Graveyard Shift review

Short atmospheric horror game provides solid spooks but no narrative or gameplay depth

During the Age of Sail (roughly the mid-16th to mid-19th century), when global trade and warfare relied on wind-powered ships, life at sea was harsh and exhausting. It involved poor living conditions, daily hard work, and relentless rotations of duty that blurred day and night into a cycle of endless watch hours. Among these, the midnight to 4 a.m. watch was especially taxing. In near-total darkness and deep quiet, with most of the crew asleep, the ship’s surroundings often felt eerily still and isolated. Those on duty had to stay alert fighting fatigue, scanning the horizon and listening for subtle changes in the wind or sea. This combination of silence, exhaustion, and solitude made sailors feel like they were in a cemetery, leading them to call it the “graveyard watch,” a term that later evolved into “graveyard shift,” now used more generally for overnight work.

The appropriately named Graveyard Shift, a psychological horror game by Darkphobia (Amenti, The Lightkeeper), takes this term very literally. You play as Gary, a new night security guard on his first shift at Whispering Winds Cemetery. It so happens that earlier that same day, three members of a famous rock group were killed in a car crash and their bodies delivered to the cemetery awaiting the funeral the next day. Initially everything seems normal, but as the night goes on, Gary notices strange activity through the security cameras, and then in the cemetery itself. Things quickly become more terrifying from there, turning the job into a horrific paranormal experience. Gary’s (and the player's) objective becomes to survive the night while trying to figure out what is happening.

With a playtime of only one to two hours, this game is a short experience that deals with the disturbing themes of death and the underworld. It is presented through highly detailed photorealistic graphics, with lighting – or rather the lack of it – playing a major role in establishing a grim overall tone. The cemetery is dark and gloomy, and later you will traverse an almost completely pitch-black maze stretching across two or three underground levels, looking for a way out. Aboveground, weather effects such as gentle wind and rolling fog further enhance the oppressive atmosphere, while light rain falls on the cobbled paths, graves, and crypts, some of them illuminated by memorial candles.

Detailed as the environments are, there is almost a total lack of interactivity. You cannot open the cabinet in the security room, for instance, in search of anything that might be useful. It isn’t possible to enter the burial crypts, perhaps looking for some clues to the strange activity occurring there. You cannot open coffins at will or smash doors or windows to escape – even when carrying an axe. When underground, you can only open the specific doors that are relevant to your progress.

With so little interactivity, there are no actual puzzles to solve, no red herrings or possible different paths to the same goal, no multiple choices to affect progress or maybe trigger alternate endings (there is only one). Gameplay is straightforward, consisting mostly of mundane tasks such as “find a tool to break the tomb’s door.” Throughout the night, Gary must check the security cameras several times, fix a broken fuse, close a valve to stop a damaged pipe from leaking, and fix a car alarm that goes off, among other assigned jobs. There are ten cameras, with no split screen enabling you to focus on one camera or other; nor is there a control panel. Every time you check them, you must go through all ten one by one, even when some of them show nothing unusual. 

But some of them will start to show unnatural things. As Graveyard Shift progresses, you will see many signs of paranormal activity: crosses are turned upside down, body bags fall from gurneys in a locked room, handwritten notes pop up out of nowhere, and strange apparitions appear in the cemetery. As cool as that is, you never get to see the activity itself. The body bags change places and positions but you don’t see who (or what) does it, or how. A portrait’s appearance changes behind your back, not in front of your eyes. Whenever you see an apparition, it’s already there when you look. You don’t get to see it materialize out of thin air, or rise from below the ground. I found this somewhat of a letdown, since I would have loved to witness the activity itself, not only its results.

First-person, free-roaming player movement is smooth, controlled by either keyboard (WASD scheme) or gamepad. I do have one quibble: among other options the control menu lists a pistol and a glowstick. Having finished the game, however, I not only didn’t have to use them, but they weren’t ever in my inventory at all. On the other hand, at one point inside a chapel, a lighter seemed to inexplicably pop into existence in my hand out of nowhere, only to disappear just as mysteriously after I was done with it.  

