It's my choice
Available in anticipated access since the beginning 2020, Not for Broadcast is released in version 1.0 on January 25, 2022. As a reminder, its concept is quite simple: you play the editor of a television newspaper, whose work begins the day taking power of a totalitarian regime.
The game offers a large number of choices, divided into two categories: short textual adventures and television newspapers, which constitute the strong moments of the game. If the narrative structure is quite linear (in that the story will necessarily end the same Day, whatever your choices), all choices have a major impact on the progress of events. Thus, pass the advertising of this or that corporation impacts the economic success of it, but also the lives of its customers. Moreover, the player's decisions can lead to the death of some members of his entourage. In addition, these choices have the advantage of not being simple: a good decision, at first glance, can actually have long-term catastrophic consequences.
The game contains a total of 16 epilogues. If they mainly depend on some decisions, they are also decided by the overall image that emerged: have you decided to support Advance, the totalitarian party, censors all critics against them, their opponents or you stay neutral?
A normal part lasts about ten hours, but counting all narrative variations, the game contains more than 42 hours of video, the title incorporating a large number of sequences in real shots. This has certainly requested an important investment and it deserves to be greeted, especially since the game is fully subtitled in French (even if a few rare subtitle mistakes are present).
Interference
The television sequences are by far the largest part of the game. A part in total ten, of about 45 minutes. During these, it is necessary to choose the advertisements and images of the big titles, but also to switch between the different planes of cameras, to censor the big words, etc. When I preview, I complained about this gameplay, particularly demanding, to the point that it prevented from taking advantage of the story: It is to recognize that the developers listened to the community on this plan. Indeed, the game now offers four levels of difficulty, more advanced options, which allow everyone to experiment the title as he sees fit. Do you want a real challenge? Hardcore mode will put your nerves with tough test. You just want to enjoy the story? Activate the dedicated mode and connect the A +. These options are extremely pleasant.
Unfortunately, it remains just a slight defect: it's Chill. As I said, a television sequence lasts about 45 minutes (in three parts), involving several choices affecting the story. These moments are really pleasant, but they are actually very rare: the vast majority of the newspaper is just to go from one camera to another, which just affects the score.
At the end of my game, I really wanted to start again to explore other possibilities. However, the game does not offer any options for zapping sequences that have no impact on history: it is possible to load an old chapter, but that's all. This means that if you want to leave from some point, you have to redo everything since then. However, as these phases are extremely boring, there is little reason to impose it, which is a shame, both history and its multiple branches makes you want to explore it.
tuna
In the overview, I raised two defects of the title. The first, his demanding gameplay, has been in good time corrected. The other, on the other hand, is always intact: its tone is inconsistent. Not for Broadcast presents a dystopic company whose player is both a member and observer, reminiscent of titles like Papers, Please or BEHOLDER . This topic is often interesting and it is quite well treated: the title gives us as many reasons to love than to hate the leaders of the totalitarian party, so not falling in Manichate.
However, he also uses a lot of humor, far too much for his own good. Thus, it is regular question of "biduleball", an incomprehensible game, the advertisements are often absurd and some stakeholders would pass the worst participants of teleraising emissions for Nobel prices in comparison. I really like humor, but here, it really serves the purpose: an extremely serious sequence can precede another completely absurd, which seems incoherent and the player leaves his immersion.
"A good concept, but a bad assembly"
This is the title I gave at the time of my overview. Two years later, it is clear that he was unwelcome. Indeed, despite undeniable efforts - and laudable - developers, some fundamental problems remain clearly visible. In reality, rather than just facilitating television sequences, it would also have to be able to jump, at least in a new game +. Similarly, it would have been better to rewrite a good part of the game, to include a more serious tone.
All this would have logically represented a change of orientation too important and the developers have done what they could. The final result remains appreciable: I had a good time on the game and do not regret being played there. However, these defects prevent not for Broadcast to be an unmissable, to climb up to the other titles mentioned in this article: it is a nice game, to which we play with pleasure a few hours, then we forget without remorse. Pity.
_Test made on PC by alandring thanks to a version provided by the publisher.
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