Night Shift

Simple, peaceful, with weird little esoteric puzzles. It's not a big game, but it's great for late-night gaming when you're stoned, alone, and looking for a new experience.

The idea of ghost cars and driving retro style made me buy Night Shift (great name by the way!), but frankly, I expected more than I got. I didn't mind the minimalistic retro graphics or the lack of hand-holding at first. But after driving around aimlessly, I started feeling like the visual style was actually holding back the gaming experience and made it more unclear what, how and where I was supposed to do.

I did finish the whole short game using a guide, because I wasn't enjoying the fumbling around in the dark, guessing what to do (might be my low IQ, but I felt the subtle hints on the latter parts of the game were pretty vague...) getting hit by something and having the level reset itself for another clueless, aimless drive.

What I really did like was the premise. That's what made me interested in the upcoming game and eventually buy it when it came out. Unfortunately it didn't match the experience I had with Night Shift.

I like Dance With the Dead. So I like driving around a bit listening to it. It's a puzzle/driving game though, so that might be unexpected. Still, I did enjoy it.

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.

I love everything about this game. The retro graphics and simple controls are very nostalgic, and the absolutely amazing 80's inspired soundtrack just kicks it up over the top in the best way possible.

I cannot stress enough that my ONLY complaint about this game is that I couldn't buy the soundtrack seperately from the game.

This game has a wonderful atmosphere and soundtrack. I wouldn't say that I totally understand the puzzles but feel like I'm making progress. I'm enjoying exploring and experimenting.

Night Shift is a very atmospheric and surreal puzzle game. Unique gameplay, with a satisfying presentation containing retro aesthetics and music (which is fantastic). The puzzles are a bit obscure, those with less patience may get frustrated at some of them. It's one of those games where you have to think outside the box. Take your time, and observe your surroundings carefully. Take a break if you find yourself stuck, you'll probably get it on the first try after coming back to it.

My only real gripe is that the conclusion could have been more interesting, after all that work I was expecting something with a little more effort put into it. Didn't ruin the experience and wasn't terrible, just not memorable at all. It wasn't a long game either, puzzles were few and there's nothing else to do but the puzzles, it took me around 3 hours to complete. However that wasn't an issue for me, and shouldn't be to anyone else considering its very low price.

If you're looking for something different and don't mind being challenged, I definitely recommend this game. If not, try it anyway- you might end up enjoying it.

Call this a mystery puzzle. You're supposed to do... Something. Things you do trigger flames to appear and you have to collect this flames. And do things to get there. What things? Discover!
Very atmospheric.

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 guitar goodness when the puzzle is solved). The game is on the short side, as it took me 1.5 hrs to fully complete it (though to be fair, I cheated on one puzzle that frustrated me). Recommended for those who want something different and do not mind getting stuck on puzzles.

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 forths where I have to praise the game, telling diehard fans of the genre "NO PASSING" on this one and, out of the other side of my mouth, damn it for its many faults and tell most readers, "DO NOT ENTER."

Alright, alright. Let's shift this thing into gear! What exactly is wrong with the game? Chiefly, it's more cryptic than a hearse doing doughnuts in a mausoleum. Night Shift starts being exactly that obtuse right from the start where it (one can only assume) deliberately obfuscates how to play the game. Not only is there no tutorial, but if you decide to get clever and go to the menu to try and find the keys from the rebinding options, be prepared for disappointment. There's no such option. But, hey, this is basically a 2.5D FPS in layout, so W, A, S, D, Space, and E are pretty much the holy gospel of game design, so maybe we can give it a pass?

Maybe, but the game continues to be as impenetrable as an ice queen in barbed-wire panties with the layout of its many puzzles. To find one, you drive around aimlessly for long stretches of minutes until hopefully you stumble backasswards into one. And god help you if you should leave the puzzle because you decided to test the problem by moving just too far out of the puzzle's bounds or you got momentarily frustrated. You will have a lot more aimless driving ahead of you as you try and guess how the handful of landmarks are related to each other or if they are at all. You know those RPG type games, like Zelda, where sometimes they have a screen that will repeat if you don't exit it from exactly the right direction several times? It feels like that, except after a ton of random wandering you hit a puzzle.

