Not Tonight: Take Back Control Edition

Not Tonight: Take Back Control Edition is equal parts stressful and fun. The risk and reward approach had me questioning my decisions while the perfect difficulty curve made sure I was never bored. The story is simple but effective and very fun. Not Tonight is simply fantastic in all regards.

Not Tonight is a deeply relevant, thoughtful experience. It comes from a place of genuine frustration with the way too much of the world is behaving at the moment, but manages to channel that frustration into something productive - a satirical (however darkly), deeply sympathetic game, that's both entertaining and has a strong point to make. Is it a little too infatuated with Papers, Please? Yes, but you could do far worse than create a breathless homage to a game that great.

Not Tonight is a bold puzzle game that’s unafraid to shy away from very serious issues while delivering a strong narrative, cathartic gameplay loop and consistently pretty presentation.

Not Tonight: One Love elevates the game to ridiculous heights, which makes it absolutely worth picking up.

Not Tonight is the bouncer simulator you didn’t know you needed, but it’s also a biting if one-sided commentary on Brexit Britain, and the political and social shift that has been brought about as a result.

Quotation forthcoming.

Overall, Not Tonight is incredibly fun – repetitive, but fun. The different conditions in each level keeps the monotony of the task interesting, and the strange situations that challenge your moral reasoning makes each hour spent more entertaining than the next. With its satirical tone and quirky storyline, the game mocks political movements and stereotypical characters while presenting to us a simulation game for adults to enjoy. After spending hours playing this game, I feel like I could probably work as a pretty efficient bouncer in real life now.

Not Tonight is the video game equivalent of a protest song – a piece the artist releases to the world with the intent to elevate a social movement or perceived injustice. I suspect the story will act as a Rorschach test of your political alignment depending on whether you love or hate it. Some could critique it as being too on the nose, but the lack of subtlety feels genuine in this moment.