Not Tonight is a game that I’d seen some coverage on during
the time it was released for PC in 2018. I’d heard it described as somewhere
between Brexit: The Game and Papers Please, and for that reason didn’t buy it
for PC – even to this day I’m hearing about Brexit on an almost daily basis,
and I already have Papers Please, so I didn’t feel any massive need to buy this
game. Then Kieran, with whom I play in a band called Raphaella Kornarskis,
told me it was for sale on the Nintendo Switch and I should give it a go. So
that’s what I did. Here’s what I found:
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| "Take Back Control." Hmm. |
In Not Tonight, you play as a person of European Heritage in
a post-Brexit Britain, who lives in a flat/habitation block and must work as a
bouncer to earn enough money to prevent deportation. The game works on three
levels: Your working patterns as a bouncer, managing your money and living
conditions to prevent game loss through deportation or untimely death due to ill
health, and working to support the resistance against the far-right Albion
First government.
Your gig as a bouncer is where the bulk of the gameplay lies.
You must check people’s identification and other documents to allow them into
pubs, night clubs, parties or wherever it happens to be. Initially, you’re just
checking that they’re old enough, the photos match the person and the ID card
is still in date, but as the game progresses, you have to deal with things like
Guest Lists where you have to manage two queues, VIPs who need no ID but you only
have a short amount of time to get them in with the correct password, hidden
objects, dress codes and nationalities. The game allows you to make a few
mistakes, but not many, and if you let too many people in who shouldn’t be in,
you get fined or lose the level all together.
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Guest Lists: all the faff of checking ID -
AND checking if their name is on the list. |
Managing your status is crucial as well. Initially you only
have to worry about paying bills and can just about make enough money to do it,
but as the game progresses, you’ll find that you start getting billed for
things like rent and tax, plus you necessarily have to make improvements to
your flat otherwise your health suffers. The only easy way to make enough money
to do this is to do some work on the side – Some punters, for example, will
offer you bribes if you initially refuse to let them in. Many of them will buy
drugs off you if you can buy and supply them. And any money you make off this
will stay with you whether you finish the level or not – but do it too much,
and your Social Credit will fall to the point of losing the game entirely.
Finally, there’s an ongoing plot about the resistance: You must
complete several tasks within the game to build your position in the resistance
to activate the final plot device and get the best possible ending.
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Later on, you start pulling duties on
government checkpoints. Sounds familiar... |
The game runs reasonably well on the Switch; only once did I
ever experience a bug in the game. The controls work well enough, though the
arrow buttons are sometimes a little fiddly. The graphics are pixel art which have
the delightful combination of looking dated but at the same time consistent and
enduring, meaning the game will still look as good in 10 years. The sound is
limited to some basic effects and mumbled dialogue, but the music is great. Not
Tonight does have a rather British tongue-in-cheek sense of humour about it,
and while I struggled with it initially (I’m afraid I don’t find the idea of
Brexit the slightest bit funny,) eventually I was laughing along with the jokes
it made. It’s more linear and binary than Papers Please; you don’t need to balance
out your government’s obvious disdain for you with the desire to be a decent
human being, but this makes it its own game and it tells the story it wants to
tell.
Not Tonight is not for everyone, but if you’re interested,
give it a go.
Final Score: 4/5: Great Game.
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