The Closing Shift

Only slightly more terrifying than actual closing shift.

58:10 Mark is the ONLY person so far that I've seen play this game that put two and two together that the woman was pushing an empty stroller and sniffling. She's clearly in denial and grieving.

I worked at a Subway in a small town from ages 16 to 19, the owners and manager always made sure we had two closers and asked us to make sure each of us got to our cars safely after closing. Often the manager would visit around closing just to make double sure we were okay. I didn't realize how lucky we were to have people looking out for us as kids. It's horrible how common these kinds of crimes are.

The interaction with the woman at 45:34 was such a wholesome breath of fresh air tbh. Even though the bracelets were a scam, she gave something she believed was genuine.

Spoilers: for people that didnt notice, there is actually two different "stalkers". the first stalker is the long tall guy with the creepy face, who we are introduced with at the beginning that we helped return his phone. we see him after we get off the bus, and also when he comes into the coffee shop once and doesnt buy anything and just sits the whole time and then leaves. the second stalker is the man in the hoodie. he is the one that creepily stands outside the store windows as we talk with the old man at the register. he also then comes in and orders pastries and a bunch of milk, and sits in the blind spot of the store and leaves the photo of us on the table. it is then revealed that HE is the one who has been living in the back of the store. so in conclusion to clear things up, the phone guy stalker, is the one that actually physically tries to attack us and depending on what ending you get, murders us; and the second stalker, hoodie dude, is the milk guy that was snapping pics of us and living in the store, but doesnt actually physically harm us. you can tell they are two different men bc 1. their faces are very different (hoodie guy is much younger looking and generally has a nicer looking face) 2. phone stalker guy and also the one that jumpsacres us at the closing sign (and eventually attacks us) is like 6'6" whereas hoodie milk guy is only around 5'6". you can tell the height difference by comparing when each walk into the cafe and walk past the bookcases by the door! 3. their clothes Anyways-just thought i'd share this since i dont think i've watched one lets player who actually came to this realization that there were two different stalkers!

42:56 For Mark, and anyone else who didn't know, the guy who turned around on the bus wasn't looking at the girl. He was looking at the stalker sitting behind her.

This video is 2% horror, 1% Sanpei being mad, and 97% Markiplier being a frankly amazing barista

I think the worst part is at 1:04:18 due to what happened, like its not explicity stated but you can tell by the dmg effect and nois ewhat the man is doing to the woman, it fucking terrifys me.

There’s the horror aspect of having a stalker after you but there’s elements of psychological horror related to dealing with creepy costumers, a fast paced job and a boss that doesn’t care about your well being at all.

It kind of felt like the 'jankiness' just added to the unsettling nature of this game in general. Gave such chills to what's being depicted as you continue through. Creepy. I'd say the creators definitely conveyed their aim and mood they wanted to portray. Wew.

Jesus christ that rape scene at 1:03:55 was just horrible. I haven't seen anyone mention that in the comments besides the fact that it's a jumpscare.

26:45 gave me vibes of: "Instead of running away, you're coming right at me?" "I can't beat the shit out of you without getting closer."

Things Mark has to deal with in this game: weirdass customers getting insulted getting creeped on constant condescension always working alone unreasonable work expectations customers complaining about price weirdass drink orders & people who don't know the name of the drink they want Going into denial "I'm fine with this." Whoever made this game has worked in food service before.

The barista element is a clever way to accentuate the fear. There's nothing scary about it, but it's designed to require a lot of your attention, so your brain gets distracted with that and any horror elements thus stick out like a sore, uncanny thumb. Great design: give the player something to occupy their mind and give them a "normal" so that the weird stuff is weird to the game itself, not just to what we'd expect from real life.

1:07:34 I felt sick to my stomach right here, when I immediately realized that Mark didn’t check the back seat. I knew in that moment what was most likely about to happen to him.😭

This game is so terrifyingly accurate in capturing the feeling that so many women get at work, or even just going to their car. I switched to a mid shift at work and now that it gets dark by 4pm, I stay near a camera when I'm outside on my break, and I walk to my car with my keys between my fingers--Wolverine style. Where I work we get a lot of creepy guys, and due to multiple interactions with multiple of these types, I often find myself thinking of exit routes in the store. "How fast can I get to the break room? Will anyone be in there to help? What about the Manager's office, or the utility room? If I need to, I can hide behind these large boxes in this shelf..." The managers don't do anything about these customers, because a sale is a sale...

"Am I in danger or am I just gonna be annoyed?" is pretty much THE experience of working any type of customer service especially in late evenings and nights.

as a starbucks barista this game really hits hard because we deal with creeps so often. its our job to be overly nice and a lot of customers misread that as flirting. i currently have a customer im about to report to my manager because he will not stop harassing me. its gotten to the point where he gets upset if anyone else but me takes his order. this game is so scary because its so so unfortunately realistic and i hate that this is the reality we live in where this is an actual possibility

I want someone to animate this with Mark doing the entire "take this take this take this" bit he had when making some of the drinks for him to be handing one person a bunch of random things

Mark: "Oh you're approaching me!" Customer: "I can't place my order unless I come closer."