A Late Shift That Turns Surreal
Sometimes when I am playing simulation games for review, I find myself asking a simple question: why am I doing more mundane work in this virtual space than I would do in real life? And perhaps more importantly, why am I enjoying it so much?
The worst case I can recall was when I was playing House Flipper 2, where I had to meticulously clean a house, all while sitting in my own living room, which frankly hadn’t seen a hoover for about a week. There is just something about the satisfying loop of completing ordinary jobs that people, myself included, seem to love in games.
Before Exit: Gas Station is a game that gives you a list of menial tasks, but it quickly becomes apparent that there is a lot more going on here than just a normal bit of job satisfaction. Much, much, more.
The Lonely Outpost
The gas station in question is one of those quintessential, isolated outposts, set in the middle of a long, lonely dirt road somewhere in middle America. You are a man without a name, youngish, and you work at this gas station. But your role isn’t what you might expect; you won’t be pumping gas, stocking shelves during the day, or dealing with customers looking for late-night snacks.
Your shift is the late one, the one that begins after all the other customers and staff have gone home. Your solitary job is to clean up the mess from the day and close the place up securely for the next morning.
The garage itself is a small, self-contained world. It consists of an outdoor pumping station with two pumps and some bins. There is a place to get ice and some more bins. Inside, you find the main shopping area, where shelves are filled with all the usual garage goods: crisps, drinks, and car supplies. There’s a cash machine and a main till area. You also have access to a customer toilet area and an attached mechanic’s workshop in the back.
Finally, there is a storeroom, which is where you begin and end your shift. This room acts as your home base, containing the supplies you’ll need to refill your inventory, like fresh bin bags and new toilet rolls.
From Chore to Horror
Your main task is to work over a period of seven days. Each night, you must fulfil several jobs around the garage and then leave, hoping you’ve got all those jobs done correctly. On the first day, for example, you will find a list of tasks clearly put on the notice board for you to complete. These are exactly the kind of mundane chores you’d expect: mop the floor, clean up the rubbish, and empty the bins. Then, you must close all the doors, refill the toilet rolls, switch off all the lights, and finally, turn the main sign to “Closed.”
This first day lulls you into a false sense of security; it’s just a simple job simulator. If you get one of these things wrong as you go to leave, the boss turns up out of nowhere (no spoilers here) and tells you off. You then get a notice on-screen saying how many things you missed and what they were. If you don’t forget anything, then you’re on to the next day.
The Truly Tricky Thing
After that first day, the truly tricky thing happens: there is no longer a list of jobs to do. You just have to work out what’s wrong with the station yourself, and it could be anything. This is where the game shifts genres. Sometimes, all the windows are inexplicably open and need closing. Other times, the chaos is more pronounced: cash machines and the tool drawers are all knocked over and need picking up. One time, I had a bunch of radios scattered everywhere, all blaring static, all needing switching off. Some of these are in plain view, but many are hidden away in cupboards or under shelves, and are genuinely hard to find.
As you successfully complete more days, the more extreme the events become that need sorting out in the garage. With this escalation, the stranger things then get, and the more eerie the atmosphere becomes. This is how more of the narrative is revealed, and it’s where Before Exit: Gas Station becomes increasingly interesting. You are led to believe it’s a simple job sim game, but it’s actually more of a psychological survival horror game, albeit one that masterfully builds dread without relying on cheap jump scares.
Americana, Isolation
I do think I would have liked a bit more direction though. Ultimately, it’s whether you buy into the premise of doing this ‘busy work’ that determines whether you will enjoy this game or not.
The game has a nice, distinct feel to its visuals. It’s a simple, contained area that you occupy, perfectly capturing the traditional Americana gas station aesthetic It’s a garage that feels like it holds a hundred stories from over the years, but also one that is soaked in a palpable feeling of despair. The character of the boss is well-designed, and the way he pops up is quite disarming. When the game starts to get stranger, the visuals do a great job of supporting this tonal shift.
However, the sound design is deliberately minimal; you’ll only hear the odd track on a radio or the lonely sound of your own footsteps as you walk around. This emptiness is precisely what creates the powerful feeling of strangeness and isolation.
Unsettling Experimental Horror
Before Exit: Gas Station cleverly lures you into many false senses of security. First, you think you’re in the setup for a slasher movie, and something terrible is going to happen to the lone employee on the night shift. Then, you relax and think, “Oh, it’s just a simple sim game.” And then it takes another, much stranger turn.
I liked playing this fun, unsettling experience, even though cleaning out virtual toilets isn’t exactly enthralling. But overall, this is another good entry in the growing catalogue of strange, experimental horror experiences available on Xbox.
Important Links
Uncover the Secrets of Before Exit: Gas Station On Xbox Series X|S – https://www.thexboxhub.com/uncover-the-secrets-of-before-exit-gas-station-on-xbox-series-xs/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/before-exit-gas-station/9NS715X19QTQ/0010
