The Mortuary Assistant Review

In the quiet, eerie halls of River Fields Mortuary, the dead rest uneasily, and so does your character in The Mortuary Assistant. Developed by DarkStone Digital and published by DreadXP, this game thrusts players into the unsettling world of mortuary science, where routine tasks become a backdrop for a narrative steeped in horror and the supernatural. What begins as a late-night call to work quickly spirals into a terrifying experience that will have you questioning the very nature of death—and your role in it.

The Mortuary Assistant takes a unique approach to horror, combining the clinical precision of mortuary work with an atmosphere of creeping dread that permeates every corner of the game. You play as a recent graduate in mortuary sciences, having spent months learning the intricacies of the trade under the guidance of the Mortician at River Fields. It’s a job that requires a steady hand and a strong stomach, but tonight, something is different. The bodies you are tasked with embalming hold more than just memories of the life that once was; they harbour secrets that are not entirely of this world.

The game’s premise is simple yet incredibly effective in setting the stage for horror. Called into work late at night to handle a few embalmings, you quickly realize this is no ordinary shift. As the Mortician’s voice crackles through the phone, revealing ominous truths, you find yourself trapped within the mortuary, surrounded by the dead—some of whom seem far from restful. The tension builds as you perform your duties, knowing that something is watching and waiting and there’s no easy way out.

In this review, we’ll delve into The Mortuary Assistant’s macabre world, exploring how its setting, story, gameplay mechanics, and audiovisual design come together to create an experience that is as unnerving as it is captivating. We’ll examine how the game taps into primal fears, not just of death but of the unknown forces that may linger just beyond the veil.

Setting and Story

The Mortuary Assistant’s setting is perhaps its most compelling feature, providing a deeply atmospheric backdrop that immerses players in a world of isolation, decay, and creeping terror. The game takes place almost entirely within the confines of River Fields Mortuary, a location that feels both familiar and unsettling. The mortuary is depicted with painstaking detail, from the cold, clinical embalming room to the dimly lit hallways and storage areas, each corner of the building exuding a sense of foreboding.

The story begins with a simple premise: as a recent graduate of mortuary sciences, you’ve been honing your skills under the watchful eye of the Mortician at River Fields. Your tasks have been routine—handling the deceased with care, learning the procedures for embalming, and maintaining the mortuary’s facilities. However, as the game progresses, it becomes clear that your work at River Fields is anything but ordinary. Late one night, you receive a call from the mortician, who summons you to the mortuary to handle some embalming procedures. What should be a routine shift quickly takes a dark turn.

As you arrive at the mortuary, the building’s stillness is almost oppressive, the only sounds being the faint hum of machinery and your footsteps echoing through the empty halls. The bodies you’re preparing seem different, almost as if they’re watching you. The atmosphere is thick with tension, every shadow and every flicker of light hinting at something malevolent lurking just out of sight. The Mortician’s voice over the phone offers little comfort, instead revealing unsettling truths that suggest there’s more to this night than meets the eye.

A combination of environmental storytelling and direct interactions with the supernatural drives the narrative of The Mortuary Assistant. As you progress through your tasks, you experience strange, inexplicable phenomena—objects moving independently, eerie noises emanating from the walls, and disturbing visions that blur the line between reality and nightmare. These encounters gradually unravel the story, revealing a more sinister plot. The rumours about the mortuary, whispered among the locals, are true: something dark and dangerous is at work here, and it has taken a particular interest in you.

The game’s story delves into themes of mortality, fear of the unknown, and the thin veil separating the living from the dead. As you uncover more about the mortuary’s history and the entities that inhabit it, the narrative becomes a chilling exploration of what happens when death doesn’t bring peace but something far more terrifying. Once a mentor, the mortician becomes an enigmatic figure—his motives are unclear, and his knowledge of the horrors you’re facing is disturbingly extensive.

The Mortuary Assistant uses its setting and story to build a palpable sense of dread, making players feel truly alone in a place where the dead are anything but restful. The narrative is not spoon-fed but instead unfolds through subtle clues, terrifying encounters, and the ever-present sense that something is very, very wrong.

Gameplay and Mechanics

The Mortuary Assistant combines the meticulous, methodical tasks of mortuary work with the creeping horror that permeates every moment of the game. The gameplay is a blend of simulation and psychological horror, where the routine duties of preparing bodies for burial or cremation are interwoven with increasingly disturbing supernatural events. This unique mix of realism and the paranormal keeps players on edge, transforming what might seem like mundane tasks into nerve-wracking experiences.

