Not Tonight is a puzzle game, designed in the same way as Papers, Please, except with a post-Brexit aesthetic to it, similar to that of an apocalyptic setting. Developed and released on Steam on the 17th August 2018, the developers over at PanicBarn have created this as their first major game to be released online. The game has you take on the role of a Bouncer, an individual that stands at the foot of clubs, checking over ID’s and making sure that the club remains undisturbed from the riffraff.
How to Download Not Tonight
To get hold of Not Tonight click on the Download button. You will visit GOG.com where you can download the game.
The Game Review
Not Tonight is set in the UK after the Brexit talks have completely collapsed, allowing for an extreme far-right government to take control. With this newfound power, they get started with deporting every European from the country, allowing only native members of the UK to reside within the country. You take on the role of Person of European Heritage #112, where your new job is to act as a bouncer outside of clubs, checking people’s ID’s to make sure that they’re allowed to come in or not.
As the story develops, you’re given the option to side with the rebels and try to make a difference in this new and harsh world or simply wait it out and hope that it all eventually blows over.
The main gameplay loop in Not Tonight is very simple, you are tasked with taking people’s ID’s and checking to see whether or not they match up with the person that provided it to you.
You’ll be needing to check their age, their name, their gender, and eventually, more information will be required of you as the player.
But here’s where the fun begins.
As time goes on and more jobs crop up, the difficulty will start to ramp up, but so will the amount you get paid each and every night, which is an upside. With that money, you can make purchases and upgrades to your character and their apartment, which are typically cosmetic, but some do have their uses to make getting closer to the end of the game just that little bit easier to endure.
Outside of purely standing outside of a club, you can spend small amounts of time exploring the inside of these clubs, along with your own apartment if you so choose. During these segments, you can talk to NPC’s and get a little information about the world around you, similar to that of a point-and-click adventure, but for the most part, isn’t required to do anything in the game, so is purely designed as a nice extra bit of content.
Easily the biggest comparison that can be made for this game is going to have to be Papers, Please; a game where PanicBarn clearly took a lot of inspiration from to design this type of game. Almost all of the mechanics are designed like Papers, Please, and so are the visuals – although they aren’t quite as dark as Papers, Please.
Anyone out there on the lookout for a spiritual successor to the outstanding Papers, Please, then Not Tonight is the ideal game to pick up for you. It uses a lot of the same mechanics and ideas, all the while being set in a completely new idea and setting.
