Skip to main content

Sunset

Sunset isn’t just a housekeeping simulator. The game takes place in Latin America in the 1970s during a time of civil unrest.
68%Game Brain Score
story, music
gameplay, optimization
67% User Score Based on 398 reviews
Critic Score 69%Based on 8 reviews

Platforms

PCWindowsWindowsLinuxLinuxMac OSMac OS
Buy Nowfrom $7.17
Buy NowGet on Steam $19.99Buy NowGet on itch.io Store $19.99

About

"Sunset" is a single-player warfare shooter game with an interesting plot, set in 1972 in a Latin American country under a military coup. As a housekeeper, Angela Burnes, you clean a wealthy man's apartment and uncover a rebellious plot against the dictator. The game uses the routine of labor to explore social themes and struggles, featuring pretty visuals and a good soundtrack, resulting in a wholesome and thoughtful story.

Genres & Tags
Play Modes
Sunset screenshot
Sunset screenshot
Sunset screenshot
Sunset screenshot
Sunset screenshot
Sunset screenshot
Sunset screenshot
Sunset screenshot
Sunset screenshot
Sunset screenshot
Sunset screenshot
+24

67%
Audience ScoreBased on 398 reviews
story122 positive mentions
gameplay26 negative mentions
  • Unique and effective storytelling format that immerses players in a narrative about love and war.
  • Fantastic environmental storytelling with a beautifully designed 1970s aesthetic.
  • Engaging character development and emotional depth that resonates with players.
  • Poor optimization and technical issues, leading to frame rate drops and performance problems.
  • Repetitive gameplay with mundane tasks that can feel tedious over time.
  • Lack of clear objectives and consequences for actions, making it difficult to feel invested in the story.
  • story
    461 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story of *Sunset* is a unique exploration of political upheaval and personal relationships, told through the eyes of a housekeeper in a single penthouse during a military coup. While the narrative is compelling and features interesting themes, many players found the pacing slow and the gameplay repetitive, which detracted from their overall engagement with the story. Despite its flaws, the game offers a fresh perspective on storytelling in video games, with subtle environmental cues and character reflections that invite players to uncover deeper meanings.

    • “I love how subtle my choices can influence the story.”
    • “The story is compelling, and the way it's told and the sound design both do a good job of making you feel like it's happening around you.”
    • “An excellent story-driven game that weaves a huge story of revolution and rebellion from the viewpoint of one woman in one apartment through her communication with its owner.”
    • “There's some potential in the concept but ultimately, this is a poorly written story, told poorly.”
    • “The characters are weird and the story is complicated and disjointed.”
    • “The story is transmitted in tiny bits every day and can be hard to follow; near the end, I still wasn't exactly sure what's even going on.”
  • gameplay
    150 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay of "Sunset" has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it repetitive and lacking depth, as it primarily revolves around mundane tasks like housekeeping within a limited timeframe. While some appreciate the unique narrative integration and the emotional weight of the setting, others criticize the mechanics as overly simplistic and disconnected from the story, leading to a frustrating experience. Overall, the game is seen as an interesting concept that struggles with execution, leaving players divided on its value.

    • “A very solid and unique game, with lots of options to adjust your gameplay experience.”
    • “I believe the game offers very meaningful gameplay.”
    • “The gameplay can be described as a first-person clean-em-up; each in-game day you have a list of tasks and a short period of time to do them in.”
    • “The gameplay itself, which scraps the bottom of what could be considered a video game to begin with, is an example of what Tale of Tales considers to be 'experimental game design': that is, to remove those essential elements from which video games are constructed, rather than reconsider or expand on them, leaving a game that seems built as the equivalent of removing the wheels and motor of a car and pretending this is 'an advancement in automobile technology.'”
    • “There's no progression, nothing to learn, no skills to apply, no puzzles to solve, and even ignoring the gameplay, it's also not fun on a narrative level.”
    • “A touching story about the impact of war on the lives of ordinary people, marred by incredibly humdrum gameplay.”
  • music
    102 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game has been widely praised for its fantastic quality and ability to enhance the overall atmosphere, with a diverse soundtrack that includes jazz, folk, and operatic pieces composed by Austin Wintory. Players appreciate the immersive experience created by the music, particularly when exploring the beautifully designed apartment, although some have noted a lack of consistent background music throughout the game. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a standout feature, contributing significantly to the game's emotional depth and escapism.

