Before Exit: Supermarket

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Ever wondered what it was like to be in a supermarket after all the doors had locked? Meet Before Exit: Supermarket, a new game from Take IT Studio. Combining rogue-like elements with the walking simulator genre, become the best employee you can by locking down your supermarket. Is that a piece of paper behind the counter? Make sure to pick it up to avoid the warning you’ll get from your boss!

You can grab Before Exit: Supermarket now on Steam! Looking to expand your Steam library? Check out our other PC reviews here.

Don’t forget to check the trash before you exit!

Across the centre of the screen is the words Day 1 on a translucent black banner. Behind that are two metal double doors beside some green chairs and shelving. This is the first thing the player sees when they load into the game. — Time for your first shift

Gameplay

When you first start playing Before Exit, you are thrown into the deep end. There is no tutorial that will hold your hand whilst you get to grips with everything. Luckily, the controls themselves are really straight forward. Day one is literally day one and you’ve got to figure it all out otherwise you can say hello to your first strike from your boss. Two strikes and you’re fired which is the equivalent to dying in a standard roguelike game.

The screenshot is from outside of the Before Exit Supermarket store. The player's boss stands in the centre of the screen meaning something has been missed in-game. — That’s your first warning

When I was being introduced to new scenarios, there were times where I was worried about walking out of the exit door. The last thing I wanted to see after spending ten minutes stacking shelves was an angry boss shaking his fist at me. The more I played, the more addictive it was. I was determined to get my promotion at the end of 7 days. At one point I made it through several shifts, all the way to the end and failed twice on the final day. That was the night I ended up staying up until 1am to stack shelves in a shop.

To make up for the lack of instructions, Before Exit does make it obvious what your task is going to be for that shift. If you have a cleaning cart in the back office, then you’re either collecting rubbish or you’re cleaning spillages. If there’s shelves full of product then you’re refilling the aisles. Sometimes there’s nothing to do beside turn of the lights and shut all the doors but even that scenario is pretty obvious.

There is a cleaning cart in the centre of the screen with a mop and toilet rolls in the carrier. In front of that is row of fridges with different products in that are sold by the shop. — Make sure nothing needs restocking

Bugs

There were a few scenarios that were a bit buggy. For example when you have to chase a customer out of the store. In some cases, you can interact with them once. In others I was chasing them around for five minutes until eventually the game just wouldn’t let me interact with them anymore. I did have to restart but after one initial issue I had no other problems throughout my time playing.

Graphics & Audio

This game is eerily quiet at times. Which, I guess, is to be expected when you’re the last person in a supermarket on a nightshift.

The player is in the supermarket without the lights on. In the centre of the image is a fruit display that has various fruit on it. Some of it is moldy and needs to be removed by the player. — Don’t forget the mouldy fruit!

The graphics aren’t out of this world but are what you would expect within a simulation game. However, there were times whereby the graphics actively made the objectives difficult to see. The most obvious example I cam across was during a scenario where you have to fix all of the advertisement banners. The majority were easy to spot but there were some that were laid flat against the floor or trolleys that were difficult to spot if you hadn’t already memorised where they were.

Longevity

There are 24 scenarios in the game for you to work through. They range from chasing customers out of the store to pacing a completely empty store. There are also 20 achievements for you to collect so it’s perfect for completionists. It’s definitely a game that you can keep going back to. However, as there aren’t that many different scenarios and some of them are over very quickly, it might be difficult to play this game for a long period of time.

If you’re very good at paying attention to things then you could probably get through it in less than an hour.

It really does depend on what type of games you enjoy. I’ll probably leave this one installed on my PC and pick it back up when I can’t decide what I want to play.

The player is in the empty back room of the store. It has walls that a partially brown but mainly white. There is a double door on the right hand side of the image that will lead out to the main shop. There is also a garbage skip on the left hand side of the image that players will use as they play through the game. — It’s so empty in here

Final Thoughts

I could get really philosophical about how Before Exit: Supermarket is an investigation into the overlooked workers in supermarkets but that might be a bit deep. There is something really relaxing about this game, even when you get a warning for missing a can of cat food. It’s an interesting twist on a loved genre that challenges how good you are at paying attention.

After spending a good few hours strolling through the aisles, I’ve decided to give Before Exit: Supermarket the Gold Thumb Culture Award.

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.

Check out the trailer below to see whether you’re ready to take on the night shift!

About Author

Alex Crooks

My favourite kind of games are the ones that make you cry… and by cry I mean throw your controller at a wall because I definitely dodged that attack but I’m still somehow dead. Or cry because that jumpscare was just uncalled for and now I need to recover before I can make my way down another scary, dark corridor.

I’m as old as the first Tomb Raider and feel like I’ve been playing games ever since. I’m a Playstation girlie that dabbles in Switch and PC games. Don’t ask me about Bloodborne unless you’re ready to listen to me ramble on for hours.

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Before Exit: Supermarket – PC Review