Intro: Fighting demons are a part of a well-balanced breakfast and healthy work life. In the this first-person horror game, Mortuary Assistant we prepare a body to be laid to rest and take care of some demons along the way. Our main character puts herself into a unique role that creates a new narrative for a horror game and creates a positive conversation around death and how it’s silence haunts us.
Another Day On The Job Going into deaths final act can be a peaceful or harrowing journey if you’re the one to make sure the body is not only represented correctly to the family but assuring, they don’t rise again. Cold slabs of uncertainty coat our main characters voice as she finishes getting each corpse ready for the final descent. The story is simple in it narrative, but complex and intriguing in the way it is delivered to the player.
You not only have to prepare each body for burial, but you have to make sure that you’re not possessed, and that you burn the correct body with the demon attached to it. This game is so intriguing in how it presents itself because it’s not just a typical indie horror game that gives you a few scares and the game is done. This game is smart and well executed and actually made me scared with well-placed aspirations, demons and vocal cues. It happens just enough to keep the player on edge, and I love that! I was checking around the room, burning papers to see if there are any clues, doing my job and trying not to notice the crouched over demon on top of the closet staring into my soul. A Smart Horror Experience: Rebecca is our lovely protagonist and the first person I ever saw in a horror game who was smart about her predicament. As soon as she sensed what was going on she wanted to leave her job, but then got gaslit into staying, which in this case I don’t think she minded trying to be a hero, but I digress. As Rebecca gets more and more possessed hallucinations occur, and we see this character known as The Mimic, start to appear. The Mimic is an interesting one since it’s the embodiment of the devil's envy of humanity. Looking on, never truly being a part of what humanity is, and is just a shell of what is wanted. This motif, if you will, is fascinating psychologically since The Mimic is portraying a sort of big brother to the possessed human. it knows Rebecca, and potentially knows how smart she is in how she is approaching each shift. The evil in this game is calm, calculated and playful in the most sinister sense. It's up to Rebecca to outsmart the evils at play here and have the upper hand.
Rest In Peace: However, we want to look at death as a final chapter, a continuation on to something more, or a gateway into thing we cannot comprehend, one thing is for certain we can't explain what lurks beyond the shadows. This game brings out the monsters that lurk and gives them a playground. Mortuary Assistant was a well-executed and sound experience that makes me hopeful for the future of horror.
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