Not For Broadcast

A long time ago, back at the end of the 20th century, developers were convinced that full-motion video was going to revolutionize gaming forever. This led to us trapping blood-sucking vampires in Night Trap, investigating crime scenes with Sherlock Holmes and even trying to assemble a music video for Marky Mark. Some of these were good and even introduced us to new ways to play games, but did they change the industry forever? No, of course not. Gamers continued to prefer pixel graphics and 3D characters made out of crude polygons. Now, thirty years later, there's mounting evidence that maybe the people behind those insipid Make My Video games from the 1990s were actually on to something, because the new game Not For Broadcast is a satirical roller coaster ride that thoroughly and completely fulfills the promise of those early FMV games. It may not revolutionize gaming forever, but I have a hunch that it will be remembered for being a landmark experience that changed people's perceptions of what games can be. Yes, it's that good.

Not For Broadcast puts you the shoes of Alex Winston, a janitor who gets roped into working the control board at a nightly news show on Channel One. Alex is married with a pair of teenagers and is barely scraping by on a janitor's salary, so the new gig on a prestigious TV program could lead to big things. But first he needs to learn how to work the board, which mostly consists of cutting between four video feeds, adjusting the audio, loading commercial breaks, fiddling with the reception and, most importantly, making sure that no bad words slip through to the live broadcast.

All this is fairly straight-forward at first and a lot of it comes down to common sense. Just from watching television, you understand that the audience will get bored if they only see one angle, so you'll want to switch between the camera feeds to get close-ups and reaction shots. You'll quickly find that a lot of your job comes down to choosing the graphics that will go with story and what commercials are the best fit for the audience. And, assuming you are following the rules and creating an entertaining show, the audience will tune in and you'll be rewarded with bonuses.

Of course, it's not going to stay that simple. And I mean that from both a story and gameplay perspective. I alluded to it at the start, but this is a sharp satire that skewers the media, the government, big business, commercialism and the sometimes-blurry lines between news and entertainment. Alex gets hired just as a new authoritarian government takes control, so the themes of media censorship and biased framing are front and center.

It doesn't take long for Not For Broadcast to get dark. While it has a biting sense of humor, the story isn't afraid to get serious and tense. This can come in the form of war coverage or dealing with a band of anti-authoritarian freedom fighters known as Distrust. There are also scenarios ripped straight out of the headlines, such as when you have to connect with remote feeds because of a government-enforced lockdown. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, because this story goes in a number of crazy directions that I refuse to spoil. You're going to be covering a number of genuinely shocking events, all of which you'll immediately want to talk about. Let me tell you, the final act of this game is something to behold.

At the same time, Not For Broadcast has a lot of lighter moments. This is a game that somehow manages to poke fun of every news convention, from the man-on-the-street interviews to a cooking segment with a foul-mouthed Gordon Ramsay-type chef. There are interviews with both world leaders and the newest boy bands, as well as hilarious sports coverage, a red-carpet movie premiere, an awards show and some of the cheesiest live theater you will ever see. And did I mention that this game is filled with musical acts? From a rebellious rap song to show tunes to a vapid Arianna Grande wannabe, Not For Broadcast is filled with a surprising amount of original music. Hell, it even has an end credits song that rivals Still Alive from Portal.

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One of the best decisions this game makes is to show you what happens over the course of a long period of time. I went in expecting the story to play out over an especially tumultuous week or maybe a month or two, but Not For Broadcast actually takes places across 2,600 days. That's more than seven years. That's enough times to show you the real ramifications of your decisions. Actions that seemed right and justified at the time may come back to haunt you, both in a personal and a professional sense. The game does a good job of making you doubt your decisions, and even allows us to hear from people who have a completely different point of view. What feels so black and white at the time has a funny way of becoming grey and nuanced after a few years, and this game lets us sit with that.

The other reason why all this works so well is because the game is instantly fun to play. The basics are not only easy to learn, but also make a lot of sense. Switching between video feeds and programming the commercials is surprisingly satisfying, and this game makes you feel like you're really in control of the show. At the same time, it's constantly throwing new challenges at you. You'll have to deal with malfunctioning equipment, adjusting a fan to make sure the board doesn't overheat, political censorship, busted VCRs and even an army of sentient toys trying to interfere in the signal. Actually, on second thought, the less said about that the better.

The point I'm trying to make is that the game is constantly throwing new obstacles in front of you, forcing you to stay on your toes at all times. And things get especially tricky when you're asked to deal with two or three of these problems at once. There will be times when you'll need to adjust the reception while simultaneously cutting out the swear words before they hit the live broadcast. And don't forget to sweeten the show with artificial laughter and booing. We're given a lot of power to shape the way the news looks and sounds, all in the hopes of earning high ratings in the key demo and, who knows, maybe even changing some minds.

While most of the game sits you down in front of a control board, much of Alex's story takes place between the episodes. We learn about the marriage, kids and struggles through short story moments that will often give the player a choice between actions and dialog options. It's here where we see the ramifications of Alex's decisions and how the new authoritarian government has changed day-to-day life. Between what happens live on the news and these short personal bits, Not For Broadcast gives you a lot to chew on. It also gives you a lot of incentive to make different decisions to see how Alex's life would change.

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That said, I feel like these choose-your-own-adventure bits are the weakest part of the game. While I liked getting a ground-level understanding of how things have changed over the years, I found myself impatiently waiting to get back to controlling the news. It doesn't help that there are times when you'll have to sit through six or seven of these story bits in a row, all of them with downbeat music and depressing visuals. This is done on purpose, of course, and I'm ultimately glad it's there, but all I wanted to do was get back to work.

My other complaint has to do with the casting. Don't get me wrong, I think everybody does an excellent job, especially the actress that plays Megan Wolfe, the co-host on the nightly news. They do a good job of making her look different and aging her up as the years go on. However, I'm less convinced by her male counterpart, Jeremy Donaldson, who looks a little too young to be hosting a national news show. Perhaps this is a regional thing, but I'm used to seeing older men host the news. The actor playing Jeremy looks like he's in his late twenties, which I found a bit distracting at first. Thankfully, his performance won me over in the end, even if I found it hard to take him serious as a seasoned news anchor.

The truth is, the performances are great across the board. The game is filled with dozens of colorful characters, many of which get to come back multiple times throughout the years. You can tell that everybody is having a lot of fun, even when a few of them go way over the top. The comedy writing is always spot-on with just about every sketch landing. And even in the moments when the game goes for the obvious joke, they always seem to find a way to subvert your expectations and take it in a completely different direction. The satire works because it's accurate and of its time. It's the kind of game that will start important conversations and keep you thinking for a long time to come. It will also make you want to work in a television control room. Or maybe that's just me.