The Mortuary Assistant

The image features the a woman in the background with brown hair. She is Rebecca, the person that the player plays as. To the right is Raymond, the owner of the Mortuary that the game is based in. The title of the game starts at the left and covers the majority of the image.

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The PC has gone into the freezer and the PS5 edition of Mortuary Assistant has been rolled out. DarkStone Digital’s massive horror hit has finally made its way to consoles, allowing more players access to Rebecca and her spooky, mysterious backstory.

I’ll admit, I’m a little bit late to the mortuary party. I’ve owned the original game on Steam since it came out but have never been brave enough to try it out for myself. With the rollout of the console version, it seemed like the best time to dive into the story of Rebecca and River Fields Mortuary.

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A night shift in a Mortuary? What could possibly go wrong?

Screenshot from Mortuary Assistant. The player is looking at a double door at the end of a corridor. There is a black figure with red eyes hiding behind a part of the wall that sticks out. The subtitles show that something is calling the player's name. — I always feel like somebody’s watching me…

If you’re also new to The Mortuary Assistant, then let me introduce you to Rebecca. Freshly graduated, she heads back to her hometown as the newest hire at River Fields Mortuary. With a quick training session from your boss, Raymond, you’re thrown into the world of demonic possession, exorcism, and cleansing the dead.

Gameplay

As with many first-person games, you’ve got the standard Playstation button layout. Move with the left, look with the right, and the square to interact.

The fear in The Mortuary Assistant comes from the tense atmosphere and the fact that you spend so much time in the game focused on one area – if you’ve watched our TikTok you’ll see what I mean with the little gremlin sitting on the cabinet.

If you actually look at the demons, they’re not that scary. It’s the random bangs, the silent surroundings and the threat of possession that terrifies you. The notepad scribbling was an amazing mechanic. It made me feel like I was going too slow with every change of the scribble pattern. One minute I would feel as though I was making good time, then the scribble would change and I’d be panicking. Which would make everything a little scarier.

DarkStone Digital have definitely mastered creating a tense, spooky atmosphere.

Screenshot from Mortuary Assistant. In the centre of the screen is a gurney with a body on it. At the top of the screen it says square to use gurney. To the left is a pump that the player has to use. The gurney has came to a stop in front of a drain. — The night shift commences…

When it came to actually preparing the bodies, things got a little tough. Whilst the instructions were really simple, the weren’t mapped very well to the Playstation controller. For example when having to open the eyes to place eye caps. I spent a few minutes losing my mind because the cursor kept switching between the two eyes rather than moving like I wanted them to. I did take a nosy at people playing the PC version to see if this was a platform wide problem, but they didn’t seem to struggle as much. Maybe it is just me being stupid, but the lack of freedom that comes with console controllers definitely limits the game a bit.

Graphics & Audio

The graphics are pretty decent. There are a few instances, particularly in the introductory cutscene, of very ugly moments. There are two main culprits. The mouths don’t track well, and the characters can’t decide where to look. Despite this, it definitely isn’t enough for me to hold a grudge.

Screenshot from Mortuary Assistant. The character Rebecca sits in an American diner across from her grandmother. She has dark brown hair and is wearing a black shirt. — Rebecca’s next spooky steps…

There were also a few moments during the body preparations where the graphics weren’t great – particularly when draining the body. There was no smooth animation moving from one phase to the next. Unlike the other tasks where there was an animation, this step has a before and after cut. It wasn’t enough for me to be upset, but it stood out because it was such a jarring comparison to the other steps in the process.

Overall the graphics are pretty good. In some ways, the awkward graphics added to the fear. I had to pause and walk away from the game at one point because I was scared by my own shadow appearing in front of me.

The audio completely outshines the graphics. The tension and surrounding sounds, or lack thereof sometimes, enhanced the fear factor throughout my time playing The Mortuary Assistant. The whirring of the pump always felt too loud. In fact everything felt too loud in the lead up to the end of the shift. I spent a lot of time covering my eyes waiting for something to jump out and I was definitely super brave when it happened…

Longevity

If you’re a fan of collecting trophies and playing horror games, then there is plenty of replayability in The Mortuary Assistant. To achieve that platinum trophy, you will need to unlock different endings by playing through the game a few times. I know there are still more jumpscares and a lot of story that I still need to find. There are also a lot of items that I found during my playthrough that I haven’t found a use for.

One of the best things about this game is that it doesn’t hand the story to you on a platter. You have to be willing to dig through everything, do numerous shifts, burn a number of bodies all just to scratch the surface.

Screenshot from Mortuary Assistant. At the bottom of the screen is the body that the player is working on. In front of that is a doorway which leads to a corridor with another doorway at the end. There is a dark figure stood in the doorway watching the player. — There’s always something watching

I plan to 100% The Mortuary Assistant. It’s going to make me cry but I know I’m going to love it.

Final Thoughts

DarkStone Digital has created a horrifying, wonderful experience with The Mortuary Assistant. Aside from the issue with some of the controls in the tasks, the move from PC has been seamless. The vibes are immaculate, the game is really intriguing and there is so much to uncover that I’m excited to play through everything all over again just to see the different endings.

Even with the issues with the controls, this game was one of the best single player horror game experiences I’ve had in a while. Because of that, The Mortuary Assistant is receiving the Thumb Culture Platinum Award.

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

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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The Mortuary Assistant – PS5 Review