I‘ve performed my fair proportion of horror video games, and I wish to suppose that at this level, it takes lots for me to be scared, however I can confidently say The Mortuary Assistant is legitimately one of many scariest video games I’ve performed in a while. Is it a spotless gameplay expertise? No. Can it often really feel held again because of points with controls, visuals, and the like? Positively. However is it going to scare absolutely the, ever-loving crap out of you? You already know, it’s greater than just a bit doubtless that it’s going to.
In The Mortuary Assistant, you play as Rebecca, a younger lady who’s been employed as an assistant because the River Fields Mortuary, a creepy mortuary that’s the topic of some rumours, although not sufficient to discourage Rebecca from pursuing her skilled targets. However what begins off as a seemingly strange job turns into one thing rather more sinister, when her boss locks her within the mortuary at night time, telling her {that a} demonic entity is haunting the ability and has hooked up itself to Rebecca. The one wait out now’s to go about her job, determine wat type of demon is haunting her, and attempt to eliminate it earlier than it totally possesses her.
“Is The Mortuary Assistant a spotless gameplay expertise? No. Can it often really feel held again because of points with controls, visuals, and the like? Positively. However is it going to scare absolutely the, ever-loving crap out of you? You already know, it’s greater than just a bit doubtless that it’s going to.”
It’s a simple premise that also manages to have sufficient layers to it to stay attention-grabbing in a number of methods. From a story perspective, The Mortuary Assistant’s speedy narrative ropes in a number of different threads to maintain issues attention-grabbing, from the shady historical past of the mortuary itself, to Rebecca’s traumatic previous and the way it’s informing the horrors that she’s now experiencing, to the fixed rigidity led to by the approaching risk of the demonic presence itself. The sport does a strong job of feeding bits and items of recent data to you, and piecing them collectively to achieve a deeper perception into Rebecca’s previous or the mortuary’s backstory stays constantly participating.
It’s not the story, nevertheless, that serves because the star of the present right here. No, what makes The Mortuary Assistant price your time is simply how ridiculously scary it may be, and in additional methods than one. It begins off with delicate issues corresponding to creepy whispers or home windows and doorways banging shut or shadowy figures which can be briefly seen within the nook of your eyes, however as the sport progresses, issues shortly turn out to be more and more sinister and downright evil.
Horrifyingly animated monstrosities can pop up wherever within the environments, you possibly can come throughout creepy writing in numerous locations, corpses can simply stand up and begin shambling away- The Mortuary Assistant has a wholesome roster of various sorts of scares at its disposal (a number of of that are new ones which were added with this definitive version re-release), and never solely are the overwhelming majority of them legitimately petrifying, the sport additionally does a wonderful job of not often letting you are feeling comfy about whether or not or not you’re prepared for what nightmares chances are you’ll face subsequent. Admittedly, a few of the scares do repeat generally, which implies they find yourself shedding their affect (particularly once they’re extra deeply tied to the story). Given the truth that it is a sport that encourages a number of replays, that repetition can probably be a problem.
“Horrifyingly animated monstrosities can pop up wherever within the environments, you possibly can come throughout creepy writing in numerous locations, corpses can simply stand up and begin shambling away- The Mortuary Assistant has a wholesome roster of various sorts of scares at its disposal.”
However The Mortuary Assistant isn’t only a simple strolling horror sim. What units it aside out of your common indie horror hit is its core gameplay construction. You’re, after all, working at a mortuary on this sport, which implies you’ll be spending loads of time getting our bodies out of chilly storage and embalming them (which, as you may think, is inherently disturbing in and of itself, particularly given how actively concerned you’re in each step of the method), and whilst you’re doing that, you’re additionally tasked with not solely determining what sort of demon you’re being haunted by (the place the sport feels considerably much like multiplayer indie horror sensation Phasmaphobia).
Each a part of each of those important processes can be extremely technical. Embalming a physique is a multi-step course of that has you shifting all through the ability as you’re employed with totally different sorts of apparatus and objects, from figuring out the bodily marks on a physique and draining blood out of it to stitching their jaws shut and extra. Simply as concerned and technical is the method of investigating and figuring out the demon that’s haunting you, and guaranteeing that you just’re not getting any steps improper in all the pieces you do is at all times important. The concerned nature of Rebecca’s work, the eye you’re required to pay as you try to find what demon is haunting you, and the sport’s unbelievable knack for constantly retains ramping up scares all mix collectively to make for some nice gameplay rigidity. Each step of the best way, The Mortuary Assistant is making an attempt to get you to slide up below its terrifying stress.
That’s to not say that the gameplay is devoid of any and all points, nevertheless, chief amongst them being the controls. I by no means performed this sport on PC, however I’m assuming it could have felt a lot better to regulate with a mouse and keyboard. With a controller, easy issues corresponding to shifting and looking out round really feel clunky and regularly inaccurate, and all the pieces from choosing up and utilizing objects (which you’ll be doing a lot of) to interacting with issues within the atmosphere can really feel a bit clunky. Simply as problematic is the overall UI and the menus, which battle with points starting from points with readability to often unresponsive inputs.
“In case you’re in search of a sport that may legitimately terrify you whereas additionally delivering genuinely participating gameplay, even with its aforementioned points, this one is effectively price wanting into.”
That lack of polish rears its head in audio and visible facet of issues as effectively. The Mortuary Assistant is an honest wanting sport, particularly for a low finances indie title, but it surely does endure from a number of noticeable technical points, from muddy textures and regularly uneven animations to audio glitches and extra. The sport’s strengths in different areas admittedly make it simpler to miss such points, however there’s no denying that they will drag the expertise down a bit bit.
Two years in the past, The Mortuary Assistant launched on PC, and although it wasn’t an in a single day sensation by any means, it did be a focus for a good few folks, however hopefully, it’ll see a lot wider success with its console launch. It’s undoubtedly let down by its technical points, and the second to second gameplay can really feel a bit clunky due to the controls, however at its core, The Mortuary Assistant is a very good horror sport. In case you’re in search of a sport that may legitimately terrify you whereas additionally delivering genuinely participating gameplay, even with its aforementioned points, this one is effectively price wanting into.
This sport was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.
