Game Review: The Mortuary Assistant

By Manuel

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox, PlayStation 5, PC

It seems like I've reviewed a lot of horror-themed games recently, and I guess that makes sense considering that we're moving fast into the spoopy season. The Mortuary Assistant is a game whose reputation precedes it, and it's the one that we're going to be looking at today. Originally released on PC back in 2022, it's now available on most current consoles. We're going to be looking at the Nintendo Switch version here, and see if its reputation is well-earned, or all hype. There's a lot to cover in this one, so let's dive right in!

The Mortuary Assistant places you in the role of one Rebecca Owens, a recently hired mortuary assistant. They year is 1998, and this is probably the last job you ever thought you'd see yourself in. I mention the year only because the game does, but it won't factor in too much outside of the tech you'll be using. You're given a full tutorial on embalming by your boss, Raymond Delver, and you're then called back to the mortuary to cover him in your first solo shift. You show up expecting another round of embalming corpses, only to realize that you've been locked inside the mortuary. It turns out that the mortuary is haunted by several demons who can only be dealt with by you, and apparently Raymond knows all about the demonic happenings of the place. He then gives you further instructions in dealing with the demons, and explains that there is one hidden among the night's cadavers. Demons are bad news, and you're the only one who can take them out. The plot goes all sorts of places from there, but I'll leave the details to be discovered by players themselves. One interesting aspect of The Mortuary Assistant is its procedurally generated gameplay and story. Each playthrough will be different, and you'll see plenty of different scenes depending on your actions. This may render things like guides less helpful, but it adds a layer to the game that makes it very unique. We'll go in-depth regarding gameplay in just a bit, but the randomness accentuates just about every aspect of the game. The horror hits harder when you don't know what to expect, the possessed body will change from time to time, and things will sometimes go completely off the rails. It makes for a crazy experience, but one that I think plenty of people will enjoy. Even though it may be delivered in a non-standard way, I have to say that the story is probably the second strongest part of the game overall. We'll get to what I think is the first soon enough, but let's move on to discussing gameplay next.

Describing the gameplay of The Mortuary Assistant is tough, as it defies most standard genre tags. I know sentences like that get thrown around a lot in reviews, but it truly is the case here. Even though I referred to it as a first-person horror game at the start of this article, it actually resembles something like a walking simulator. It plays like a competent version of those "Insert-Mundane-Task-Here-Simulator" games that all seem to be made in Unity. The Mortuary Assistant is indeed made in Unity, and parts of it do lean into the tropes one finds in games like that. If you were to strip away the extended story and horror elements, you're left with what could totally be sold under the title "Mortician Simulator". Each "stage" of the game is set up like a shift at the mortuary, and you're tasked with embalming a certain number of cadavers each night. This process is excruciatingly precise, and is done step-by-step. It's not exactly realistic, but it does bring about images I'm not totally comfortable putting into this review. I can only assume that most of the processes shown here are accurate, and if they aren't then at least manage to capture the apparently mundane nature of the job. I guess every task can become boring if you just do it over and over every day. Each night you'll be moving bodies around, draining them of fluids, filling them up with still more fluids, get them clean and ready for the next step in their post-life journey, and even perform the exciting task of completing relevant paperwork. Obviously there's far more to it than just that, but it's best to understand what you're getting into with this game. I have to admit that if I knew I'd be doing such an oddly realistic job of embalming corpses, I probably wouldn't have bothered playing it at all. I for sure would've missed out on one of the creepiest games ever in the process, but working around dead bodies, even within the context of a video game, just might be a bit too touchy of a scenario for some players.

