Item - Nightshift

A fantastic interactive horror tale! In the year 1999, a young 25 year-old video gamer (me, back when I still played such things) discovered a game named Silent Hill. Never before had I experienced an atmosphere so creepy; so disturbing. It was a game that won me over in a heartbeat though it did its best several times to make my heart stop.

Onwards to 2019, 20 years on, and I've discovered a book, a work of interactive fiction, which not only brought back all those same feelings (the good ones!) but also kept me occupied for hours, puzzling my way through a challenging and terrifying ordeal.

Nightshift takes place in a hospital, where you take on the role of one of the nurses who works there. After a particularly tiring shift you decide to have a rest, eventually falling asleep. You awaken into a veritable nightmare, with your friend dead and the hospital looking like it fell through countless holes in the space/time continuum!

This book is full of puzzles, twists and turns, and is written in such a joyfully personal way that you will feel like you ARE the character, trapped in that horrible reality. Making careful notes is a must as some of the puzzles that need deciphering can be tricky, though the book builds a good and logical level of difficulty as you progress.

Victoria Hancox is clearly a skilled writer, and what she has accomplished here, to create an interactive horror novel which brings back the same thoughts and feelings I had for a favourite game some 20 years ago, speaks volumes as to her talent. If you want some interaction embedded seamlessly into your horror then I cannot recommend Nightshift highly enough.

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