Have You Played... Night Shift?

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.

Unlike Pip, I am not good at puzzle games. Unlike John, I don't even wish I was [ohhhhh! -ed.]. But I'll try anything if I get to drive a car down a spooky road patrolled by ghost cars after the sun has gone out. That's Night Shift [official site], a driving puzzle game about the end of the world.

Look, I'll 'fess up didn't even read enough to see Night Shift was a puzzle game before I bought it. I saw a screenshot with a dark road. I saw a muscle car. I saw ghost cars. I saw spooky trees. I was in. And off I drove, seeing where the road might take me. I think I was expecting Glitchhikers, Naut, Night Tune - a car-based walking simulator.

Nnnope. As I looped along a stretch of dark road, grooving to the eerie ambient music, I started trying to figure out what I was even doing there. Night Shift is not big on explanations, see, or hints, or necessarily logic. Which I dig! Pootling around, noticing suspicious elements in the world, and realising that flashing my headlights could affect them, I began a grand stretch of puzzling and experimentation. I have successfully solved some levels.

I mentioned that I'm bad at puzzle games, didn't I? I'm certainly bad at Night Shift. I understand it is a short game. I will never finish it. I'm okay with that. I guess the sun won't return to the world. Sorry, everyone.