These are only two of several inconsistencies I found throughout the game. For instance, in the security room at one point I found Gary’s food strewn across the floor, though until then it had been bubbling over a small portable gas stove. But later when I returned there, it was gone without a trace. (I can imagine a poltergeist making a mess, but surely not cleaning up afterward.) Towards the end of the game, a video cassette appeared on the bed. The objective, accessible as usual by pressing TAB, read: “Insert the VHS into the device and play it.” The problem is that after completing this task, the objective remained even after the tape had finished playing and had already rewound itself.

Graveyard Shift

Genre:	Horror
Presentation:	Realtime 3D
Theme:	Paranormal, Repair, Surveillance
Perspective:	First-Person
Graphic Style:	Photorealism
Gameplay:	Walking simulator
Control:	Direct Control
Game Length:	Short (1-5 hours)
Difficulty:	Low

Lastly, the spirits seem to be very prolific writers, a trait we do not usually attribute to ghosts. You’ll discover their messages in notes and various graffiti scattered around the environment. Unfortunately, they include the odd grammar mistake, as do comments from Gary at times, such as “don’t look at up” and “look what the devil has do.”

There is a map on the pop-up inventory screen, but you must deduce your exact location on it since it is never marked clearly. Also on the same screen are a heart rate meter and a battery meter for the flashlight. The former did not show any visible change for me even after the occasional jump scare (sometimes followed by the sound of a beating heart), or after running for a while through the cemetery. Something similar occurred with the battery meter: I kept on using the flashlight throughout the game, but the battery remained fully charged, no matter what. This is a good thing, since there is no place to charge it, but it represents another unexplained inconsistency.

One of the things I liked about Graveyard Shift is its sense of passing time. The action begins at dusk, as Gary enters Whispering Winds for the first time, and all events take place throughout the night, ending in the early hours of a bright, misty morning. As the game progresses, so does the condition of the sky. Though you don’t know the exact time, you can approximate it simply by looking up. Around 2 a.m., for instance, the colour of the sky is slightly different than it is at 4 a.m. This can provide some much-needed inspiration to persevere, as you can tell just by looking above you that your ordeal is getting closer to the end – hopefully for the best.

An even stronger part of the game is the sound design that does a lot to keep the mood tense and unsettling. Aboveground, the cemetery feels creepy even when nothing is happening, with the wind and rain and distant creaks, whispers, and strange noises somewhere in the dark, spiced with an occasional ghostly whisper or blood-curdling wail. You constantly feel like there is something, or someone, nearby, even if you can’t see it.

The music mostly stays in the background, focusing more on atmosphere than on memorable tunes, using low ambient drones and distorted sounds. At a later stage in the game, you find yourself in a surreal scene deep underground, looking up through open graves from beneath. Above you, in the opening of each grave are grieving, unidentifiable persons. Here the music becomes choral with an underlying layer of screams, sobbing, whispers and speech. The combined sound and visuals in these moments are very emotional, almost gut-wrenching. Even when replaying it, I couldn’t help but think about loved ones who are long gone. 

Gary is generally alone with his thoughts, which appear only as text, but a priest and the chief of security welcome him to his new job. They are the only two people who will speak to you, delivering their lines in gruff, somewhat ominous voices, and character animation is stilted and unpolished. As they talk, their lips do not move, and their facial expressions remain fixed.  When they or any other visitors to the cemetery walk or perform actions, their movement is stiff, almost robotic, instead of demonstrating fluid, believable motions. It shows in the erratic gestures of a grieving person, and when Gary orders a tall man to leave the grounds.

About halfway through the game, the reason for all this paranormal disturbance is revealed in a note written by otherworldly creatures. It turns out there is a demon in the cemetery, tormenting all the innocent souls there. They now want you to get rid of it, or else you will pay a heavy price. It is not explained at first why you are the chosen one, but you will discover the answer later in a sort of a plot twist.

Final Verdict

Although far from being a great game, Graveyard Shift is not a bad one so much as a simplistic one. It is a bit unpolished, but its atmospheric visuals and eerie sound design help make up for the lack of a meatier story and more sophisticated gameplay. If you’re looking for a challenge you won’t find it here, but there are some emotional moments, with occasional jump scares scattered throughout for good measure. Short, with only one ending and little replay value, it is a bit like riding a ghost train at an amusement park: you’ll have a good time while it lasts, but when it’s done there is nothing but fleeting memories to take home with you.

Eran played his own copy of Graveyard Shift on PC.

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