Clocking In to a Supernatural Nightmare
Over the last few months, we’ve seen a good number of horror games arrive for review. Blame it on Halloween if you must.
Personally, I’ve played those set in apartment blocks, ones in motor garages, more so in houses, stuck on a loop. Creepy Shift: Roadside Diner is the latest to be set in a diner, sitting on the Xbox Store alongside the Nell’s Diner expansion for Phasmophobia.
But this one mixes shock and horror with some mundane work as well. It’s a mixture of a haunting narrative and the need to keep an eye on a dishwasher, unloading and then filling it up again with dirty plates.
Yeah, Creepy Shift: Roadside Diner is weird. But it’s definitely worth your time.
The Eerie Glow
The story set up is about as straightforward as you can get, where you, an unnamed protagonist, arrive by bus in the dead of night, to a diner in the middle of nowhere; at the roadside. Straight away, you notice the night and trees around the diner are strange, beaming with an eerie glow. But as the self-narration says, you are down on your luck money-wise and need to take any kind of work. Doing the night shift at the diner after everyone has gone home is what you need to do, all in hope of getting straight.
As you go into the diner through the backdoor into the kitchen, you are faced with a note giving you the tasks for the night. You have to restock the shelves with goods, like fruit and sundries. You have to move some boxes and empty some bins. Then you have to go into the dining room and clean all the plates, put them in the dishwasher, and then clean the tables. So far, so good, yes?
The thing is, there is another note that asks you to ensure that the doors to the outside world are not left open, and if the jukebox starts playing music, then you should switch it off immediately.
Sim-Work Meets Survival
With this ominous instruction in your mind, you go to work. Each area of the diner needs a key to open it, and as you start to work, you find these keys, and then music starts playing, and suddenly you are transported into an office.
It’s here where a whole different game starts, as the work sim turns into a survival horror, complete with ghostly preacher. I liked the story and the set-up a lot, even if Creepy Shift: Roadside Diner is a short game, and the pace of it sees it shift along fairly swiftly. That means there is little time to settle into the atmosphere or the narrative before another thing happens. If you do get a grasp on things though, you’ll discover that the narrative tells a good tale, and I like how the game manages to neatly mix two genres together.
Creepy Shift: Roadside Diner is played in the first person, very much split into two distinct segments. The work sim bit of the game consists of you picking up objects and placing them in the right place. But there’s no doubt that the cleaning of tables is boring, as I guess it would be in real life, as is unloading and loading the dishwasher, emptying bins, and mopping floors.
Stealth, Scares, and the Jukebox Rule
So when the game’s horror truly kicks in, and you get to experience the other side of the gameplay, the excitement starts to build.
You are told about the two major rules at the start of the game too, and there is another one that I won’t spoil, involving a candle. If you don’t do this, you will get hunted, and this is when the old-school survivor horror mechanics kick in, as you’re left to be as stealthy as possible, creeping around and hiding in cupboards to stay away from danger. I wasn’t so impressed with this part of the game though, as I like my horror more suggestible and frightening when you don’t know what is following you. When it becomes clear who is chasing you and what the big bad is, it all becomes less scary.
Americana, Art Deco, and Good Audio
The visuals are pretty good. I like the classic Americana diner with its table and Art Deco design. The area outside is great with its ominous feeling and dark lighting. The horrors are nicely designed as well, and the visuals do a good job at highlighting clues, giving hints as to what you need to do next; something that is appreciated.
And frankly, the audio is very good with some great use of scares and jump cuts. Having retro tracks playing from the jukebox is nicely composed and works perfectly with the spooky atmosphere. There is a good bit of voice work from the actor voicing the main character, giving the character more depth and soul than you may well expect from a game like this.
A Unique Horror Blend Worth the Night Shift
At the end of a long night in the diner, what will you learn from Creepy Shift: Roadside Diner? Well, you’ll discover that diners are much scarier than you could ever have imagined, and you may well look forward to seeing a spirit than spending time sticking dirty plates in a dishwasher.
If you’re a fan of horror, Creepy Shift: Roadside Diner does a good job of mixing scares with sim work. But just remember, don’t let that jukebox play…
Important Links
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/creepy-shift-roadside-diner/9P5QBW1J15GS/0010
