Good evening, and welcome to the National Nightly News. Not for Broadcast is a hilarious and stress enduing propaganda sim and so many other things. The stress while fumbling to make sure you don’t mess up is not all that bad. It kept me hooked as I fumbled to make sure I didn’t make a mistake and tried to get a good grade at the end of the night. Thinking about what you air having an effect on the audience is an amazing part of the game that had me thinking about if the decisions I made were the right ones.
Gameplay
is relatively simple: at the beginning of the night you load the ads you would like to play into the VHS console. Sometimes there are special instructions for these tapes. After this you get the feed ready for the night to start after the preprogrammed show. You get eased into the night, having to choose the picture that you want to be shown for the headlines. One picture is positive and the other is more negative for the person being talked to. All this is done while using the slider on the side of your screen to avoid interference. This goes on for like 3-5 minutes. The last ten seconds you spend preparing for playing the ad as soon as the segment is done. You get a little time to rest while the ad break is happening, where you can look around your plain office. But that is where your paycheck comes in, using the company catalog you can buy bobbleheads to fill your desk to remind you of the finer things in life. After the ad break, you have to time putting the host's feed as soon as the ad is done. This segment is usually an interview of some kind.
With the interviews, you need to change the camera angle to the speaker and move it around so that the video stays interesting. Interviews can go in any direction and there can be cursing, so and there is the handy dandy censor button. This button censors the main feed which plays 2 seconds after the studio feed, which gives you a chance to react and properly censor the language, so you don’t lose your job. The third part of the night is about the same thing as the first and second. Being in charge of the feed is not a bad job, you just have to get used to hearing multiple voices at the same time that are overlapped. After finishing your shift, you can use the catalog and buy upgrades so you can avoid power surges, or better antennas to have an easier time with interference. you can also spend your money on posters and bobbleheads because they look cool. You can then go into the playback room and watch what the hosts were saying while muted, because everything is recorded. The next couple of days after your shift are your family life, which is played through a read-through where you make decisions pertaining to your life outside of work. This impacts various things in the game, like how your family is dealing with the changes that are being made to the country.
Story
Not for Broadcast takes place in an alternate reality 1980s that is under a new and radical government that is changing the shape of the country. You play as a cleaner who was just going to clean the studio, but Dave, the guy who used to run the studio left the job for you because he hates the news, leaving you to have to learn the job on the fly. Jumping between work and home, you see the effects of the ever-changing country, and how your choices working for the news affect everybody.
Design
From the first second you enter the studio you become overwhelmed by all of screens and buttons you have to control. But after the tutorial you will notice that everything is pretty easy there is just a lot that needs to be done at the same time. Luckily all the wacky and funny situations the news goes in to makes up for all of it
Final Thoughts
I didn’t know what to expect when playing this game, but wow, I found myself feeling like I needed a 3rd eye to be to focus on everything in order to do the best I could. I found myself laughing because of all the crazy and wild things that would happen. As of writing this, there are only three chapters in the story. The developers are planning on making 10 chapters, but because of all the writing and acting that needs to be done to make one chapter happen, it will be a relatively slow process. The content does not leave you hanging, as the story is so intriguing. It is so fresh to have a game that plays like this. Playing Not for Broadcast, I really felt like I was in charge of the feed for the national nightly news. I was constantly scared of messing up so I didn’t get fired and have to start the night all over again. This game is something everyone should play since it does not take too much time and it is a blast to play. You can buy Not for Broadcast on steam for 15 dollars. I can't wait to see where Not for Broadcast is going to go in the future it already has such an amazing start.