At its core, the gameplay revolves around performing your duties as a mortuary assistant. This involves step-by-step procedures that mirror real-life mortuary practices, from cleansing the body to embalming, setting the facial features, and ensuring the deceased is ready for rest. The game requires players to follow specific protocols, using various tools and chemicals in the correct order. These tasks, typically straightforward, are complicated by the game’s tense atmosphere and the unsettling events that begin to unfold.

As you progress through your shift, the supernatural elements creep in. What begins as subtle—an object moving slightly out of place or light flickering unexpectedly—soon escalates into full-blown paranormal occurrences. The gameplay forces you to confront these manifestations while still trying to complete your work. This creates a constant sense of dread, as you never know when something terrifying will happen, but you are compelled to carry on with your duties nonetheless.

The game’s mechanics also include puzzle-solving elements tied to the embalming process and the haunted environment. Players might need to decipher cryptic clues or interact with possessed objects to progress. These puzzles are cleverly integrated into the workflow, ensuring that they feel like a natural extension of the job rather than arbitrary challenges. The puzzles also contribute to the game’s narrative, often revealing more about the dark forces at play or the mortuary’s sinister history.

One of the most effective aspects of The Mortuary Assistant is its use of psychological horror. The game doesn’t rely on jump scares alone; instead, it builds tension through atmosphere, sound design, and the ever-present fear that something is watching you. The randomness of the supernatural events ensures that no two playthroughs are exactly the same, keeping players on edge as they cannot predict when or how the next encounter will occur.

The mechanics of interacting with the environment are straightforward, allowing players to easily open doors, pick up and examine items, and use tools. The simplicity of the controls ensures that the player’s focus remains on the experience rather than struggling with complex inputs. However, this simplicity also adds to the tension—when the environment turns against you, your limited interactions heighten the feeling of helplessness.

The Mortuary Assistant also includes a sanity system, where the protagonist’s mental state deteriorates as the supernatural occurrences become more intense. This adds another layer of challenge, as players must manage their character’s sanity while continuing to perform their duties. The deteriorating sanity can lead to hallucinations, making it harder to distinguish between reality and the supernatural, further immersing players in the horror.

Multiplayer and Replayability

The Mortuary Assistant is designed as a single-player experience, which is fitting given its focus on isolation and psychological horror. The absence of multiplayer doesn’t detract from the game; it enhances the sense of loneliness and vulnerability central to the game’s atmosphere. Being alone in the mortuary, with only the dead and potentially malevolent entities for company, is a key part of what makes the game so unsettling.

However, the game does offer substantial replayability, driven by several factors that encourage multiple playthroughs. One of the most significant is the randomized nature of the supernatural events. Each time you play, the timing and intensity of these occurrences can change, ensuring that no two shifts at the mortuary are exactly the same. This unpredictability keeps the tension high, even for players who have already completed the game, as they can never be certain what might happen next.

Additionally, The Mortuary Assistant features multiple endings, each based on your choices and how you interact with the game’s environment. The decisions you make—handling certain tasks, responding to supernatural elements or the order in which you complete objectives—can lead to different outcomes. This branching narrative encourages players to experiment with different approaches to uncover all the possible endings, adding significant replay value.

The game also subtly rewards exploration. Hidden clues, documents, and other items throughout the mortuary provide deeper insights into the story and the dark forces at work. These aren’t always necessary to complete the game, but they add richness to the narrative for players who take the time to seek them out. Discovering all these hidden elements across multiple playthroughs can reveal new layers of the story, enhancing the overall experience.

While The Mortuary Assistant doesn’t feature traditional multiplayer, the shared experience of playing the game can be a social activity in its own right. Whether it’s discussing strategies, sharing stories of personal encounters with the game’s scares, or watching others play and react, the game fosters a community of players who can bond over the shared terror. Streamers and content creators, in particular, have found The Mortuary Assistant to be an engaging game to showcase, thanks to its unpredictable scares and the varied reactions it provokes.

Overall, while The Mortuary Assistant is best experienced alone in a dark room, the game’s design ensures that players will want to revisit it multiple times to uncover all its secrets and experience the full range of its chilling scenarios.

Graphics and Sound

The immersive horror of The Mortuary Assistant owes much of its effectiveness to its meticulously crafted graphics and sound design, which work in concert to create an atmosphere of dread and unease that permeates every moment of the game.

