Not Tonight

I thoroughly enjoyed Papers, Please and I have been looking for something similar for a while. I love dystopian stories and this game has that. It expands the gameplay you had in Papers, Please with its own flavour. Add onto that interesting money-management mechanics, a story that has humor but is also relevant, and you've got a game thats definitely worthy of attention.

Playing through the bureaucratic Papers, Please I really enjoed the overall experience, to the point that I actually tried to get as many playthroughs with different endings as possible. But I couldn't help to feel the lack of visual content that I carved. So when I got Not Tonight on steam I was positively suprised how well the game builds on the same mechanics as in Papers, Please and extends this solid foundation by adding more content to the game. The soundtrack really leverages the game on a higher level of enjoyment, while the familiar pixel art style pleases the retro lovers eyes. I don't want to spoil the story too much by going into the depth of the political background. But I think it is an appaelling story being told, regardless on your viewings towarrds Brexit... (I mean the Fallout Games also paints a dystopian future in America and no one bats an eye ). You definetly don't have to agree with the dystopia drawn in this game to enjoy the experience. Summarized, Not Tonight is a great game which will chain you into it's storytelling for over 10 hours of gameplay in a much more evolved and complete way than Papers, Please. The political background of the story enriches the experience by giving a disorted picture that we all have to tackle in our reality, regardless polititcal believes.

Yes, games can be political in nature. Yes, games can tackle modern political issues. No, that isn't a problem. That doesn't make a game "propaganda". It makes the game interesting. It has a political view that it shows through its story and mechanics. In the same way that Bioshock shows it's view of Randian Objectivism to be bad through the story (Rapture turning to chaos), and its mechanics (helping Little Sisters gives you better long-term rewards). I'd rather have an interesting game than a boring one that doesn't dare to make a statement. Even if I may or may not disagree with the statement, making a statement is good. Please, don't judge a game through the fact it's Anti-Brexit, because that's just one element of Not Tonight. It might be a big element that bleeds into other area, but it's only one element nonetheless. From what I've played so far of Not Tonight, I think I prefer Paper's, Please. But I can say that Not Tonight makes its statement well.

If you like some cheeky, dark humour that enjoys taking a tongue-in-cheek approach to real-world situations and drama, then the story here'll be a good one for you. The game involves choosing different gigs to act as a bouncer, multitasking lines while checking ID and memorising passwords for VIPs. Each venue has a reward item you can earn to try to complete a quest after you've successfully performed there three times in a row, which can lead to an intense juggling act to try to complete them all in time without killing yourself in the process. If you like games where you're under pressure to find discrepancies while multitasking different queues and screens, then this game would be a good one to try out for yourself.