Not For Broadcast from tinyBuild and NotGames is a peculiar game in which you decide what the public gets to see, for better or worse. Learn more in our Not For Broadcast review!

Please enter your date of birth to access this video.

Not For Broadcast from tinyBuild and NotGames is a peculiar game in which you decide what the public gets to see, for better or worse. You’ll be working on how the National Nightly News is broadcast to the audience at large, even though that was not your actual job to begin with – you’re the janitor! The game can be played in one of five different difficulty settings: Story Mode, Intern, Broadcaster, Showrrunner, and Custom. Story Mode will allow you to experience the game’s content without feeling stressed since you’ll have an easier time controlling everything, and viewers will be more forgiving. For Intern, you’ll be able to make some mistakes along the way, and viewers won’t switch off so easily. Broadcaster is the default difficulty setting, giving you a balanced experience. Showrunner bumps up the challenge, with viewers stopping to watch at a faster rate. As for Custom, it will allow you to tailor your experience.

You’ll get the hang of things as you go since this is an experience like no other on PlayStation 4. You’ll be mixing visuals, sounds, and adverts on the fly by switching between the sound deck, adverts, interference, and volume by pressing the L1, R1, R2, and L1 buttons, respectively. You’ll then use the Square, Triangle, X, and Circle buttons for vision and sound mixing, the L2 button to censor sound, and the Triangle, Circle, and X buttons for adverts.

After receiving a call from Dave, you’re told you’re now in charge of running today’s news, and he’s going to walk you through it. He says there’s nothing to worry about since all you need to do is follow his instructions so that you can keep the ratings in the green. You can do this by keeping an eye on the bar in the upper right corner of the console. As for the bunch of screens in front of you?

The screen on the right is the broadcast screen, and it’s the one that will show you exactly what viewers are watching at that precise moment. It’s only a few seconds behind the master screen, which is the one located at the center of the console and the one you control. This is how you can work on changing what viewers will be seeing… before it’s too late. The four screens next to the show the video being sent in, and you’ll be able to choose which one to broadcast by using the aforementioned buttons. You’ll later be able to decide what images to broadcast for specific individuals, which will affect how the public perceives them.

Between broadcasts, you’ll be taking on segments during which you’ll learn more about your character, its family, and what drives his desire to work at the company. The first of these segments will start on Day 3 of your journey, a couple of days after a major political upset has the Advance Party win the election, which is something no one was expecting. You’ll receive a form in the mail that asks some… peculiar questions about yourself, your work, how you spend your free time, and what is most important about the government’s actions toward its people.

You’ll then jump to Day 6 for another story segment where you’ll be relaxing while drying up a coffee mug of your first trip with your partner Sam… when a knock on the window brings you back to reality. Sam’s sibling, Chris, waves at you to let him in. As soon as Chris enters, he takes a deep breath and apologizes for showing up so late unannounced. You can tell he’s nervous about something. What’s the reason for all this?

He needs a favor that only you can help him with. It seems it’s about the new Assets and Wealth Act that was passed by the Advance Party. Since this Act is in effect and aims to take from the very wealthy to redistribute the money among those in need, and with Chris carrying a large briefcase with him, you probably know where this is going. What happens next will depend on whether you decide to help Chris or not. You see, the government revoked the passport of the wealthy, and Chris is asking to borrow yours for a bit!

This and other choices will affect what path you walk down during your time with Not For Broadcast. The choices you make during the story segment, and how you decide to handle future broadcasts. You might be required to align with the agenda of the Advance Party. You could have the choice of censoring the new song from artist J-Zuss. You will be able to decide which adverts to play, which can end up influencing thousands of your viewers. Someone might contact you with a rather… incendiary request. Let’s just leave it at that.

The game features a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy waiting for you. It’s a long list that is split into 60 Bronze trophies, 2 Silver trophies, and a single Gold trophy for you to work on. The first trophy to pop will be for completing your first broadcast. After that, you can get a trophy for rewatching one of your broadcasts. Since some of the choices you can make along the way will lock you out of some trophies, you won’t be able to get everything in one go. Along with the choice-based trophies, there are also trophies tied to getting an A+ grade for a broadcast, for getting an A+ on three broadcasts, and for completing the game. And then, there’s the trophies for the Bits of Your Life DLC.

Bits of Your Life is one of the two available paid DLC options for extending your time with Not For Broadcast. Bits of Your Life is Chanel One’s favorite talk show. For this DLC, they’re focusing on heart-to-heart interviews with the friends and family of future Prime Minister Peter Clement. Your task, as expected, will be to handle how the show is presented to viewers, and how it will affect how they see Peter Clement. At first, you’ll do a single run from start to finish in the correct order.

After this first run, you can choose the order in which the guest is brought in, even if it’s technically the wrong order – at least according to the script. You will also select the camera angles, cut to who you want to be in the frame, and also choose the ads that will be broadcast, which, yes, do affect how things develop for the broadcast. With multiple potential endings and different routes to consider, there’s some replay here, especially if you want to get all trophies since this DLC will add a single Silver trophy and 11 Bronze trophies for you to work on.

Not For Broadcast is a peculiar game in which you decide what the public gets to see, for better or worse. As you rise from station janitor to vision mixer, you’ll run into some predicaments, both at work as you learn new tasks that you need to complete, as well as at home, where your family life can take many turns. This is a game that you’re either going to love or that you’ll really, really hate due to its gameplay mechanics, story content, and the different endings you can reach. This is also a Rated M for Mature experience, so it’s certainly not for everyone. Not For Broadcast is out on PlayStation 4 with a $24.99 price tag. You can get the Bits of Your Life DLC as a separate purchase for $8.99 or get the Not For Broadcast Deluxe Edition for $39.99, which includes the base game, as well as the Season Pass that gives you access to the Bits of Your Life DLC, as well as the Live and Spooky DLC.

Disclaimer
This Not For Broadcast and Bits of Your Life DLC review is based on PlayStation 4 copies provided by tinyBuild.