Late Night Shift is a short horror game where you play as a worker at a 24-hour supermarket who gets called in for the overnight shift. The game's premise is simple - you need to restock shelves while dealing with monstrous jump scares trying to give you a heart attack.
The core gameplay loop involves picking up boxes of items like milk or cans and placing them on the proper shelves around the store. As you go about this mundane task, terrifying monstrosities will randomly appear, accompanied by loud noises designed to make you jump out of your skin. The player has a heart attack meter that fills up a little more with each jump scare. If it becomes full, you get a bad ending.
While the gameplay is extremely basic, the developer has done a good job with the atmospheric horror elements. The store is rendered in a simple but effective low-poly style that feels appropriately creepy and abandoned at night. The monstrous character models, like a grotesque spider creature, are simple but unnerving in their designs. The sound design is also well-executed, with high-quality ambient noise and blood-curdling roars from the threats that manifest.
In terms of technical specs, Late Night Shift was made in Unity using the Universal Render Pipeline, which allows it to run well on low-end PCs. The controls are straightforward - WASD to move, left-click to interact, space to drop a box, and shift to sprint. There are some minor physics glitches where dropping a box can cause you to get pushed through walls, but nothing too egregious.
From reading the comments, it seems people had a fun time with this little horror nugget. Many appreciated the simple but scary premise and tense atmosphere. However, some felt it lacked variety, as it really is just the same cycle of stocking and jump scares over and over. A few reported some minor bugs like getting stuck after not completing an objective properly.
Overall, if you're looking for a short, campy horror experience with some solid spooky gameplay, Late Night Shift looks like it fits the bill. It's a free download, so you're not out anything to give this late night supermarket shift a try. Just be ready to have your heart put through the wringer as terrors lurk around every aisle.