasked with cleaning his apartment.

The player can choose to use Angela as either a saboteur or an ally, and can even take a romantic approach to the interactions with Ortega. These interactions occur through the task lists, as well as notes scattered throughout the apartment. Ortega writes something, Angela responds, and the player’s choices to either distance themselves from him or get close to him drive the narrative, deciding not only how the game progresses, but how it ends. I took the romantic angle, because I was dying of curiosity on that end. I honestly don’t know how drastic the story would have changed if I’d chosen differently, but what I’m sure about is that regardless of my choices, the tension of the story is very real – I felt the rebellion, the war outside the apartment window, and the subterfuge of the documents I had access to. I felt that Angela was important, and that kind of character development can make or break a game. I feel that Tale of Tales did an excellent job outlining the character through brief periods of narration.

As with other games by these devs, Sunset has strange graphics properties. The simplicity of the gameplay is undercut by the disparity between graphics options. Movement was choppy on my (brand new) laptop, though it improved greatly on my desktop (which has a much more substantial graphics card). Turning the quality all the way down resulted in a pixelated environment that was difficult to navigate due to lack of concrete visual cues, and with the instructions that were given (“clean ashtray” was one that vexed me on this setting), it wasn’t always possible to complete the tasks. Whether on high or low quality, movement was wildly inconsistent, and required me to take breaks to rest my eyes. Thankfully, there is an option to reduce the field of view, so the only issue was the lack of smooth movement, and the “fish-eye” effect that could be avoided. The colors are vibrant, and small details add to what is a very pleasant environment, though I was only able to fully enjoy the view when Angela was standing still (again, most of the issues occurred on my laptop).

The controls can either be accomplished through keyboard and mouse, or a game controller. I would not recommend a game controller, as a mouse wheel is handy for choice selection. Movement is basic WASD, looking is controlled with the mouse, and action keys for choices are present. The key choices seemed odd, at first (Y for doing a task pleasantly, N for simply completing it without fanfare), until I attributed them with “yes” and “no.” The combination of the choice keys appears to be tied with the mouse, but I was never completely sure.

When you hover over a task that you can complete either cheerfully or dutifully, there are two circles that appear: Orange for Y, blue for N. A few times, I had trouble getting my option to appear (the blue circle would be selected, and try as I might, I could not get it to select orange, which is why I suggest a mouse wheel), and would hit my desired key, and the description while the action was taking place didn’t lend me any clues. This aspect was frustrating, as each action causes time to pass, and which selection you make affects how much time you have before sunset (when Angela has to leave). This wasn’t as big a deal for me as it could have been, but I suspect that other players may find it an issue.

I can’t rave enough about the sound – the voice acting is excellent, the music is atmospherically perfect, and the sounds of peace and war lend additional feeling to what could just be another “choose your own adventure” story. At one point, a phone began to ring, and because all of the rooms with phones were inaccessible to me at that point in time, I found myself panicking as I ran around trying desperately to figure out what to do. An unknown act of war shattered a window, and all I could think was that someone had broken in and was going to harm Angela (as with other Tale of Tales games, while actions have consequences, there aren’t actual enemies in Sunset ). A bomb went off, and the sound reverberated in my headphones, startling me and causing me to have to pause the game to catch my breath. The sound was by far the most engaging factor of the story, and Angela’s narration (voiced by Tina Marie Murray) was the emotional center of the story.

To wrap this up, fans of other Tale of Tales games should definitely pick up Sunset (for Windows PC, Mac, and Linux), with the caveat that your graphics card can handle it. Those with a penchant for narrative games, be aware that your choices not only matter, but shape the entire game – this is not a “find the story through the environment” game – Angela and Ortega are the environment, and it’s up to you to decide how to proceed. Sunset is an excellent example of the power of concise narrative, with very few inferences needed to fill in the blanks. I find myself wanting to play again, if only to see what happens when Angela reacts more coldly to the events happening around her.

Sunset releases today on Steam, and is priced at a 10% discount of $17.99 for the first week of launch. More information can be viewed on the game’s website, with Twitterand Facebookas additional points of contact for Tale of Tales.

Pros

Strong story Excellent sound design Simple and effective gameplay

Cons

Inconsistent graphics affect movement Option selection is a bit shaky at times