So I found driving around in the dirt without a clear sense of direction really frustrating. But this is a game about driving at night and the atmosphere is great, it's a major draw, and this lets you experience it. Fair enough. The actual puzzles and how they relate to the controls are pretty dodgy. Quite a few of the puzzles rely on you flashing your high beams at things, but the time between when you hit the button and when the beams flash is very sluggish and they only affect objects that are an annoyingly precise distance from the car. This makes hitting the enemy ghost cars and other puzzles that rely upon timing your flash a teeth-grindingly grotesque experience. And, for some reason, you can only flash your beams while completely stopped, which badly breaks the flow of driving through the night. If real cars worked that way, I wager I'd have a lot more speeding tickets, if you know what I mean.

Just like in real life, you can get a single sentence hint for some puzzles by running over a nearby ghost. And there are a few other clues like the activity on your radio and the descriptions for the game's achievements (yes, I needed to use them to figure out how to solve a couple of them). But, overall, the puzzles are wickedly unclear. To give you an example: there was one puzzle that gave me the victory music after I wasted some ghost cars, but after pulling about a million U-eys looking for my prize, I finally gave up driving in the manner of my Polish heritage and continued into the night where the victory music died, right into another half of the puzzle that I accidentally solved while trying to return to where the music was. There were at least two puzzles I still don't know the logic behind but I solved them somehow in a crowning moment of "huh, I guess I was supposed to do that?"

That said, I did solve all of them by myself in less than three hours, so they aren't impossible. But that brings us to the last nail in the coffin that was at some point meant to be a favorable review for Night Shift: it's short. There are only seven puzzles in the game. Yeah, they'll take you a while, but only because the game is stick-a-paper-bag-over-your-head levels of opaque and there's so much driving around lost in the dark to get to the puzzles. And while the game's atmosphere is thick and rich like a seven layer chocolate cake, the story is more like a single chocolate chip. There is really no more than the blurb on the store page:

"The sun has disappeared from the sky! Darkness chokes the land, depriving it of all things good. Now it’s time for you to figure out how to bring the sun back! Get behind the wheel and find the sun in Night Shift!"

That's really it. No further characterization of you or the task at hand or the world around you.

So that's my long list of grievances with Night Shift. And I'm sad to have it. The ending to the game was easily the most radical thing to happen since the 80s ended and the overall tone and idea behind the game are great! How many adventure games exist where you play as a car driving on a 2.5D haunted highway practically reinacting the song "Radar Love?" Night Shift. That's it. And that's why I can still recommend it to long time veterans of adventure games who have legendary patience and can put up with logic that's been filtered through glue sniffing. But to everyone else: sorry, you'll find more frustration than fun. And even to those adventure gamers who will stick around for something new, there's really not enough here to be worth the cost of an entire gallon of gas. There are meatier indie games with better puzzles and more character for the same price. Wait for it to go on sale.

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.

Highly recommend! Weird and I'm not even sure if I'm playing it right. But it's great. Awesome soundtrack and very surreal!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMgOUjC9FmY

Utter confusion consumed me when I was dumped into the dark and mysterious world of Night Shift. I was rather engrossed in the atmosphere and completely perplexed as to what was going on. Why was the sun gone? Who are these bluish ghost people? Who am I? Why am I the only one on the road? All the while trying to figure out the various puzzles scattered throughout the desolate landscape.

I must say that it's rare for a simple puzzle game to make me question the world around me but Night Shift seems to have pulled that off rather well. This game is a good example of doing more with less; with minimal assets it manages to pull off a strangely immersive experience. That constant questioning of what the hell was going on combined with the abstract puzzle solving really succeeded in my opinion. The constant confusion seems to work in the games favor; which is certainly a rarity in my experiences.

