The Hash-Slinging Slasher

Review by demonxz95 on Monday, August 8th 2016
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Click to play The Graveyard Shift

The Graveyard Shift is a game created by j0ji

Introduction

Hey guys, this is Demonxz95 here bringing you a review of The Graveyard Shift by j0ji. J0ji is not a member most of us here have heard about but recently, he has gotten his hand on his first two featured games, Chasm (helped by me banning some games on the boost auction that had nothing in them), and this one. Originally, I was going to review Chasm but I couldn't get very far into it before I decided to quit (not because I was frustrated but because I simply decided to quit).


Review

First off, we look at the thumbnail for this game, which is really nice. It looks like an actual title screen for a game which is always a nice touch for PPG games, where you can give the game a really catching image to look at.


Now, the gameplay of the game is really simple. You're a... actually what are you in this game? I don't know. Well, you're a person with a shovel, during a zombie apocalypse going around killing a bunch of zombies and every level, the game will introduce a new element, nothing too large but once you get to later levels where all of these elements have been implemented, it gets pretty hectic.


Now, the scenery of this game is very good. It appears that j0ji has put notable effort into the scenery, but the problem is that you're in the same landscape for every level. I think maybe every 2 levels, he could've changed it up and have the level take place in a different area. Also, another problem is that every level minus the "title screen", uses the same song. I like "Dance of the Bats" but not when I have to listen to it over and over and over for everything. It just gets a bit annoying. The graphics for all of the enemies are great however. J0ji appears to be a great graphic artist. Just about every graphic here is his own. And even if he didn't make the graphics in the game (he did btw), the visuals in the game still get a plus even when you use other people's graphics. I mean, they made them public for a reason, and I can barely draw stick figures.


A problem I had with the game is that the game is not very clear on what you're supposed to do when you start. When I first played the game, I thought you were supposed to jump over the zombies. It took me quite a few deaths before I realized they die when they simply just touch my shovel, and speaking of touching the shovel, in some early levels, you can easily just stand at the left side of the screen and wait for the zombies to walk towards you. The rolling skulls won't even go far enough to reach you.


Pros and Cons

Pros

Good visuals

Good concept

Cons

Exploits

Every levels looks the exact same

Almost every level uses the same song


Don't take the number of cons outnumbereing the number of pros as a very negative thing. The cons are not as bad and the pros are good, and some of the cons are very nitpicky.


Conclusion

Well, that's this game for you. I don't know if I would agree with the feature because although the game looks nice and has a good concept to it, there are quite a few setbacks to it, and there are some signs of poor design here and there.