I Played The Mortuary Assistant Demo so you don’t have to. Though…you probably should. I will say I did not find this demo on my own, but I am glad a friend brought it to my attention. This wonderful indie horror title is produced and developed by DarkStone Digital. Up until now I’d never heard of them, but I most definitely will be looking into more of their games now, after having this experience.
At the start of the game, we are in the main character Rebecca’s apartment and she is talking about how she got sent home from her new job which is, of course, being a mortuary assistant. It seems she worries needlessly, because she is soon called in to handle 3 bodies that very night. That is where our adventure begins.
It was a dark and stormy night at the funeral home and Rebecca gets the chance to show what she is made of working alone. The ghosts and scares really do their job with various unpredictable scares as you go about doing your normal, day-to-day tasks. The atmosphere and setting of this game are really well done considering how small the building actually is. You don’t feel claustrophobic, but the use of the space from the developers is well thought out. I have also found (because I had to restart the game) that not everything is linear preset scares which also includes the damage or marks on the dead body you get to examine. I like the variations that give a horror game replay value, and am very excited to see the full game upon release.
I do not intend to give too much away, but the demo did a great job of selling me on the game. Genuine jump scares and WTF moments throughout. There does seem to be some heavy content that they only touch on in the demo but I expect they will explore much more deeply upon full release. I’ve included a trigger list at the end of this article, as this is a bit more than just ghosts and dead bodies.
I will say the options menu and quality of life options were a bit lacking, mostly on the chance to mess with the sound volume. By the time I got to play it did have captions, which is something I always have on for my streams. I am hopeful there will be more done with the options menu before release, but overall not controlling volume in-game is a small thing.
The only other critique I have is the lack of response from main character Rebecca as to what is going on around her. It isn’t made clear if she is just used to seeing ghosts or if the dialogue hasn’t been recorded for these scares, but I find it odd she speaks/responds sometimes and then when a major scare happens there’s nothing from her in the way of a reaction. If this is a purposeful choice, I don’t know how I feel about it. I guess we will all find out upon full release.
If you are looking for a great experience with an indie horror title go play the demo for The Mortuary Assistant. It was a refreshing experience for someone who’s played many horror titles.
Triggers:
Suicide
Blood
Institutionalization
Religion
Where you can find the Demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295920/The_Mortuary_Assistant/
Real Women of Gaming 