Over the past year, a new upcoming indie horror game has been making waves on the internet by the name of Shift At Midnight. It's an asymmetric co-op horror game that was originally planned to release only on PC via Steam.
However, on July 10, 2026, the game's developer, Bun Muen, announced on Steam that it will also be making its way to Xbox consoles, Xbox Game Pass, and Xbox Play Anywhere alongside the PC version on July 22, 2026.
But what exactly is Shift at Midnight, you may ask? It's a detective horror game where you take up the job of managing a gas station at midnight in the middle of nowhere. You can do this job alone or bring your friends along in three-player online co-op with crossplay support between Xbox and PC platforms.
Your task will involve checking the store's inventory, cleaning it of messes, serving customers, etc. However, as the shift progresses, things take a dark turn as you quickly discover that some of the customers are actually demonic monsters in disguise, planning to murder you and consume your stock of food.
To combat this, you will need to check a customer's credentials and behavior to see if they're genuinely human or a demon that's snatched someone's ID. If they're legit, they can walk free, but if they're not, you must exterminate them with your store's stockpile of explosive firearms.
However, this tactic won't carry you forever, as the monsters will gradually forgo subterfuge and just invade the gas station directly. When these raids happen, you and your friends must prepare by barricading the station, laying down traps, and equipping yourself with firearms that hopefully will put them down for good.
Though sometimes hiding in closets or vents is a valid option if you encounter monsters that conventional weapons and traps won't put down or if you run out of resources to defend yourself with.
To top it off, each night shift is randomly generated so you can't rely on the same tactics twice to win, and your team will need to adapt to the chaos to survive.
Windows Central's take
The game will launch with a Story Mode with thirteen nights, multiple endings, and an Endless Mode that will be unlocked after completing Story Mode for those looking to see how long they can last the night shift.
The game has become a viral hit amongst the gaming community during its development, with famous YouTubers like Markiplier and MoistCr1TiKaL of Dispatch fame playing early versions of the game and drawing in millions of people to play it themselves.
My friends and I even played the multiplayer demo on Steam for a bit and found it to be a hilarious and refreshing take on the co-op horror genre. It's like a mixture of Papers, Please and Five Nights at Freddy's, except you are free to defend yourself by running, hiding, or shooting instead of being forced to sit at your desk, waiting for the monster to show up and eat you.
While it's a few months early for Halloween, that won't stop my friends and me from playing this fun horror game when Shift At Midnight launches on July 22, 2026, for Xbox and PC.
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