''Late Shift'' is an

interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but m ...

FMV

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

written and directed by

Tobias Weber Tobias Weber (born 14 February 1977) is a Swiss film director, screenwriter and technology entrepreneur. He is best known for directing the interactive feature film ''Late Shift'' (2016), for which he won the BAFTA Cymru award. He is the founder ...

. The participation film technology behind the title was developed by CtrlMovie. The title was screened at many international film festivals, including The

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, it ...

Raindance Film Festival Raindance is an independent film festival and film school that operates in major cities including London, Los Angeles, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Budapest, Berlin, and Brussels. The festival was established in 1992 by Elliot Grove to ...

, and the

Festival du nouveau cinéma The Festival du nouveau cinéma or FNC (English: ''Festival of New Cinema'') is an annual independent film festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, featuring independent films from around the world. Over 160,000 people attend each year. One of ...

Gameplay

''Late Shift'' is presented much like a regular movie. During the film, the player is able to make choices on behalf of the protagonist. The presentation doesn't pause during the decision making process, so viewers must react in real-time. There are 180 choice points in the feature-film, and the user interaction influences characters and the events of the game and lead the story to one of seven different endings.

Story

The playable character and main protagonist is Matt Thompson, a college student who works as a parking lot attendant. One night, Matt finds himself embroiled in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

's criminal underworld when he is forced to work with a group of armed robbers. He ends up befriending, possibly romantically, one of the members of the group; a young woman named May-Ling. The player's choices influence the events of the game and can lead to a variety of different endings resulting in different fates for Matt and May-Ling.

Cast

Reception

''Late Shift'' received "very positive" reviews on

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizat ...

, 72/100 points according to

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, wh ...

'' named it "the most important film of the year", ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' called it "a digital experience to look out for". The film won many awards, including a BAFTA Cymru Award (Best Game), "Best Mobile/Tablet" and "Most Creative and Original" at Game Connection Development Awards and "Best Narrative" at BIG Festival Brazil. Further it was nominated for an IMG Award, for "Visual Design" and "Action and Adventure Game" at

The Independent Game Developers' Association The Independent Game Developers' Association (TIGA) is a trade association representing the business and commercial interests of some video and computer game developers in the UK and Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally con ...

Awards 2017, and for "Writing or Narrative Design" and "Gameplay Innovation" at the 2018

Develop Awards ''Develop'' was a monthly UK trade magazine for the video game industry. Its online portal, complete with a digital version of the print publication, was active since July 2007. Develop 100 was an annual rating system for game developers produ ...

. Apart from the majority of positive reactions there were also a few critical voices. ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or Habit (psychology), habit generally considered immorality, immoral, sinful, crime, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refe ...

'' deemed it an "intriguing failure". ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...

'' noted the game's continuity errors.

References

External links

* *{{IMDb title , tt4796254 2017 video games Adventure games Full motion video based games Indie video games Interactive movie video games MacOS games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games Single-player video games Video games with alternate endings Wales Interactive games Windows games Xbox One games