REVIEW: The Closing Shift, How To Make Coffee Simulator!

Intro

The Closing Shift is a 2022 indie game from publisher and developer Chilla’s Art, released on 18th March 2022.

In The Closing Shift, you play a young woman who works the closing shift at Chilla’s Coffee shop. The local news and gossip are consumed by the recent influx of incident reports of stalkers. As the shifts go on, things become more unnerving as more customers start discussing the strange happening. However, with each customer, the stories get closer and closer to the shop.

What I Liked

The Closing Shift had the same clunkiness as The Convenience Store, which I enjoyed in that game to have enjoyed in this game.

The Closing Shift had a better jumpscare than The Convenience Store, with the moment on the second or third night; a lot scarier. It was a good scare that I jumped again while watching Markiplier’s play-through. The best scare out of the two games.

My favourite part of the whole game is the final shift. On the final night, everything seems to have picked up, and the repetitive tasks abruptly stop. This was a welcomed change for me.

You still had to use your brain before everything kicked off. You had to close up the shop, and if you haven’t worked in retail or don’t have knowledge of how shops like the Coffee Shop worked, then you may be lost. Don’t worry, though! Just look at the counters and see if anything is different.

What I appreciated about the game what is that allowed me to see multiple endings without having to play the entire game again. I had to look at a guide online to see how to get the game’s actual ending because I couldn’t figure it out.

What I Didn’t Like

As much as I enjoyed the game, I found myself getting bored throughout it. The repetitive, mundane tasks made the jumpscares and atmosphere more effective as your mind was too busy to stay guarded, but it made everything slower for me.

Maybe it’s because I don’t enjoy making coffee or wasn’t in the right mood at the time of playing it. However, comparing it to The Convenience Store, it had a single small task to be completed during each shift. Each night had a different task and kept you engaged just enough to lower your guard but not enough to bore me.

What I Wanted More Of/From

There wasn’t much that I could see I wanted more from, I mean, maybe a slight explanation of what happened to the lady’s baby. She came into the shop after I met her outside with the baby, but there was never an explanation.

Also, was the place haunted throughout the game? A couple of customers mentioned that they got a bad vibe from the place and had heard of haunting ghost stories from the location.

Similar to The Convenience Store, ghost stories are mentioned to make it creepier, but there was one long moment in the game that was unexplainable concerning the story. It would fit with the haunting storyline (if it existed), but not with the Stalker Storyline.

I was going to add here also: it would have been nice to get more of a hint at the stalker through the game. I didn’t think I got any hints, just hearing people talking about the stalker uprising. However, because I went and watched Markiplier’s playthrough of the game, I could spot things I hadn’t noticed myself. Markiplier noticed things I never noticed while playing. So, there were many more hints in the game; I never saw them while playing.

Conclusion

So, in the end, the game was good. Looking back on it, it was a good game that probably took me a bit longer because I was slow with the drinks and everything.

However, honestly, I don’t think I will go back and play it again. At least not anytime soon. I did feel myself getting bored in the middle. It was nice that you got to experience all the endings before finishing the game. Still, I would recommend the game if you want to play something short and creepy, but I wouldn’t play through it more than once in a short period. I might play it further down the line if I want to revisit it but not soon.