In the indie horror game Shift At Midnight, your survival hinges on split-second decisions and quick reflexes during a late-night gas station shift. You work as the cashier at a gas station and encounter some bizarre customers. Among the various strange figures that come through the doors, there is one customer who will make you question your decision-making: Norbert.
He looks like a cross between a lawn gnome and a magician, and his bizarre presence and unsettling dialogue instantly put you on high alert. Given the constant threat of dangerous anomalies, first-time Shift At Midnight are often tempted to kill him immediately out of pure self-defense.
However, your decision to either spare or kill Norbert triggers two drastically different gameplay paths that completely reshape the rest of your shift.
What happens when you spare (or kill) Norbert in Shift At Midnight
If you choose not to kill Norbert, the outcome is surprisingly peaceful. After completing his brief interaction at the counter, he simply turns around, exits through the front doors, and vanishes for the remainder of the night.
By exercising control and not panicking, you effectively write Norbert out of the storyline, allowing you to focus your full attention on doing other tasks such as managing the store and dealing with actual lethal threats without any further issues from him. Sparing his life turns out to be the quietest route, making your shift significantly less chaotic.
On the flip side, if you find Norbert suspicious and decide to shoot or eliminate him, you unleash an endless nightmare. In Shift At Midnight, death is merely a minor setback for Norbert, and killing him sets off a sequence of relentless hauntings. Rather than staying dead, a very bizarre and quite annoying form of Norbert constantly returns throughout your shift to wreak havoc on your workplace and mess with your sanity.
Instead of threatening you directly with normal jumpscares, his ghost haunts you through bizarre and chaotic ways. He will frequently rev by the store windows riding a tiny motorcycle, pop up unexpectedly to offer you questionable glasses of poisoned lemonade, or pull off other absurd pranks designed to disorient and disturb you while you try to work.
What might look like a defensive and smart move might turn into a nightmare for you during the gameplay, making the rest of your shift far more problematic. While taking down a suspicious customer might seem like the safest call in a horror game, letting Norbert walk away is actually the right thing to do. No matter how bizarre he may sound or look, it is better to let him pay and make his way out of the store.
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Edited by Pranay Mishra