Never take your work home. For young motel worker Emma, who has a pleasing penchant for retro gaming, there is really no choice. After catching the bus home following a long introductory shift, she starts to notice peculiarities in and around her small apartment. The assumption is made that a disgruntled customer, whom Emma called out for being rude, has followed her home. It soon transpires, though, that more sinister play is afoot.
This isn’t so much a case of a singular nightmare shift, but rather a succession, with the story spread over several days. Emma works at a rundown motel with fewer than a dozen cramped rooms, a drained swimming pool, a temperamental vending machine, and an even more temperamental power generator. There’s also an empty room that rats and stray cats keep getting into, causing no end of bother for our softly spoken protagonist. Thankfully, her loyal boss, Anderson, is just a phone call away should anything go awry – which it often does.
Nightmare Shift is refreshingly upfront about featuring ‘walking simulator’ tropes. These mostly form Emma’s daily routines, giving the experience a backbone in the process. Emma must clock in, welcome guests, and set about getting their rooms ready – which involves cleaning and placing complimentary items in marked locations. This gives you the chance to get a loose idea of guests’ personalities, whether temperamental or mild-mannered. It’s never too long into a shift before an event occurs, such as a mysterious black car driving around the car park, or a power cut. In most instances, you’ll need to find a workaround or call in the disturbance accordingly. Using CCTV is a regular part of Emma’s shift too. Who knows what you might see?
After overcoming or dealing with these shady events, Emma catches the bus home. She’s regularly greeted by the janitor and must use the rickety elevator before punching in a digital door code – something that feels remarkably like filler. Rather than hitting the hay, there are usually a few arbitrary objectives to complete, with the highlight being playing a Pac-Man-style retro game. It’s usually during the middle of the night that a disturbance occurs, later examples of which become increasingly twisted, placing Emma in endless corridors and maze-like environs while her mysterious stalker gives chase.
The story concludes after five shifts, all of which last around 20–30 minutes, culminating in the runtime of a typical movie. There are different endings to discover, but frustratingly, it isn’t possible to restart from the final moments or even replay the final chapter – once the story has concluded, only the ‘New Game’ option is available from the menu.
Nightmare Shift’s issues run a little deeper, with its general presentation being pretty sloppy. The voice acting is better than average (I was surprised to find that it didn’t use a text-to-speech program), but the dialogue is rife with contrived musings. Typos are common, and the HUD often doesn’t display mission objective descriptions fully. Visually, it’s a real mishmash too, featuring realistic locations with vastly exaggerated lighting and liberal use of reflective surfaces. I’d hazard a guess that a lot of store-bought assets are in use, as I’ve seen Emma’s knock-off Atari 2600 in at least two other indie games. Worst of all are the NPCs, each resembling a shop mannequin – and moving just as woodenly. As a result, the tone can be more comical than creepy.
Nightmare Shift is an odd proposition. It’s a horror experience that relies on jump scares far too often, and there’s a lot of busywork involved to justify the actual ‘shift’ aspect, even including instances where Emma needs to pass time. The storyline beats are more or less here, though; Emma becomes increasingly fearful for her life throughout the game’s two-hour duration, and the conclusion is resolute. The horror genre has been revitalised so successfully that fans are spoilt for choice nowadays, making this a difficult recommendation considering how sloppily it’s presented. Unless you happen to be in the market for a schlocky, low-end horror, I’d suggest booking a stay elsewhere.
Binary Lunar’s Nightmare Shift is out now on Xbox Series and coming soon to PS5. Published on consoles by Ultimate Games.