Late Shift Reviews

Late Shift is ranked in the 28th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
6 / 10
Jun 10, 2018

Late Shift brings back the interactive movie genre, based on the use of the Full Motion Video, to the current age with all the technical advancements that it brings in terms of visual improvements. However and while the actors' interpretations are competent and there are plenty of choices, they end up having less of an impact on the plot that it would be legitimate to expect and the game's own level of interactivity feels very narrow.

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6 / 10.0
May 2, 2017

Full motion video games are making a comeback and you could do worse than the crime thriller Late Shift.

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6 / 10.0
Apr 27, 2018

Night Shift is a neat concept, and it's pretty entertaining on a play-through or two. However, it's really tedious to replay, and the writing isn't particularly good. If you're a big fan of choose-your-own-adventure games, pick it up on a sale.

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Cubed3
Top Critic
6 / 10
Apr 18, 2017

Late Shift would be a fine movie, although it would falter from an odd lack of direction from time to time. As a game, though, Late Shift just feels too disconnected from the player to justify even giving them control. It does allow you to steer the story, and on occasion it feels like the decisions that have been made actually mattered. Still, the player's involvement just feels like the movie occasionally wondering where it should go.

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Ofisil
Top Critic
6 / 10
Apr 18, 2017

For fans of the interactive movie genre, Late Shift is, without a single doubt, a product worthy of its price tag. Those grown tired of the usual flaws of this flavour of games, however, beware, as these make their appearance here too, with choices rarely changing things as much as they should.

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May 5, 2017

Quote not yet available

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May 2, 2018

Because the understanding on how to make FMV games really function is still underdeveloped, there are still structural issues that creators are clearly struggling with, and Late Shift is very much a product of this.

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Apr 17, 2017

Overall, Late Shift does well to ensure any choices you make impact on the story, either immediately or later on. The technical issues really hold it back though, and despite not being game-breaking, it’s irritating to have such problems spread out from start to finish.

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6 / 10.0
Apr 17, 2017

Despite being a thriller, Late Shift, is not nearly as well written, or structured as the films of the very same genre, such as the critically acclaimed North by Northwest. And that’s okay, because unlike Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Late Shift is a compound entity, which consists of numerous scenes which revolve around each other depending on the choices made by the player.

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5 / 10.0
Apr 18, 2017

Late Shift is interesting enough on its first go around, but without reward in its narrative or punishment in its gameplay, there's not enough reason to go back.

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4 / 10.0
Apr 18, 2017

Late Shift is an interesting update on the idea of the interactive movie. While it brings decent tv-quality production values and soap opera level acting to a genre notoriously riddled with far worse, it still doesn't do enough to stand out as a film, nor offer enough interactivity as a game. There's potential for this template, but the interactivity needs to be much more ambitious.

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4 / 10
Apr 18, 2017

If you really boil it down, Late Shift is a movie with a plot that you can alter. Sadly, that plot isn't very good. Gameplay is minimal, and where The Bunker struck a decent balance, the lack of interaction here only serves to make the experience more of a slog. This can only be described as a complete disappointment.

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2 / 5.0
Apr 15, 2019

An interesting idea, but not a very good game. I enjoyed watching it for an hour but replaying it became very frustrating. Bandersnatch did a similar idea and doesn’t require a direct purchase price.

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Cubed3
Top Critic
3 / 10
Jan 7, 2019

The concept behind Late Shift is not necessarily a bad one, but if you're going to design a game around an interactive story, it is crucial the story is actually well done. This isn't the case here, sadly.

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No Recommendation / Blank
Apr 24, 2017

The FMV thriller is fully exhumed in this splicing of game and cinema, where high production values fail to obscure the creative fissures.

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B-
May 18, 2018

Late Shift is the latest example of just how far the FMV genre has come since the days of the Sega CD: the production values are insanely impressive, the narrative is interesting and the acting is strong.

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Unscored
Apr 17, 2017

Late Shift is a fun experiment that I'm glad I got to experience, and would encourage gamers and film-goers alike to give it a shot. It manages to suck you in enough that you want to see where your decisions take you, and successfully creates an experience which is fairly unique in both the worlds of cinema and gaming.

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