Not For Broadcast: Bits of Your Life

Because we live in a fast-paced world where there’s a constant downpour of entertainment options to choose from, it’s easy to get stuck in a cycle where we rave about a game one day only to forget about it the next. That is not the case when it comes to the game Not For Broadcast, a cheeky political satire that put you in control of a broadcast booth for a national news program during what can best be described as a tumultuous time for the country. For nearly two full years, I have been raving that Not For Broadcast is one of the best games of the last ten years, and with the release of the newest downloadable episode, Bits of Your Life, I have another chance to talk about this hilarious game from Tiny Build. This time around we’re given full control over what should be a sweet and emotional look back at a broadcaster’s life in the spotlight, but when things go wrong, it’s up to you to pick up the pieces. Is this newest DLC better than Live & Spooky? That’s what we’re going to find out when I review Not For Broadcast: Bits of Your Life.

Seeing as this is the second piece of downloadable content and you need the full game to play it, I’m just going to assume that you’ve either played or, at the very least, know about Not For Broadcast. However, in case you haven’t, here’s how it works: You sit in the control room at a TV station and command the feed by switching between four different camera angles and censoring anything objectionable. You’ll occasionally run into technical issues and other obstacles, but most of the game revolves around switching between cameras and bleeping profanity.

In this new episode, you’re manning the booth for a retrospective show called Bits of Your Life, which is basically an updated version that classic show This Is Your Life. It’s the kind of cheesy program where they’ll honor a guest by bringing out friends, family, co-workers and former lovers they haven’t seen in decades, all in the hopes of scoring some cheap emotional points and maybe a few laughs.

The special guest for this particular show is Peter Clement, a long-time television broadcaster who used his famous name to form a new political party and get elected Prime Minister. This episode takes place 49 days before the events of the main game, back when Peter was still in campaign mode and Julia Smallberry was not a household name. This episode delves into his past as a TV personality, complete with fun clips, memories from his co-workers and a few extra surprises sprinkled in to keep the audience happy.

Click For the Full Picture Archive

For a large part of this game, everything plays out pretty much as you would expect. Host Eamon Tightly interviews a former girlfriend, we check in with Peter’s elderly parents and don’t change the dial, because things get awkward when a co-host confronts the politician about their rocky relationship on live TV. Throw in a couple musical numbers and some classic clips from the archives and you have the kind of safe, feel-good entertainment that has been a staple of television since its inception.

“Safe” is a good word to describe Bits of Your Life, at least early on. While the show’s format may be different from the nightly news, most of the fundamentals remain the same. We’re still switching between cameras and bleeping out bad words, the only difference here is that we also have an applause button you’ll need to push when a guest enters and exits. Sure, it’s fun learning more about the alcoholic politician’s dubious past and there are some truly hilarious moments scattered throughout, but I spent that first playthrough waiting for something big to happen. After shaking things up with the last downloadable episode, Live & Spooky, I worried that Bits of Your Life would be a boring follow-up with no bite.

Boy was I wrong. After you complete all three parts of the special, the game flips everything on its head and gives you even more control. Now that you know how the show is supposed to go, you’re able to mix things up by rearranging the guest order. That may not sound like much, but it makes a huge difference to the way the show plays out. For one thing, Eamon is not the kind of host that can go off script, and rearranging the order will cause a whole chain-reaction of disasters. This is when the game truly gets interesting.

Click For the Full Picture Archive

There are a bunch of different paths to take and ten unique endings to see, giving the players a lot of content to interact with. What’s great about this mode is that you’ll see interviews play out in completely different ways, giving you a lot more to interact with as you attempt to see the ten endings. Frustrated that there wasn’t enough profanity to bleep out in the main show? Don’t worry, you’ll be mashing that button when Eamon loses his mind on live TV. The chaos you can cause is delicious, and you definitely get your money’s worth when it comes to the different paths and interviews.

That’s probably why I found myself enjoying Bits of Your Life more than Live & Spooky. While I liked the supernatural elements more in the last DLC and was largely impressed with how they shook up the game mechanics, there’s just something about the chaos you can cause on this show that was more fun and satisfying. You spend the entire first playthrough waiting to be able to break it, so when you finally have a chance to take a sledgehammer to the show, it feels so damn good.

For what it’s worth, I played through this downloadable episode on the PlayStation 5, as opposed to PC (which I used for the main game and Live & Spooky). This finally gave me a chance to experience the game using a controller, which, I will admit, took a little getting used to. While the game does a good job of showing you what button to hit so there’s never any confusion, there’s a lot of holding down one of the triggers in order to select something with a face button. On PC, most of this is accomplished by just pointing the cursor and pressing the button. That’s a lot easier than the console version, but I did get used to the PlayStation 5 controls and I think you’re going to have a great time with Not For Broadcast, no matter how you play it.

I don’t think I’m spoiling anything when I say that Bits of Your Life is not as good as the main game. It’s a smaller episode that gives us more of the same, all while offering some new tweaks to the gameplay. It’s well-acted, the archival footage is believable and there’s just no getting around how much fun it is to see Eamon sweat. It may feel a little too familiar at times, but if you’re already a fan of Not For Broadcast, then this second downloadable episode is an absolute must-play.