Shift 87 Review: Time To Be In The Observational Loop

Are you acutely aware of even the subtlest change that the average person is likely to miss? Then perhaps you should consider Shift 87, courtesy of NORN Corp., and their job offer to candidates prepared to report anomalies within a virtual environment.

That’s the premise of this psychological horror game from developers Pixelsplit and publishers Daedalic Entertainment. To say this game is ambiguous and minimalist is an understatement. You’ll arrive in time for your shift and must investigate a 3D environment, commit it to memory, and then walk in a series of loops identifying any irregularities.

Shift 87 is, at first, a walking simulator with barebones gameplay, as all that is required is walking around the exact three locations repeatedly until you can spot the difference and move on to the next. This looked particularly sharp on the Steam Deck and quite atmospheric for the first ten minutes, then quickly got monotonous. Then it got better, then it became frustrating, and then it got better again.

Shift 87 Review: Clocking In

With only an anomaly reporting device – a pseudo milk frother that digitally uploads changes simply by looking at the change and then holding a button – there’s little in the way of interactivity. There are no documents to read, no 3D items to pick up and spin, nor are there any NPCs to directly engage with. So, a walking simulator, right?

You’re effectively walking through the same environment with one minor change. Sometimes, it might be the placement of an object, a device switched off, or some unholy entity prepping for a jump scare. Get to learn the patterns, and Shift 87 becomes a piece of cake. Well, not really. What makes this so unique is the randomness of items and frequent attempts to catch you out with no changes.

The latter was frustrating as you’ll become accustomed to the area and not see any changes. Walk through the end door to start the loop again and see some visual clue that you have progressed – be it a number increment on a plaque or calendar. However, get complacent or cocky and miss on any nuance, and the process starts again. There are no deaths or penalties other than repeating an area searching for those changes.

Eyes Peeled

What’s the point? That’s the nature of the game: you’re undertaking a shift with NORN HQ and reporting back those changes. There are three main areas to investigate, including some In Sound Mind-like intermissions with fragmented realities, though once complete, you’re returned to the main menu and surmise you have to start again. You do.

The loop, that is, the gameplay loop for wanting to replay, is to locate all 66 anomalies. This is much harder than it sounds, as some of the changes are glaringly obvious, while others are much more subtle and will require a lot of concentration. Think of a 3D version of something like Hidden Through Time 2, where you must locate one change at a time, albeit without a single hint.

Playtime for Shift 87 is projected as 2-3 hours, and that’s fair. To finish a shift took me about an hour, which was made up of overthinking gameplay and not realising it really was that simple, admiring the atmospheric lighting and some of the more absurd anomalies or glitches, and also scaring myself for something that typically was never there!

Shift 87 Review Summary

Shift 87 was a brief flurry of emotions – initially, oohs and aahs are the environments, then the frustration of repeating an area for missing something minuscule, only to be boosted by some satisfying observational work. As brief as those initial emotions were, so was gameplay, too, but let that not be interpreted as a negative as there was a decent shift in mood at the end: satisfaction