We’ve had simulation games that cover a wide range of jobs. On my Switch, I can be a truck driver, a fire fighter, a farmer …. and now a door-to-door salesman. You really can live out all of your wildest fantasies in the digital realm.
Many thanks to the QUByte Interactive for the review code.
KNOCK KNOCK
As a salesman for Sunny Morning, your job is to go around the neighbourhood each day trying to sell some of your product. What product do you sell? Well, it doesn’t matter. People probably won’t want to buy it anyway – not unless you can deal with them in just the right way. With a daily quota to meet, along with rage and depression levels to keep an eye on, life as a salesman will be stressful – but keeping a level head is the right way to go about things.
Talk to Strangers has a rather straightforward approach to gameplay. Starting in your motel, you can acquire items that can help manage your stress levels (and even rewind time!) or you can go straight out into the streets to take on your next house. Whilst it’s not strictly freeform as accessible houses are gradually unlocked as the days go by, you usually have at least a few to choose from.
After selecting a house, it’s down to business. Your first attempt will be the scariest as you have no assistance with how best to deal with things; instead, you’re left to gauge your target -sorry, customer – by both their house and their mannerisms. The little old lady will probably want a little small-talk to butter her up, whereas that stoner is probably more interested in your snacks than the product itself. Some of these can be relatively straightforward and can be solved by thinking about your situation, but others may be a little bit more out of the box – or may not even be possible at all at certain times of the day. Can’t sell to someone who isn’t in, after all. These impossible scenarios are alleviated by the low quotas you have to achieve, making failure not seem too demoralising.
But fail you will – ‘though don’t worry, as those failures grant you with certain tips that will help you with future attempts. Sure, having to restart from scratch may end up annoying some people – but the game’s short length, charming presentation, and many possible endings help alleviate those annoyances.
It’s a really charming experience that has some great characterisation and writing over its runtime. It’s not often that you find a game that can manage to keep a smile on your face all the way through, but this was certainly one of them. It’s probably not going to make anyone’s GOTY list, but for the cheap price point it doesn’t really need to either.
VERDICT
Talk to Strangers was a pleasant, if short, experience that had me smiling as I tried to find out how best to offload my crap onto unsuspecting homeowners. Some may not be keen on the rigid structure that leads to inevitable fails, but given the length and accompanying price, it’s something that didn’t bother me in the slightest. With a ton of different endings to uncover along the way, I was more than happy to have the door slammed in my face one more time.
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