Nightshift is a horror gamebook written by Victoria Hancox and was originally published in 2019. It is a self-contained product, but the most recent offering (2nd edition) ties it to the author's later gamebooks, forming a series called The Cluster of Echoes. I should note that the connection is fairly surface-level; I actually started with book #3, and it didn't impede my enjoyment or understanding one bit. Apart from the sixth and final book in the series (Game Over), you can play them in any order you like.
In case you're not familiar with the tern, a gamebook is a form of interactive fiction. The text is organised into numbered sections (or paragraphs). Most sections offer you multiple ways to progress, and depending on your choice you are directed to another section to continue, hopping from section to section in the book.
Writing and Art
The text is conversational but competent. Apart from a few typos and missing commas, it's all pretty clean. Because the game is structured very much like a puzzle, I didn't really experience a sense of dread, but there were definitely a couple of horrific scenes in there.
The game has 400 sections in total (reminiscent of old-school gamebooks) plus one that ties it to the series, with 42 "bad endings" and one victory paragraph. The interior images are all black-and-white. I liked some of the filler illustrations meant to break up the text. The art ranges from serviceable to off-putting; some of them are quite pixelated for some reason as well.
Mechanics and Structure
Nightshift is much closer to the Choose Your Own Adventure series than Fighting Fantasy in that no randomisers (cards or dice) are used. However, much like old-school gamebooks, it is about collecting items, gathering clues, and solving puzzles. There are a few cases where you can progress by sheer luck, but it's never because of a die roll.
Although I enjoy elaborate mechanics as much as the next nerd, I've come to like this approach just as much — as long as the puzzles are varied and challenging, and there are ample opportunities to gather information to help you make the right choices.
There a few riddles in there, and another puzzle or two test your knowledge of the real world, but most challenges require an item or a specific action for which you had hopefully found a clue earlier on. There are a couple of these that you can easily miss out on but absolutely cannot finish the game without. It can be a little frustrating unless you keep track of your runs.
There's one red herring in particular that I thought was both ingenious and cruel. Not everyone you can talk to is a friend (although most of the time you can tell who's on your side).
Story and Gameplay
You work in a hospital as a nurse. It's the night shift, and you're just waking up from a nap between two emergencies. You immediately realise something's wrong when you find your colleague murdered, and the murderer is still around... Can you survive the night shift?
As you explore the hospital, it becomes apparent that you're not in Kansas any more. Creeping along the dark hospital corridors, it all starts to feel like you're in a nightmare, with an appropriate cast of creepy characters and surreal environs. It's not just a terrifying hospital; it's weird and otherworldly too, which makes it feel much more like a game, but it also means there's always a chance of something crazy awaiting you in the next room, rewarding exploration with a clue, description of a gory scene, or an interesting way to die.
Navigating the environment is IMHO unnecessarily challenging. Although a lot of times various sections of the hospital are named explicitly ("if you want to enter the vascular ward, turn to XX"), there were still numerous "left or right" choices without any hint whatsoever. I'm told that the hardcover version actually contains a map of the hospital (but it's also available on the author's website).
Summary
Overall, Nightshift is a great little puzzle if you're not squeamish about body horror (it takes place in a nightmarish hospital after all), and you don't mind the occasional "you hadn't picked up the right item so you die" sections. It's not perfect by any means, but it's a decent romp, especially from a first time designer.
Nightshift is available in softcover, hardcover, and Kindle formats on Amazon (com, uk, de, etc.).
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