In conclusion, I had a blast with Night Shift; and I eagerly await whatever awaits in the coming updates and eventual release. My favorite moment thus far was the soundtrack coming on in full force after completing a puzzle; it was pure joy. I must give a big thanks to Brandon Brizzi for making this enigma of a game!

This is more of a puzzle game than a driving adventure. I had no idea what I was doing since there aren't any instructions. It gets frustrating driving around in circles in the dark listening to the rumble of the engine, but there is a rewarding satisfaction from finally figuring out the puzzles underscored by the music that starts playing when you do the right thing. Sometimes I didn't know what I did right, but the figuring out part is where the fun is at. There aren't that many puzzles right now, but I am definitely looking forward to future updates and the full game.

I do hope there is more to this game when it's finished. I can't even access the controls for the radio and highbeams. I'm sure these were promised.

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 (Dance With the Dead - http://dancewiththedead.bandcamp.com/album/out-of-body) the embodiment of cyberpunk, retro-future values recently re-popularized by the likes of Perturbator or the rest of the artists on the ever-popular Hotline Miami soundtrack. Night Shift caught my attention recently with it's appearance on Steam's Early Access, standing out with it's strangely unique concept and almost Knight Rider-like aesthetic.

Night Shift is a decidedly confusing game, pitting your solitary and anonymous retro hero against the empty pitch-black depths of the unknown and ruined roads before you. Many questions are presented without any real explanation, what happened to this world, who are these other phantasms and who is our driver, what exactly am I supposed to be doing? You're dropped into the pitch black land without any clue or indication of what to do other than the trail of butterflies leading you back on the road setting you on the right path for exploration. The gameplay is very straightforward and simple in execution but sprawling and secretive in it's discovery, having you explore and steal light from dimming lamp posts with your seemingly magical high beams while watching your energy closely, which can only be recharged by the glowing white trees that stand out in the darkness. You'll be stopped on your journey to gather and restore the light around you by the ghostly apparitions of other cars, perhaps even previous drivers on the same failed quest to find the sun as you?

Night Shift already has an attractively old school and fully realized atmosphere, but in it's current form lacks any narrative as to what you're doing or where you are which while effective in it's mysterious and strange nature is exactly why it's in Early Access. The developer, creator of the puzzle-platformer 10000 Amps, apparently has some pretty ambiguous ideas for where the story is headed in the future of Night Shift and is enlisting your help to ensure it's further shaped into something great with the addition of story cinemas and lots of new plot, new levels, as well as full Steam integration for controller support, achievements, cards and the like.

Overall, Nightshift is an awesome and quirky concept with a really cool dark and retro atmosphere that still has a long ways to go in terms of the overall experience given, and if you're the kind of person who's keen on watching as well as help an uncommon and unique idea develop into something even bigger you can pick it up for a very reasonable $4.99. I'm personally pretty excited to see where this one goes.

This game is pretty unique.
It has interesting mechanics and nice music thats fits in well with the retro theme.
This is more of a puzzle game than a driving game.
The big downer on this one is it really lacks a story which is what it needs to stay interesting.
Im not sure if this lack of story telling is due to the game still being in alpha stage but I hope the story is developed more.
Another thing is with you being in control of a car, full controller support would be great for thing game. If that feature is amongst things planned for the future, awesome, otherwise I dont fuckin know dude.

You are mostly left to your own devices in this one, the only indication you are doing something right is the music volume/ music complexity will increase as you draw closer to a point of interest.

The only indicator I can see that tells you how far you are in the game is a moon/ orb thing sitting in the middle of no where.
I think a flame will circle it for each objective(?) you complete.
The most flames I got was 3, then gave up because I couldnt find any thing else.

This game really has potential. I just hope it gets what it's lacking and strengthens its strong points even further. Then we will be in for a bloody good indi game.

5.5 / 10

If you ever what we was like being inside the brain of Kavinsky, now is your chance! Interesting puzzles and very different gameplay.

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 on the execution still. Hopefully the developer can tweak the gameplay a little to make it a bit more easier, but they are working on the story which will make it feel more like a living world.

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 new breed for me.

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.