izigame.me

How are more people not talking about this? I just finished my third playthrough, finally solving the mystery, and really have never played anything quite like this. Funnier and scarier than any other game I've tried, better acting than most low-budget horrors and Not have finally nailed making the game mechanics feel relevant and fun.
My biggest issue with the base story, although I loved every minute of the videos, was that often the editing tools and fault mechanics felt tacked on. It seemed as though they weren't sure whether simply editing the output would be enough of a game and wanted to give inattentive gamers some busy work to do alongside it - I was glad they also included an option to turn them off, as the story absolutely stood on its own enough to keep playing. When I saw the Spirit Jammer then, I thought "ah yes, more buttons and alarms, I'll be turning this off." I was very wrong - no spoilers but it, and the effects buttons, have a vital and decisive role to play and deciding which to press in time got the adrenaline pumping.
The fear - play this at night, with headphones, with little light. I don't know if it would be as scary without the interactive element but the directors here have really nailed the atmosphere. Managing that in what begins as a straight comedy is a real achievement; the only writing I can think that manages that descent from hilarious to terrifying as well is Inside No 9 and the League of Gentlemen's output - seems it's a British speciality.
That's what really makes Not For Broadcast in general - it's very hard to write a game based around live acting as opposed to having FMV as incidental cut scenes, but somehow they've managed it. The best previous attempts at it have been things like Her Story, which gives itself a far easier job by having a single actor and essentially a 30-minute scene cut up into viewable chunks. To have made a game that strings together many, many scenes and still feels coherent and gripping is simply an astonishing achievement. You can tell that actual dramatic writers have been involved - the characters are filled out and fantastically written, even the potentially throwaway parody of a certain dear departed Scouse medium manages to gain a life of his own. Even the supporting characters are fully fleshed out, again aided by spectacular acting - no mean feat to act as a TV presenter, it's such a fine balance of hamming that doesn't come naturally, and yet these guys have found so many actors who excel at it.
Perhaps my views are skewed by how perfectly this game fits my demographic - a 30-something who grew up in Britain watching TV changed by the scandal of Ghostwatch, in the era of cheesy live shows hosted by sleazy showmen. I think the only way this could better represent the mid 90s on British TV is if a strange gold-adorned septuagenarian in a tracksuit turned out to be the villain, but I understand why the writers felt disinclined to reference that particular nightmare.
There was a bittersweet feeling about completing this, because it means there are only two more stories in this universe before the developers move on to new projects. I sincerely hope they, and some generous soul with deep pockets, recognise this bottled lightning they have though - they have what seems to be a unique talent for combining game development, dramatic writing and stage directing and have access to a brilliant talent pool. I can't wait to see these final two chapters though.