Graphics:

Visually, The Mortuary Assistant carefully balances realism and the surreal, using detailed environments and lighting to pull players deep into the experience. The mortuary is rendered with an unsettling degree of detail—from the sterile, clinical embalming room to the dimly lit hallways stretching into shadowed oblivion. The textures are sharp, and the environmental design is grounded in realism, which makes the eventual intrusion of supernatural elements all the more jarring and terrifying.

The character models, particularly the bodies you work on, are rendered with an eerie realism that heightens the sense of discomfort. The mortuary’s equipment, tools, and even the mundane objects scattered around the environment are all crafted with an eye for detail, making the setting feel lived-in and authentic. This level of detail is crucial for maintaining immersion, as it makes the moments when reality begins to distort—when objects move on their own or grotesque apparitions appear—feel genuinely unsettling.

Lighting plays a pivotal role in the game’s visual storytelling. The mortuary’s lighting is intentionally sparse and often flickers unpredictably, casting long shadows that seem to twist and writhe as you move through the space. The contrast between light and dark is greatly used, with well-lit areas providing fleeting safety moments before plunging you back into the oppressive darkness. This lighting adds to the horror and serves as a subtle guide, directing your attention to key areas while leaving other parts of the environment shrouded in mystery.

Sound:

If the graphics set the stage for horror, the sound design brings it to life, wrapping players in a suffocating cloak of auditory terror. The ambient soundscape is meticulously crafted, with every creak, whisper, and distant thud contributing to the mounting tension. The mortuary itself is filled with the unsettling quiet that makes every sound feel significant—whether it’s the hum of the fluorescent lights, the clatter of a dropped tool, or the sudden slamming of a door that wasn’t supposed to be open.

The game’s sound effects are designed to keep players on edge, often coming from unexpected directions and prompting you to turn around or investigate, only to find nothing there—or worse, something you wish you hadn’t found. The subtle use of spatial audio ensures that sounds feel like they emanate from the environment around you, making the mortuary feel like a living, breathing entity with a mind of its own.

Music is used sparingly but effectively in The Mortuary Assistant. Instead of relying on a constant soundtrack, the game opts for moments of silence punctuated by eerie, minimalistic compositions that swell during key moments of horror. This restraint in the use of music makes the experience feel more realistic, and when the music does creep in, it amplifies the sense of dread without overwhelming the player.

Voice acting is another highlight, particularly the voice of the Mortician, whose calm yet ominous tone adds to the unsettling atmosphere. The sparse dialogue helps build the story without distracting from the gameplay, and the occasional whispered voices that seem to come from nowhere will leave players questioning what’s real and what’s in their heads.

Together, the graphics and sound in The Mortuary Assistant create a sensory experience that is as immersive as terrifying. The game’s ability to pull players into its world and make them feel the weight of every creaking floorboard, every flickering light, and every shadow that moves in the corner of their vision is a testament to the developers’ understanding of what makes horror truly effective.

Final Thoughts

The Mortuary Assistant is a standout entry in the horror genre, offering a deeply immersive and terrifying experience that lingers long after the game is over. By combining the meticulous tasks of mortuary science with the unpredictable horror of the supernatural, the game creates a tension-filled atmosphere where the mundane becomes sinister, and every shadow hides a potential threat.

The game’s setting and story perfectly suit the horror it aims to evoke, with River Fields Mortuary serving as both a workplace and a nightmarish trap. The narrative is engaging, with multiple endings encouraging exploration and experimentation, ensuring that players have plenty of reasons to return for additional playthroughs.

The gameplay mechanics are simple yet effective, allowing players to focus on the experience without being bogged down by complex controls. Including a sanity system and the randomness of supernatural events keeps the tension high, ensuring that players are always on edge, never knowing what to expect next.

Graphically, the game is stunning in its attention to detail, with realistic environments that make the eventual intrusion of horror all the more impactful. The sound design is masterful, using silence, subtle noises, and spatial audio to create a soundscape as frightening as any visual horror.

The Mortuary Assistant is a must-play for fans of psychological horror and those who enjoy a good scare. It’s a game that understands the power of the atmosphere, the fear of the unknown, and the terror of being alone in the dark with only the dead—and perhaps something worse—for company.

We prepared this review with a digital copy of The Mortuary Assistant for the PC version provided by Evolve PR.