Not for Broadcast - unfortunately, relevant

Have you ever watched the news on TV? Brainwashing stories on TV. The viewer is deprived of the need to surf through web sites and services in search of evidence, while the anchors tell only what the viewer is supposed to believe. Depending on one's mindset and status, the attitude toward news varies dramatically, from being the only source of reliable information to being brainwashed by Goebbels' methods.

The media is called the fourth estate for a reason, as only the media is able to get into the cranium so that someone else's narrative becomes an unbiased independent opinion. Even without watching the news, citizens still run the risk of catching this leprosy by word of mouth...

Not for Broadcast - is a denunciatory indie propaganda simulation game from the British developers NotGamas. Whoever it is, the countrymen of Huxley and Arthur Blair know a lot about satire...

But Not for Broadcast is not an interactive movie in its usual sense. Not for Broadcast is the story of a fictional state in a time of not at all fictional problems. Elections are coming: new power, new hope, new noodles. Does the truth exist? - It's up to the player to find out...or silently obey.

I am an SMM-specialist, by education - a janitor.

The protagonist of Not for Broadcast is a faceless janitor named Alex Winston. It's 1984 and, judging by the primness of the characters on the screens, it was a cold April day and the clock struck thirteen...

Alex Winston gets to work by accident. His colleague is late for work and asks him to fill in. Winston didn't argue; the janitor was even interested in working on television. Winston will be supervised by a work slacker for the first time. The janitor teaches the protagonist the basics of the job, teaching the player the mechanics and bringing him up to speed. The unnamed fellow broadcasts about the rules on TV: you are allotted no more than three seconds for close-ups, and you don't want to delay the broadcast by recording the same camera; sometimes the guests behave inadequately and swear - swearing is not allowed on air; sometimes the TV tower signal is lost, the screen is covered by interference, and you have to tune the wave manually. Behind the seemingly primitive set of worries there is something more.

It begins on a rather farcical, hilarious note. The authors make fun of the difficult craft of television, show off stereotypes and create the illusion of comedy. Even the main goal of the game, a high rating, seems to be an ordinary scoring game.

However, this was not the case. Winston was lucky to spend his first weekdays without much fuss. Just know that switching the recording between cameras, clearing interference in time, censoring matting, and running stupid commercials between broadcasts...

But if Not for Broadcast had been an ordinary simulation of the leading boy, the game would not have had fourteen endings...

Camera, motor... #%$, who will put that *&%# tripod here?!

Not for Broadcast reveals itself gradually. So already on the first level - here they are called days - an odious actor will get on the show, curse inadvertently, and then explode with impulsive screaming of the soul. It is highly undesirable to let something like that on the air, or the viewer rating will fall, or the protagonist will get his salary cut, or he will be fired altogether. But what's to come...

At first, it will be easy to recognize undesirable moments for the airwaves, but each day it will become more and more difficult to cope with the responsibilities.

Get ready for a lot of foul language in the game, in some places obscene. A drunken, brazen politician or a narcissistic TV star with a wounded ego; family dramas and recordings of protests - there is no shortage of strong language in real life, and our task is to censor it all, to dissipate the viewers' attention until...

...However, Not for Broadcast is a case where it is better to evaluate the game yourself, rather than reading brief retellings and spoiling the plot twists in advance.

The gameplay here consists not only of working at the controls. In between weekdays, the protagonist sleeps at home. Letters will arrive in the mailbox. The letters come in ordinary, sometimes curious, and sometimes disturbing.

In one of the parcels, we read that the anonymous addressee knows a frightening amount about our lives. At such moments, the game becomes a thriller, sometimes turning into a drama, but the main genre of Not for Broadcast is anti-utopia and harsh political satire.

Is it worth it?

Not for Broadcast is a surprisingly high-quality indie game with dozens of plot development moves. It is full of humor and satire, the player is presented with unobvious choices, and the set of game mechanics is constantly being added to. If you think of Not for Broadcast as a branching interactive movie, the game is worth its $10, even more.