Ghostfinder: Shift is a paranormal murder mystery. I’ve seen a few of these in IFComp the past few years; the ones that stick out most in my mind are Grimnoir and Erstwhile. Both placed in the top five of IFComp 2018, and they are very good games. I think Ghostfinder: Shift is of the same quality — maybe even a little better.
The plot of Ghostfinder: Shift is quite dark, darker than either Grimnoir‘s or Erstwhile‘s. You’re an occult detective investigating a series of vicious rape/murders in a San Francisco Bay-like area. With a setup like this, you can expect some brutal descriptions and interactions, and the game delivers. The language and tone fit what’s going on, though; Ghostfinder: Shift isn’t trying to shock for shock’s sake. And it wasn’t as bad as I feared it would be. I do think, though, that lots of players are going to be scared off by the content warnings, which is somewhat unfortunate.
But if you can handle the subject matter Ghostfinder: Shift will reward you with an excellent deep-dive, investigation-focused experience. Starting with a few leads, you’ll have to track down information about persons of interest and locations in your database, which gives you more leads to newspaper articles and interviews, which then send you back to the database, and so forth. There’s a ton of information to sift through, but as you do so you start to recognize certain themes in the information and certain patterns in the killer’s behavior, enabling you to piece together his identity. The slow reveal of the crucial facts in the midst of all this is really well-done.
The game also keeps track of information for you, maintaining a list of characters you’ve met and what you know about them, recording conversations so that you can review them, and archiving what you’ve learned about the major pieces of evidence. Since you’re given so much data this greatly helps in organizing it. As it was, I still ended up with over a page of notes in addition to what the game was recording for me.
The paranormal aspects of Ghostfinder: Shift are actually downplayed. They’re strongly present during the less interactive pre-investigation phase and the denouement, but during the investigation itself their effect is mostly to contribute a series of visions to your evidence collection. This was just right for me; I was primarily interested in the investigation anyway, and the effect of the supernatural was to add some nice flavor to the investigation rather than taking it over.
The beginning of the game could be described as on rails, since there’s a lot of text with very little interactivity beyond choices that mostly just move you to the next text screen. Its purpose is to provide background information on a couple of the main characters, though, which I appreciated once I actually began the investigation. The last part of the game is also not that interactive, but it’s so dramatic and plotted so perfectly that I was glued to my screen, reading as fast as I could to find out what would happen next.
Overall, Ghostfinder: Shift is a supernatural murder mystery dealing with horrific subject matter in a tonally appropriate way. Its great strength is the depth of the investigative experience it provides. Its ending is quite powerful, too, leaving me emotionally drained. I think Ghostfinder: Shift is fantastic, and it’s definitely one of my favorites so far in this IFComp.
An Exercise for the Reader 