If the game were just the embalming sections, I'd find it totally unplayable. Thankfully there's plenty of horror elements that keep this one from crossing over into anything negative. The actual goal in The Mortuary Assistant is to discover which of the current lot of cadavers is currently possessed by a demon, and to destroy it. Figuring out the possessed one is mostly obvious in the early shifts of the game, but can be harder to tell later on. During the course of your nightly tasks, spooky things will interrupt the normal flow of work. The power will go out, doors will open and close on their own, and you may even have a body jump up at you. Most of these can just be ignored, but there are some situations that will force you to stop what you're doing to fix them. Things never really go full survival horror, but there will be parts of the game where you'll have to fix a blown breaker, work at double speed before the demonic activities get to be too much, or even complete sub-tasks in alternate locations. I'll leave the specifics of the latter point for potential players to discover on their own, but let's just say that the game isn't totally locked to the mortuary location. Once you have a good idea as to which body is possessed, you then have to dispose of it by way of cremation. This is a rather simple process, but you can screw the whole thing up if you don't properly seal the demon before attempting to burn it. Failing to do so could cause YOU to be the next one possessed, but can also lead to some interesting results if you're attempting to be thorough as far as endings go. Simple premise or not, it does make for a satisfying gameplay loop that also delivers loads of scares.

I try to stay away from articles or other reviews of games I intend to cover myself, but I wasn't able to fully do that in this case. Despite not wanting any of my own thoughts to be potentially biased by what others have said, I did stumble across plenty of online sources that claimed that The Mortuary Assistant was the scariest game they've ever played. It seemed like this was a game with a high reputation, and I will admit that I went into it expecting quite a bit. With that in mind, imagine my surprise when I found the first hour of the game to be completely mundane and boring. I didn't even care for the story at first, and found its delivery to be way too stereotypical to be anything but mediocre. Then the demonic happenings started to pop up. Seeing things out of the corner of your eye, only for them to disappear before they can be fully seen, is something I never thought a video game could pull off well. Things ramp up from there as you'll hear random sounds, and even get slight "What was that?!?!" moments that eventually turn into outright jump scares. It wasn't long before I realized that the somewhat boring nature of the main game is what allowed the scares to truly grab hold. For example, I doubt I would've been half as spooked as I was if I was playing a run-and gun game. I'm not sure if that boring-to-terrifying pipeline was something the developers were aiming for, but they definitely nailed it either way. Turns out that this actually WAS one of the scariest games I've ever played, and I can give you that statement based solely on my own experiences.

Though I have to admit that The Mortuary Assistant is indeed one of the scariest games I've ever played, there are some aspects of it that keep it from perfection. Most obvious of all has to be the game's visuals. While it does go a bit beyond the Unity Simulator game norms, it still very much looks like one on the surface. There isn't a lot of visual flair to be found, with many of the models and assets feeling like they came from a pre-made pack. I'm not saying they necessarily were of course, just that there isn't much to the game's world that stands out to the player. Also, all the negatives I have to say about the visuals go double for the Nintendo Switch version. Everything looks just a bit more low-poly and jaggy on that platform, though I'm sure much of that is due to the console's aging hardware. It's not all bad on the Switch front though, as I can at least say that the game runs perfectly fine otherwise. I have to imagine that the game looks far better on the other consoles, but the game just isn't much of a looker in general. Out of curiosity, I checked out the game on Steam to see if it blew the console versions out of the way, only to find that there wasn't a whole lot of difference. Performance will vary of course, but what I'm getting at here is that The Mortuary Assistant isn't the most visually appealing game out there. Its graphics work within the context of the game, but they really don't carry the same weight when they're shown in screenshot form, or just about anything else similar for that matter.

Since I'm reviewing the console release of The Mortuary Assistant, there's another big negative I have to get out the way: the controls. Movement works fine, as do some of the most basic tasks, but inventory management and the nuances of embalming can be quite a chore if you're not playing on PC. There were entire steps of the embalming process that I forgot how to pull off when I stepped away from the game for a week, and it took replaying the tutorial for me to figure them out again. Though I can definitely blame forgetfulness on my end, a big part of it is just how unintuitive everything feels. You will eventually fall into a routine where things are second nature, but you're more than likely going to be dropping items on the floor your first shift because you accidentally grabbed the wrong thing and don't know how to put it back. There are still some actions in the console version that I'm not sure how to pull off correctly, and that's pretty crazy considering how long I've played the game. Point-and-click style games rarely translate well to console, but this feels worse than the norm. It isn't unplayable by any means, but there were times when I wanted to just give up on the console release and return to PC. Thankfully there isn't much in the way of action-style gameplay, or I might've been forced to do just that.

