Night Shift

You're driving your car along an empty road in the dead of night. From out of the ether, a ghost tells you to find the light to bring back the sun. You flash your highbeams to uncover the secret fire in a ring of moths and a kickin' 80s electro-rock riff shreds the truth of your victory in defiance to all the ghosts of lost drivers on this forgotten road. How is this not a Led Zeppelin song? We're talking air-brushed-on-the-side-of-a-van levels of bitchin' and righteous in that order. So as you can tell, I love the idea of this game. How much do I hate giving this game a negative review then? A lot. A real lot. I really hate reviewing games like Night Shift: games that have got a full tank of new ideas, but lay on the gas and they explode long before they reach the promised land. Watch a "Red Asphalt" video and you'll have an idea of what I mean when I say NIght Shift is poorly executed. And it's unfortunate that it is, since that makes this review one of those back and for...

A dark road lit up only by the lights of a lone driver's car in the dead of night, the pulsing beat and warm synth of the 80's era radio, all haunted with the actualization of surreal entities and glowing white butterflies before you. Whether they are real or a figment of your driver's sleep deprived imagination is unknown. The world you've cruised into is the essence of 80's obsession with a technological dystopia and sunless futures, the soundtrack ([i]Dance With the Dead[/i] - http://dancewiththedead.bandcamp.com/album/out-of-body) the embodiment of cyberpunk, retro-future values recently re-popularized by the likes of [i]Perturbator[/i] or the rest of the artists on the ever-popular [i]Hotline Miami[/i] soundtrack. [i]Night Shift[/i] caught my attention recently with it's appearance on Steam's Early Access, standing out with it's strangely unique concept and almost [i]Knight Rider[/i]-like aesthetic. [i]Night Shift[/i] is a decidedly confusing game, pitting your solitary and anony...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvPkxKJ_rhQ About 15 minutes in I realized that it was puzzle/mystery driving game(What?!) and it began to pull me in. The puzzles that I played were not all that difficult, but they were a lot of fun and gave me a good sense of accomplishment upon completion. The puzzles give you very little guidance, but when you're on the right track, it will give you some indication through the soundtrack gradually getting more complex or some sort of visual display. The soundtrack is one of the best parts of the game and the gradual shifts it makes as you progress are very satisfying! I'd have to say that this game is more for the mystery/puzzle game enthusiasts rather than driving. While the driving controls and gameplay are fine, the game would would have been just as appealing to me if you played as someone walking around in the dark with a flash light. But I can think of a few games that have done something like that, whereas a puzzle/mystery driving game is a...

I got lost as to what to do, because if you try to light up a small tree it doesn't work if you're right up to it. (Which is what I was doing) Anyways, the music is good when it is playing, I like how the character is driving in a car, and although the story is incomplete it is very interesting. It's actually pretty enjoyable but half the time I drive around with no idea whatsoever as to what I am doing.

The game is certainly interesting and very weird. Weird stuff happens. The mechanics are unique and make it fun interacting with the world. Such as using your headlights to blast away evil stuff and lighting up the world! The graphics are certainly retro-styled which make it intriguing and the music is very good. I think a hint system at least is needed when players get stuck; this would be very nice. I found myself getting stuck for many minutes at a time, and it makes the experience not fun. Stuck on one particular part right now for about 15-20 minutes. Still not sure what to do. One example of a hint system would be Broken Sword's hint system. It being easier or some form of hint system, would certainly stop me getting annoyed at certain moments. Although if the story is rich and detailed that might not be so much of a problem. But I think it is something to consider. :) Other than that I give this game a 6 out of 10 so far, a game with an interesting concept but needs some work...

It took me a few minutes to figure out what I was doing, but it quickly became entertaining.

As a small kid I hated racing games. Everytime I went to an arcade I had to try one, but never got to a trophy podium. But this one is a whole different story. Night Shift explores the scenario of "what if Desert Bus was done right". The game about speeding up, but not really— there are more goals to it than just doing laps. For as short as it might be, for me it's still a perfect little game. And the best thing to it is completing a "level" to hear an amazing OST piece.

BAD game. I would not buy again, even if it would cure cancer.

Summary: Short 1st person driving puzzle game with obtuse puzzles. Proceed with caution. In Night Shift, you play a driver trying to bring the flame back to the sun and light up the world. You play in first-person view from inside the car. The game consists of a series of puzzles that you reward you with pieces of the sun's flame. Puzzle-solving involves the manupilation of light, mostly using the car's headlights. You drive in darkness in loops, till you stumble upon a puzzle. Throughout my playthrough, it seemed that once I've hit a puzzle, driving off would bring me back to the same puzzle again, which probably means that the game gives you the puzzles in sequence, rather than having all of the puzzles available at the same time. The puzzles tend to be obtuse and some of the requirements are a bit too fussy (i.e. I would know what needs to be done, but find the execution difficult). The game makes nice use of audio cues: choppy guitar riff for partial solutions and full-on blaring ...

I don't know how the reviews for this "game" are positive. It's barely a game at all. Just buy the music instead - it's the only redeeming part of this garbage.