Can you survive the night shift?
Having completed your degree in mortuary sciences, you have taken on an apprenticeship at River Fields Mortuary. Over the past several months you have logged many hours aiding the Mortician in daily tasks along with learning the ins and outs of the embalming process as well as how to properly handle and care for the deceased. Late one night, you are called into work to handle some embalmings. Death doesn’t keep day time hours. But there is something different about these bodies because there is something different about you. Perform embalmings, handle the various jobs around the mortuary, and exorcise demonic forces. All in a day’s work.
The Mortuary Assistant is a mixture between being a horror game and a mortician simulator. You begin by learning the basics of embalming, noting down marks and inputting them on the computer and so on. It’s a lot more detailed than I imagined it would be. Once done, you wheel your corpse back into the drawer and move on to the next.
The trouble comes soon afterwards when you first do a night shift. You’ll learn that there are 3 bodies waiting to be prepared, but one of the 3 is possessed by a demon. The boss mortician has tasked you with working out which of the 3 is the culprit, working out the demon’s name using the computer database and some other tools before putting the body in the furnace. The demon will try numerous things to throw you off the scent such as jump scares, hallucinations of dead family members and so on.
You will need to process all 3 bodies and even then you may not be certain of which is the correct body, so you’ll sometimes need to bring bodies back out to examine for specific marks that weren’t there before and look slightly demonic. If you pick the right body, you’ll wake up the next day with an explanation of the situation from the head mortician Raymond, if not then you’ll be in the same situation but be possessed and tear him to shreds.
There are multiple endings to be found, which I won’t spoil. It does leave things up in the air though, so it’s hard to tell if the night shift routine just keeps going on forever or not, unless there is a sequel that materialises or a new ending via DLC. I was impressed with the story overall, so it’d be nice to get some closure either way.
As I said before, the process of prepping the bodies is more detailed than I imagined. You’ll need to gather a lot of tools, drain the body of blood before embalming, wiring the jaw shut and a good few other things that will keep you busy. Luckily, you have a clipboard that you can bring out to keep you on track of your task. You will get distracted by the demon’s antics, which are different with each night shift, but you need to stay on task.
You also need to hold up a strip of paper every now and then while walking around the mortuary, it will catch on fire at intervals to indicate a symbol is in the area you are in. You’ll need 4 of these to identify the name of the demon. You will also need to pause the game and scribble on a notepad that will over time show how crazy you are going, but will also help you narrow down the “house” that the demon belongs to, which also helps to narrow it down.
I did come across a few bugs during my playthroughs like being stuck between rooms or items not appearing where they should be, but these have been rare overall. It can feel a bit clunky trying to do things like rolling the eyelids down or pumping the body with cavity fluid, but it becomes easier the more you do it.
The visuals are impressive with some highly detailed bodies. The demon’s scare tactics also look good with some truly unsettling moments and sights that will make you shudder. It feels reminiscent of P.T in its design since the mortuary itself is so small and you will be going back and forth, while not knowing if/when the game will start playing tricks with you. Voice-acting is also very well done with believable performances all round, especially the voices of the demons and Raymond. Framerate was consistent throughout, though options to change brightness or even control sensitivity didn’t seem to change no matter what I set it to.
The Verdict
A few niggling issues aside, The Mortuary Assistant is an incredible horror game that had me on the edge of my seat during each playthrough. Trying to work out which body is possessed is a great mystery that works well, though I hope we do get some sequel or additional ending at some point…