Things seem to be a bit hit or miss so far, but one aspect where The Mortuary Assistant really shines is in its music and sound design. The game's soundtrack bolsters every scene in a way that only the best of soundtracks can. I've seen big budget Hollywood movies that don't have music this great, and it definitely helped establish the spooky vibes that primed me for all the game's many jump scares. The sound effects are all great too, with special mention given to the jump scare stings in particular. Most everything comes together perfectly as far as sound goes, but there is one aspect of it that yet again keeps perfection at arm's length. Voice acting can often be spotty in indie games, and that's totally the case here. There aren't any performances here that warrant muting the game, but they're just not very good. I do have to give the developers credit for not simply going for the "We're acting bad on purpose!" trope, though part of me does feel that might have been more entertaining. Overall, it sounds like a group of relatively untested voice actors giving it their best shot and coming up a little bit short. To make matters worse, there are parts of the game that are told entirely through audio logs, and these voices are sometimes lost within the default mix. You can change things up in the options, but you'll likely be fighting with hearing everything throughout much of the game.

Considering that each playthrough of The Mortuary Assistant is unique in some way, and that you can get several different endings depending on the actions you take, it's safe to say that this is quite the replayable title. You'll have to stomach all those embalming scenes, but there seem to be a lot of people online who aren't nearly as bothered by them as I am. As a matter of fact, you can even just play through those embalming segments with no horror elements at all. It turns out there really is a Mortician Simulator game hidden with here after all. You get a decent amount of content for the low price of just $24.99, though part of me does feel that price point is just a tad too high. Considering that this is an awkward port of an older game, and that there is a new version available on PC, I think that an under $20 price tag might have suited it better. Either way, I'll definitely give it more time in the future, and I guess one could always wait for it to go on sale if the price feels a bit too steep.

If you're looking for a spooky game to play this October, and if you're able to stomach the long stretches of gameplay where you're simply working through the grim task of embalming cadavers, then The Mortuary Assistant is the game for you. It's been a long time since a horror game actually creeped me out, and this one managed to get me more times than I can begin to outline here. Survival horror fans, those who enjoy Unity Simulator games, and anyone just looking for a spoopy good time, will find something to enjoy here. Who knew there was this much to being a mortician's assistant? See you in the next one!

Check Out The Mortuary Assistant on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/the-mortuary-assistant-switch/

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Story: A
Gameplay: B
Graphics: B
Music/Sound: A
Value: B

Overall: B+

Pros:
+ Extends far beyond the standard Unity Walking Simulator, and becomes something truly unique.
+ The music and sound design are spot on, and lend well to the game's spoopy atmosphere.
+ This is indeed one of the scariest games I've ever played. Try it out for yourself if you don't believe me.
+ Even though I was put off by it, the act of embalming cadavers in extreme detail can be interesting.
+ The story is well-written, and the procedurally generated nature of the game means that no two playthroughs will be exactly alike.
+ Plenty of endings to experience, and even an embalming only mode to play through if that's your thing.

Cons:
- Though it does extend beyond the genre, there are still plenty of gameplay elements that lean into the Unity Walking Simulator tropes.
- The visuals feel rather boring and uninspired in general, with them looking especially bad on the Nintendo Switch.
- Can be a bit much for those who aren't keen on going through the motions of embalming cadavers.
- This game did not make the transfer to consoles smoothly, with the control scheme being hit hardest of all.
- It feels weird to pick this one up when there's an updated version that released on PC around the same time.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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