    • “Throughout the apartment are various record players, and the soundtrack to this game is breathtaking, adding a beautiful ambiance to the already gorgeous environment.”
    • “One point I absolutely have to praise the game for is the music: it is really good, quite varied, and goes very well with the whole ambience.”
    • “The soundtrack is gorgeous and many times while playing the game I would just sit back and listen.”
    • “The game's soundtrack is really touted, but as far as I've played so far, there isn't any music at all, other than if you go find the stereo and start it playing every time.”
    • “Unfortunately, it's not often that a record player will be available to use, which is a bummer - because there is no background music to listen to.”
    • “Feels perfect, but also makes you wish there was more music lying around the apartment to play.”
  • graphics
    98 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of "Sunset" are characterized by a simplistic, low-polygon art style that evokes a retro aesthetic reminiscent of the early 1990s, which some players find charming while others criticize as lazy and unpolished. Despite the appealing 1970s-inspired art direction and atmospheric lighting, many reviewers report significant performance issues, including frame rate drops and inconsistent visual quality, detracting from the overall experience. While the visuals are praised for their beauty and unique style, the technical execution leaves much to be desired, leading to mixed feelings among players.

    • “The art style of the game is very beautiful, following design art of the previous century, and the changes in lighting throughout time progression are pretty impressive too.”
    • “An excellent game for escapism, beautiful graphics, music, and story.”
    • “The graphics, although technically modest, are very pleasing thanks to the wonderful art style that truly brings out that 70’s vibe despite the fact that the whole game takes place in a single apartment.”
    • “The lack of textures is a method that lazy developers often use to disguise their lack of talent or interest in doing the graphics properly, trying to pass it off as 'art' or 'we made it look bad on purpose', which really isn't something gamers should have to put up with.”
    • “It's also important to note that the game runs inexcusable badly even though it has very simplistic (albeit pretty) graphics.”
    • “I kid you not, the lowest graphics setting looks like the Sega CD and it still runs like garbage.”
  • optimization
    74 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's optimization has been widely criticized, with numerous reports of significant frame rate issues and poor performance even on high-end machines. Many players noted that the lack of optimization detracted from the overall experience, despite the game's engaging story and visuals. Overall, it appears that the developers prioritized release over performance, leaving the game in a state that requires substantial improvement.

    • “Thankfully the pace is slow enough it really didn't detract from the experience, but clearly the developer could do a lot more optimization for future updates/games.”
    • “On the technical side, there are some performance issues, but the devs have provided lots of options to tweak with.”
    • “The more you play, the more it becomes evident that the hit to performance was a worthy compromise given the quality of the art.”
    • “It's just a poorly optimized game that simply should not have shipped in this state.”
    • “I do need to point out that even on a fairly powerful machine, the performance of this game was pretty bad at times.”
    • “After a while I just couldn't ignore the flaky controls and poor optimization, and I opted to watch a let's play instead of actually playing it (hence the extremely low number of hours played).”
  • atmosphere
    48 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its immersive qualities, combining a well-researched aesthetic, evocative music, and engaging environmental storytelling that enhances the player's experience. While some reviewers noted gameplay issues and a lack of action, the overall ambiance—reflecting the tension of the surrounding civil unrest—creates a captivating and emotional journey. Despite its flaws, the game's unique style and atmosphere leave a lasting impression, making it a standout in the walking simulator genre.

    • “A really immersive, touching and atmospheric little game.”
    • “The artfully applied soundtrack enhances the atmosphere, too - Austin Wintory's economically utilized compositions are fetching, while many of the game's most potent moments come from the times when you put on one of the records you find scattered about the place, and just go exploring.”
    • “And even though by its nature the game doesn’t require any quick reflexes or anything like that, the performance issues directly impact the immersion and atmosphere, which are both as crucial for this type of game as fast response time is crucial in a competitive shooter.”
    • “Despite significant technical shortcomings, Sunset is a wholly unique and intriguing game that draws you in thanks to its captivating premise and setting, solid storytelling, and exquisite sense of style and atmosphere.”
    • “There's no surges of adrenaline, or pats on the head, just thought-provoking atmosphere that gives me the feels.”
  • emotional
    32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game is described as an "emotional sandbox," effectively prompting players to engage with deep emotional questions about the protagonist and her circumstances. While the gameplay may be mundane, the narrative is praised for its immersive and touching storytelling, evoking strong feelings related to themes of war and personal connection. Despite some players finding it challenging to connect with the protagonist, many agree that the emotional impact of the story lingers long after the game is completed.

