Paradigm Shift

About

Paradigm Shift is a single player casual role playing game with a horror theme. It was developed by Evilized Productions and was released on May 19, 2014. It received negative reviews from players.

Paradigm Shift You awake from a terrifying nightmare to discover that your home city of River Lake has been devastated by an explosion at a neuroscience laboratory.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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8%Audience ScoreBased on 36 reviews

humor3 positive mentions

graphics4 negative mentions

The game offers a short point-and-click horror experience with a gritty, post-apocalyptic zombie theme that some players found to have its own unique charm.
Despite its flaws, the game has moments of tension created by jump scares and tense music that add some intensity to the gameplay.
Some reviews noted that the static photo-manipulation artwork fits the horror theme and certain creepy visuals stand out.

The game suffers from poor graphics quality, low resolution images with heavy filters, lack of animation, and an overall low-quality presentation.
Gameplay is frustrating due to instant deaths from random zombie attacks and traps, no save or checkpoint system, and pixel-hunting for items, leading to repeated restarts.
The story is generic and minimal, puzzle design is poor or unintuitive, controls are clunky, and the game window cannot be fullscreened or resized properly.

graphics
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
30%
40%
The graphics are generally criticized for their poor quality, heavy use of distressing filters, and grainy, pixel-hunt style visuals that hinder gameplay. While some find certain visuals creepy or the photo-manipulation artwork decent, overall the graphics contribute to a frustrating and low-quality experience.
- “The photo-manipulation artwork is decent to look at, although it is heavy with filters, and the soundtrack is just okay.”
- “Some of the visuals are really creepy though.”
- “The moderately decent graphics and sound - unfortunately prevent this from even being one of those "so-bad-it's-good" propositions... so perhaps the only true saving grace of this product is the fact that it's almost eternally on sale for under a dollar.”
- “Terrible graphics, awful puzzles and just overall low quality make this game a waste.”
- “The artwork has a consistent, poor quality distressed filter over it.”
- “The music is obnoxious and repetitive within under a minute of playing, the graphics are done in a 'grainy' or 'weathered' style that seems designed to make finding anything a pixel hunt.”
story
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
34%
33%
The story is very basic and generic, offering minimal narrative depth primarily through scattered notes. It lacks engaging plot hooks and originality, making it uninteresting and short, though the low price somewhat offsets these shortcomings.
- “Story is quite short, but then again it has a price of 1.99€.”
- “With some luck you get to pick it up in a bundle and play the story for yourself.”
- “You do get notes scattered around that try to explain the story slightly.”
- “The story is pretty bare bones; you do get notes scattered around that try to explain the story slightly, but not by much.”
- “The storyline is dime-a-dozen in this day and age, as everything to do with zombies has been ground into the dirt; in this case, it's just extremely generic.”
- “Conclusion: lack of quality in assets, technical issues, suffocating puzzle design, unclear narrative without early plot hooks.”
music
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The music in the game is generally viewed as obnoxious, overly loud, and repetitive, detracting from the experience. However, some praise is given to the tense atmosphere the soundtrack creates and the end credits song, which stands out as notably better. Overall, the audio design is considered a weak point despite occasional positive elements.
- “To the game's credit, there is tense music that adds something to a dirt cheap game.”
- “The only good thing I can come up with in the audio design is the end credits song that actually sounds pretty good.”
- “The photo-manipulation artwork is decent to look at, although it is heavy with filters, and the soundtrack is just okay.”
- “The music is obnoxious and repetitive within under a minute of playing. The grainy or weathered graphics style makes finding anything a pixel hunt. The scares are jumpscares with poor or non-existent animation, and the so-called fighting system seems designed to kill you if you spend too long searching, which at least ends the music.”
- “Bad music is too loud.”
- “The soundtrack is just okay, neither memorable nor particularly fitting.”
gameplay
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
20%
60%
The gameplay is widely criticized for being trial-and-error based with no checkpoint system, leading to frequent frustrating restarts. It consists of basic point-and-click mechanics on still screens, lacking originality, animation quality, and essential options like full-screen support. Overall, the gameplay is seen as tedious and unengaging.
- “Nor would it be worthy of enormous criticism if the gameplay was compelling enough.”
- “Gameplay is therefore trial and error based without a checkpoint system, so basically it's a frustrating flash point and click game where you die every minute and restart from the beginning.”
- “It's just still screens, with point and click gameplay.”
- “Lack of options, no full screen support, terrible animation scenes, and unoriginal gameplay.”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is largely unintentional, stemming from poorly designed enemies and awkward sound effects that make zombies more laughable than frightening. This quirky execution adds a comedic, albeit unintended, charm to the experience.
- “Enemies look stupid with weird Photoshop effects on them, making them funny instead of scary.”
- “The sound effects are actually quite hilarious, like the zombies attacking you.”
- “The developers didn't know much about zombies but decided to make a game about them, funny isn't it?”
atmosphere
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere is generally immersive but is significantly diminished by the game's restriction to windowed mode instead of full screen, which disrupts the overall experience.
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is poor, with frequent random deaths triggered by unintended clicks and frustrating glitches like disappearing weapons. The absence of checkpoints or a save system forces players to restart from the beginning upon death, leading to significant frustration and rage quitting.
- “Random deaths happen if you click the wrong part of the screen. No checkpoint or save system makes you play from the beginning if you die, and glitches like your shotgun suddenly disappearing when facing the little zombie girl will leave you rage quitting.”