Shift 87 Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · August 8, 2024

Shift 87 Review, Shift 87 is a first-person observation horror game. Keen investigators can find a total of 66 anomalies throughout 3 levels of handcrafted, highly atmospheric environments. Runs are randomly generated, featuring small and subtle as well as horrifying and unmissable anomalies to provide a gameplay experience that is uniquely different and exciting each time. Players can expect a playtime of around 2-3 hours for a full playthrough.

Shift 87 Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
6.8GB download size.
Steam achievements.
Full controller support.
Steam trading card drops.
Can be played with a mouse and keyboard.
Graphics settings – resolution, refresh rate, fullscreen, dynamic resolution, brightness, shadows, volumetric fog, material quality, model quality, contact shadows, texture quality, mip map streaming, bloom, motion blur, vignette, film grain, screen space ambient occlusion, v-sync, FPS, and anti-aliasing.
Game settings – text language, show Crosshair, toggle crouch, smooth look, a field of view slider, dynamic sprint fov, and subtitles enlargement slider.
Controller settings – Invert axis and sensitivity sliders, vibration, and remap the buttons.
Keyboard settings – mouse sensitivity, and you can remap the buttons.
It’s basically a spot-the-difference type of game, you go through the same area, and each time something is missing, added, or in the wrong place and you have to report it.
Anomalies reported via your tool.
First-person view.
Very atmospheric.
You can zoom in with the camera.
Simple controls, only a few to use so it’s easy enough to get into and learn.
When you do find anomalies you then get to advance the story and go to a new area.
Finding no Anomalies or not reporting them correctly will just reset you back to the same area again.
Horror elements.
The music and sound design add a lot to the game and are almost like a constant threat as they can unnerve you and Trick you.
You can finish the game in under an hour or you may never finish it.

Shift 87 Review Cons:

No actual tutorial.
You don’t get any decent feedback on how you are doing or if you even know what’s going on.
The game can be very frustrating.
You can finish the game in under an hour or you could never finish it.
The horror aspects in terms of visuals are telegraphed ahead of time and lose impact.
It always feels like I’m lucking into progress.
The act of reporting an anomaly doesn’t feel precise.
No accessibility or game-helping options.

Shift 87:

Official website.

Developer: pixelsplit

Publisher: Daedalic

Store Links –

Steam