How the Sausage is Made--Not For Broadcast

Last weekend, Steam decided to offer up a quick, weekend Halloween themed sale.  I decided to knock a couple of spots off of my wishlist and grabbed Doom: Eternal and then waffled about buying a lower priced, more indie title (I generally like to grab a game that falls into more of a standard fare category and one that's a bit quirky and can offer something different).  After scrolling through the numerous indies that populate my wishlist, I decided to go with Not for Broadcast.

Not for Broadcast offers you the chance to go behind the scenes and play video editor for a fictional news program.  The core of the gameplay hinges around your ability to multi-task--you need to manage four different cameras, be ready to quickly censor any naughty words that might tumble from the mouths of many of the colorful guests, pick which advertisements will play during commercial breaks, and occasionally try to time camera changes to the tune of whatever random musical number is being performed or played.

There's also potentially some choice based elements that somehow influence the outcome in the game (I haven't quite figured it out).  In between broadcasts you are presented with text-based scenarios that revolve around the events revealed during the newscasts.  You get to choose how you want to deal with these events.

The game is set in Britain and many of the events depicted on the fictional news station revolve around the election of a new political party that is seeking to radically redistribute wealth.  On the very first broadcast you have to edit the major announcement from the whacky leaders of this party--a very serious woman and a very drunken older man who likes to keep you ready to smash the censor button--as they announce that they will be seizing the income of the wealthiest members of society and spreading it around.  It's fictional class warfare that plays out in a very silly way.  You get to choose how you present the ideas of this new party--you can choose to play the party advertisements during commercial breaks (or not); periodically you get to choose the images for headlines and you can either choose to pick favorable ones or ones that are less flattering.  Do you toe the party line or do you take a more rebellious stance?  The text-based scenarios that play out between broadcasts also challenge you to decide how you will deal with the challenges in the fictional world--Advent has revoked passports for the 1% and your brother-in-law shows up at your house asking if he can use yours to flee to country...do you give it to him?  Your son wants to join a new Advent "youth club" (umm, freaky?) and wants you to sign his permission slip?  Do you do it?

Through multiple broadcast scenarios you get to see how things  play out as people deal with the political upheaval.  On top of that, other whacky events also start impacting the nation (which I won't reveal because they are spoiler-y).  Let's just say that the 1% are not thrilled about their new status and things start getting chaotic.

Pros:

+ Gameplay is relatively simple, but to truly master it is challenging.  Each broadcast scenario is scored with a letter grade based on how well you've managed to edit it--to earn higher scores you need to make sure you're frequently switching shots (basically, you don't want to sit on one camera for more than 10 seconds) and how well you're managing to keep the shot on whoever is doing the talking (which can be quite chaotic).  On top of that you need to make sure that you're censoring any foul language used by the hosts or their many...interesting...guests.  There's a lot to manage and it can be quite hectic, but it's fun.

+ Manages to have a somewhat serious story but also to just be extremely goofy.  In one broadcast a group of high school students perform a truly horrible skit and musical number that is so cringey that you will be laughing.  In a sports-themed broadcast a very odd game with completely nonsensical rules is being played (and then gets stormed by a group of naked, rich protestors which means you have to do some quick editing to avoid any...parts...being broadcast live).

+ After you complete a broadcast you have the option of viewing the content you just produced.  It's enjoyable to see the finished product and does make you feel like you have legitimate skills (you don't).  There's also a fun option to be able to watch content that occurred on cameras that you weren't broadcasting--it gives you more insight into the story and just more silly scenarios to experience.

+ There are choices to be made throughout the different scenarios and they can impact what you see on the broadcasts.  I am still not completely clear about how much your choices impact the broadcasts--I played through the scenarios and made different choices but didn't see a big difference (I'm not sure that I picked enough divergent options though).  There's replayability built into the gameplay.

+ Challenge modes.  After you've completed the full scenario (what's currently available) you unlock a variety of challenges that revolve around editing scenarios with certain restrictions in place.  In one scenario all helpful labeling on the broadcast booth is removed; in another there's an electrical short that means you have to be selective about which buttons you press (or you get zapped to death); and there are many more.

Cons:

- I didn't have any serious crashing, but I did have a couple of crashes.  Some of the broadcasts take awhile to play through so it could be quite frustrating to have to go back and replay them.  I enjoyed the gameplay a lot though so I wasn't too troubled by having to replay.

- It's currently in early access and is only partially complete.  The pandemic has also set back their production schedule.  The good news is that the second part of the game seems to be back in production.  As with any early access games, it's a work in progress.

Final thoughts:

If you're a fan of unique games that have something new to offer, I would recommend checking out Not for Broadcast.  Even though it's in early access, and isn't complete, it's a breath of fresh air.  The gameplay is a lot of fun and the stories within the game are a perfect balance between being serious and being goofy.  I'm looking forward to the second part of the game being added and to find out what happens in faux-Britain.