Coffee and stalking–words that describe the immersive experience of playing The Closing Shift. 

The Closing Shift is a single player Japanese horror game developed by Chilla’s Art. It was released March 18, 2022 and is only available to play on Windows. On average, it takes around two hours to complete The Closing Shift. 

After three years, is The Closing Shift still worth a play?

The game starts off like any other. The player plays as an unnamed girl who works–as the title suggests–the closing shift at a coffee shop. This coffee shop takes clear inspiration from Starbucks. The player serves drinks and cleans the coffee shop, but as the story progresses, the player and character slowly learn that everything is not what it seems; that the character might just be the victim of a stalker. 

With the building notion that the player is being stalked, it's hard to trust characters in The Closing Shift. The game frames all the characters to be awkward or unsettling to talk to. There's also the design of characters that adds to this. Most of the graphics look unsettling and uncanny. I found the entire time that I was paranoid of who to trust and who not to trust. There's a point in the game where you feel like you're finally safe, but then it flips on you again and your stomach drops.

The Closing Shift plays on a realistic fear that could happen to anyone: stalking. Instead of playing with supernatural elements, it has a story based in realism. Stalking is something plenty of people are terrified of happening to them. While I personally never even considered stalking to be something I could have to deal with, this game changed my outlook. Stalking can happen to anyone, not just famous people. According to the Office for National Statistics website, one in five women experience stalking. 

Just like many other horror games, The Closing Shift has a handful of jumpscares. Some of which are really cheesy and predictable and others horrifying that send you flying out of your chair. The Closing Shift doesn’t just rely on unexpected scares. There are some very subtle scares that crawl under your skin and send chills down your spine. One of these instances is when you can see a man standing in the distance and you can’t help but wonder if he’s the one who’s been stalking the character.

There are a handful of things that Chilla’s Art does perfectly with The Closing Shift. I think the best being the gradual blend between reality and dreams. Don’t get me wrong, I hate when games make it out to be all just a dream, but The Closing Shift doesn’t do that. Reality gets entangled with dream sequences to a degree that it makes it hard to tell the difference between the two, which I think is done masterfully. The player finds themself incredibly confused until it all clicks and makes perfect sense. These night terrors the character is experiencing adds to the realistic element as well. Who wouldn’t have nightmares after finding out they’re being stalked? 

The Closing Shift has three endings that all wrap up the game well. Upon my first playthrough, I got two. Then I discovered that there is a third one and went back to play the ending again to get it. All three endings are solid conclusions to the story. However, there is one good ending and two bad endings. Out of the two bad endings, one is worse than the other. 

I only have one criticism of The Closing Shift and that’s the job of working the coffee shop. There’s at least ten different drinks the player has to make, which can get confusing. However, the game seems to recognize this and has a ‘cheat sheet’ for the drinks that the player can refer back to if needed. 

The Closing Shift is a perfect short horror game that the player could complete in one go. It’s definitely worth at least one play through. Chilla’s Art has many other games that are just as realistic as this one, as well as supernatural games. The Closing Shift is my favorite of their games and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a quick thrill.