Shift At Midnight

Developer: Bun Muen

Publisher: Kwalee

Platforms: PC and Xbox Series X/S

Release Date: Out Now

The chore horror genre is hardly bereft of games, meaning any new effort has to be something decently original. Or super fun. This game, from solo developer Bun Muen, delivers little of the former, but that doesn't matter one drop of blood, because it provides the latter by the bucket load.

The premise is straightforward: you're the poor unfortunate stuck working the night shift at a remote gas station. Constantly juggling customers in-store and in their vehicles, stocking shelves and cleaning up is bad enough; to add more stress to your job, there's a plague of doppelgangers on the loose, and each customer has to be evaluated and checked for anomalies. Should you detect something is not quite right—either via your questioning or the database on your computer—you're authorised to terminate with extreme prejudice, and as quickly as possible. Oh, and clear up the mess.

Different characters come into the store nightly, and the anomalies vary enormously. Some might have the wrong birthday, or let slip about a deceased relative whom they've just been to 'visit'. You can examine vehicles, open doors and check for any evidence that gives away the driver as a doppelganger. If everything checks out, fuel ‘em up, send them on their way and get on with your work.

Over the course of the game's 13 nights, the gameplay expands, introducing elements such as devices for detecting anomalies and gauging emotions. Extra items, such as weapons, store essentials, and cosmetic bonuses (such as plants and pictures), are purchased using the store computer and delivered by truck, in impressively quick time, to the storeroom out back.

Filling up cars with gas, shelf stacking and mopping up is all very well, but the real excitement begins if you allow a doppelganger to leave with its groceries (or fuel). Thus emboldened, it summons The Entity, a large spider-like being that, while blind, hunts down the player with its acute sense of hearing. In later levels, it's accompanied by more deadly creatures, each dedicated to killing you and claiming the gas station for themselves.

Shift At Midnight is meticulously constructed and challenging, especially as a solo player. Serving customers during your shift is a frantic endeavour, but nothing compared to the 60 seconds you get to board up the doors, set traps and prepare for the arrival of The Entity. While hardly scary (bar a couple of compulsory trips to the forest behind the station), the inclusion of multiplayer adds massive variety, the players joining forces to keep the station under human control. To add further to the value, the developer has included an Endless mode, unlocked once you've beaten the main story. When you blend these elements with the game's anarchic sense of humour—most notably displayed in the misbehaving people of the later levels—it adds up to quite the most fun we've ever had with this type of game.

Don’t ask.

Notes: As of this moment, Shift At Midnight is only playable cross-platform between Xbox and Game Pass PC players. There are plans to expand this to Steam players in the future. Indie Horror Gamer was not given a key for the purposes of this review.

CONCLUSION

Not notably horrific (despite the buckets of blood), but wildly amusing, supremely entertaining and superb value for money.