Your friend, Eduardo, has been arrested and detained at a protest. It’s up to his three friends to get him out! You’ll play as Malik, Kevin, and Mari and cross the fractured United States to reach Eduardo in Miami. While it’s clear the origin of the split in the game is the fictional eventuality of our political rhetoric, I believe it is fair to say, these ideologies represented are caricatured and reductive at best. If that sounds entertaining to you the gameplay is fun and rewarding. While there are too few games trying to say something thoughtful about politics, there are fewer paper simulators, and I was excited to dig in as both appeal to me as a gamer.
Developed by PanicBarn out of Somerset/London, UK, and published by No More Robots, Not Tonight 2 is certainly a believable setting should all you watch is the news and social media. While the game hang’s its hat on the topic of political commentary, it is a little too humorous to be taken as seriously as Papers, Please. Furthermore, it is difficult to not make the comparison especially as I have not played the prequel Not Tonight which deals with the post-Brexit UK and I couldn’t name another “papers” simulator. Similarities aside, this game oozes British dark humor. You’ll let out a sensible chuckle followed by a note of despair. What’s more British than that? It can feel like the game doesn’t balance humor with serious tones proportionately, but instead zigs and zags over a line and back again.
While you make your way across the split country, you’ll work gigs as a bouncer at various venues. As you guard the entrance to buildings while a line of people wait to gain entry, you’ll always have to check for the credibility and age of people’s IDs. Each destination will throw a new mechanic at you. This ranges from scanning someone’s body to detect disease to shooting down wizards riding balloons as they try to gain entry to a castle. While I was always able to quickly wrap my head around the new rules, I did find it frustrating that I wasn’t able to click through a higher volume of people waiting in line. When you do find someone to give the boot, you have to click through another dialogue box for them to tell you off and it just felt like streamlining the mechanic could have upped the fun factor. While it’s a small gripe, the only real game element is checking IDs over and over. The fun is found in managing chaos and reducing errors.
The writing is decent and I did enjoy reaching new portions of the US and getting the backstory of the decided United States. As that’s the biggest payoff, I won’t spoil the location’s story except to say that cities are not always destitute. Similar to the art direction, there is a vibrancy to each town that is pleasant but sometimes doesn’t match the tone of the setting. For example, it’s hard to take this political criticism of the US seriously when an English dullard wearing a cone on his head declares himself the new DJ of a hot club demanding you let him in. It’s not that the situation isn’t funny, I genuinely laughed when this character kept popping up, but it does undercut the statement and criticism that the game is trying to make.
As I mentioned the art direction, interface, and sound are all very polished. I didn’t have any performance hiccups and enjoyed scouring every new setting both on the over-map and at each venue for details. I particularly liked the way that the pounding music outside restaurants and clubs would become clearer when you admitted someone from the line. As the door opened, you could clearly hear the music of the setting, and then it would become muffled again as the doors closed. The game’s polish should be complimented and its attention to detail helps tell a visual story.
Not Tonight 2, like its prequel Not Tonight, seeks to prove that video games can act as a protest and criticism of politics. While I do believe this to be true, I don’t know that Not Tonight 2 is the best example. It doesn’t do a poor job of voicing valid, real-world criticisms, but it can get in its way at times. It’s a hard turn from chuckling at LARPers to people dying of a disease that seems to be spread by irritable citizens not wearing a mask. It can further take you out of the moment when a timed dialogue choice paints you into a corner or has a negative outcome. Luckily, the most fun part is reaching a new city with a different back-story and you can do this about every 10 minutes depending on how long you stay.
While I don’t think it’s for everyone, I did enjoy my time with Not Tonight 2. I am not sure I’d recommend it as an example of how art informs culture to transform people’s minds, but it is a fun indie game. My own biases aside, I would be curious to see if the game resonates more with people native to the UK given the tone and vantage point. It’s my recommendation that if you haven’t played Papers, Please go do so, and if you want more Not Tonight 2 is worth the cost of entry.
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