    • “The power of this game is to get you to ask emotional questions about your character and her actions.”
    • “It's rare that I'm moved by a narrative anymore, but this game is one that has really made me feel a lot of things, and will stick with me for a long time.”
    • “Sunset is bold as it turns a seemingly boring 'game concept' into an emotionally engrossing journey that consumes you with its story.”
  • stability
    14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's stability is widely criticized, with users reporting severe performance issues, including frequent freezes, crashes, and various glitches such as lighting and clipping problems. Many players experienced significant bugs that hindered gameplay, leading to barren levels and unresponsive controls, even on low settings. Overall, the game appears to be plagued by instability across most systems.

    • “It runs horribly on most computers and seems completely buggy: the first time I ran it, the 'activities' didn't load into the game's engine, leaving a barren level with nothing to do, making me think that I was actually playing the game wrong.”
    • “The game freezes, shuts itself down, and runs very poorly even on low settings.”
    • “I have also experienced multiple freezes and crashes.”
  • replayability
    10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Overall, players have mixed feelings about the game's replayability. While some appreciate the changing levels and engaging atmosphere, many feel that locked rooms and exhaustion from the initial playthrough limit their desire to replay. There are hints of potential replay value in the story and character interactions, but the experience may not be compelling enough for repeated play.

    • “The story is great, the character interaction (yes, you can absolutely call it like that) is beautiful, there's replay value, you can just sit around, do nothing and listen to the music for half an hour and it wouldn't be wasted.”
    • “I don't know much about this point in time, but the atmosphere is good, the voice actor did a good job, and I could see some possible replayability later on.”
    • “It's changing each level, but you'll find many rooms locked off each time, which hurts replay value for the exploration and experimentation on limited time.”
    • “I see that there's some replayability in the story, but I was so exhausted by the end that I simply didn't have the time or the patience.”
  • grinding
    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious and unpolished, with mechanics that feel unfinished, such as the repetitive process of adjusting in-game elements like lighting. While the concept of player actions influencing the storyline is intriguing, the execution leads to a frustrating experience that detracts from the overall enjoyment, despite the game's strong themes and representation.

    • “The idea of your actions affecting the storyline is interesting, and that concept does present some interesting persistent elements in the game, but overall it ends up feeling like an unfinished or poorly executed mechanic (e.g. turning lights on to make the apartment feel more inviting ends up being a very boring farming-type process).”
    • “All in all, I absolutely loved it because of its explorations of art, philosophy, and human relationships (also a person of color, female protagonist!) but was not impressed with its tedious gameplay.”
    • “Also, the visual options panel covers the screen, so there's no way to see what effect your adjustments are really having other than guessing from the tiny strip that remains visible and then jumping out, seeing if it helps, and then going back in, which is a really tedious process.”
  • humor
    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players appreciate the game's humor, noting that it enhances the overall gameplay experience. One user humorously recounted sending rude messages to their boss without realizing they could modify them, highlighting the game's comedic elements and character interactions.

    • “Also, I have to say that the music and sense of humor in the game really added to the gameplay for me.”
    • “Hilariously, I sent my boss rude messages without even noticing I could change them, wondering why my character was so mean-spirited.”
  • character development
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Character development is perceived as inconsistent, with some days offering minimal progression, likened to "bread crumbs," which can leave players feeling unsatisfied with the overall narrative depth.

    • “Making some days feel like bread crumbs of character development or the story.”

69%Critics’ scoreBased on 8 critic reviews

Buy Sunset

6h Median play time
5h Average play time
3-7h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 4 analyzed playthroughs

Videos

Games Like Sunset

Tacoma Image
This game contains adult content
83%4.2kreviews

Tacoma

2017Action Adventure
PCiPhoneXbox+11
South of the Circle Image
79%667reviews

South of the Circle

2022Action Adventure
PCPCiPhone+17
Cradle Image
65%1.8kreviews

Cradle

2015Action Adventure
PCWindowsLinux
Gone Home Image
This game contains adult content
81%20.8kreviews

Gone Home

2018Simulation
PCPCiPhone+17
Adios Image
This game contains adult content
85%2.2kreviews

Adios

2021Simulation
PCPCXbox+7