I saw this little hidden gem on Graystillplays Youtube channel, and I decided to buy it.

I've got to say, I enjoy it. Alot. It is a short game, but designed to be replayed infinitely. I have played Papers Please before, but this is more fleshed out and complex.The art work, music and the dystopian setting is just done beautifully. There are a lot of choices & consequences that you have to deal with.

Would recommend!

It's an interesting game, and a game like this will -NEVER- make everyone happy.

It's very difficult to intuit how your choices will affect the story, and many of the choices seem to carry the game author's slant on them which doesn't exactly feel satisfying. However, that's the story the developer wanted to tell and it was amusing enough in my first play through that I did indeed play through it.

I started a revolution, they disappeared my brother, I started dating a co-worker, I helped a shopkeeper turn into a liquor store so that my dog and drone would now starve to death because I can't buy dog food or batteries anywhere, I got fired from my job in the end without alternatives, and my boss got arrested for ... things ... ? I suspect it's worded weird, and the intent is that he was arrested for my actions rather than for his own insolence.

Certain forced choices felt unsatisfying, but, such is the nature of a political game that does direct analogs and exposes left and right views so transparently.

The game is cute, the story was enough for me, and I feel like playing it through again to see what different choices cause.

That means it's a success.

Claimed I pirated the game when I beat it.

10/10.

Basically papers please with some witty and interesting dialogue.

I received a key for Linux beta-testing purposes about a year ago

A nice, larger, more in-depth sequel to the original. This game is a lot like sex - the first time you do it, it will probably not end up well for everyone, but you will want to do it again. The second time is better, and really necessary once you know what you are doing.

It strikes a nice balance between funny, absurd, and on-point. With a lot of replayability (if you want to see how things would turn out by making different decisions), the asking price is worth it.

The one thing I never understood was if my character was working for a newspaper or a TV station. There were references to both "articles" and "episodes." This is not a big issue, but it does seem there was some indecision with the setting.

The negative reviews come from people who expected something like Papers, Please, but this is something else entirely.
Definitely a masterpiece. This game has a huge replayability value, a really well written story and characters that you get attached to and care for.
The moral choices aren't good or bad, you just screw someone over either way if you aren't thinking about the consequences of your choices. To get a better ending, you need to think what went wrong last time, rethink your choices and be smarter the next time. You can watch the world become a better place every time, after it burns in the first playthrough. Just remember that you don't have to go for extreme views, you can remain neutral on some topics and that will still have a great impact.
The subtle ways different playthroughs are connected remind people of Undertale for a good reason.
All in all, 10/10. This game wants to be a touching interactive story and nothing else, and it succeeds at it.
EDIT: Looking back at this review, as a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist today, I can see I was rather naive in believing that this game is correct in claiming things can change by voting, or that a newspaper editor would ever be allowed to post anything vaguely leftist. Still a good game tho, just don't build your worldview around the politics depicted there.

Discovered this game after I saw a tweet about transphobes hating on it purely because it lets you choose your pronouns, bought it immediately out of spite and excitement and don't regret it at all. I'm a huge fan of story driven games, and finding one that includes nonbinary people like myself is always a win.

Overall, the game is really polished and easy to play, with just mouse controls for walking around and choosing which articles to accept or reject. The side-scrolling street that you go through after every work day does a great job at building a sense of contained freedom.

Writing-wise, this game is probably going to be one of my favorites. The characters are all very fleshed out and likeable, and feel like real people with their own individual needs as you speak to and get to know them. The choices you make will not only shape society as the game progresses, but those characters' lives as well. The characters also have conflicting interests, so you will not be able to help all of them in the same playthrough, and if you're like me you'll definitely feel how high the stakes are the more emotionally invested you get with them.

All in all, if you're a fan of visual novels or strong choice-based games, I'd say this is definitely worth picking up; you won't regret it.

I did what I thought was best, but ended up making a city burn instead.
A great game filled with many dillemas.
Betterbuzz is the drink of the Devil.
Did I mention the Drone is the best pet in any video game?

This is a very short game (one blind playthrough took me an hour and a half) with multiple different potential outcomes, and it's intended to be replayed to get value out of it. However, I personally have no interest in playing it through again.

There are really two components to this game:
-Work as a news editor
-Social interactions outside of work

Neither of these aspects of the game hit the right note for me.

As an editor, you are provided with completely contradictory editorials and have to decide which to publish. They often aren't merely matters of opinion, but contain factual or scientific claims. You are given essentially no information outside of said articles as to what is objectively true or accurate. You basically are just expected to publish whatever conforms with your personal political beliefs and/or whatever you think will have a positive outcome for the people fortunate enough to know you personally. I found this really unsatisfying and frustrating, as there is little in the way of weighing integrity vs expediency, or any sort of legitimate ethical dilemmas. You are given so little information and forced to make decisions out of complete ignorance, to the extent where I was left feeling deeply unsatisfied and like a total clown and failure as a journalist no matter what I did. And the non-editorial, more fact-driven news reporting basically amounted to choosing to publish or censor crime stories based on whether the offender was a local or foreigner, and since I thought the truth mattered I published everything and this was treated as somehow confused and inconsistent by NPCs. This all really diminished the feeling you're supposed to get that your choices matter (although I will say, to the credit of the game, that your choices do have external impacts--it just completely goes against my core philosophy that that should be what guides editorial decision-making).

The social interactions basically amount to behaving like a polite, civilized human being to people and having everyone in your personal life love you, or being an absolute jerk to them for no reason whatsoever. Again in this sphere I felt like choices didn't really matter, but in this case it was because the social decisions felt barely interactive, as the game doesn't provide any reason at all to be rude and insulting to your brother, friend or love interest.

This game is okay, but in a binary thumbs up vs thumbs down system I can't recommend it, because it's supposed to be a narrative driven game about story and choices and decisions and outcomes, but the writing is poor and the information and options you are given are not conducive to any sort of challenging, interesting or rational decision-making.

Headliner: NoviNews reminded me of such games as "Papers, Please" and "Orwell" (I didn’t play the first part, but after going through this game I decided to play the original Headliner later on)
It's a high quality story driven indie game where you play the role of the chief curator of a large news channel in Novistan.
The game offers a great variety of paths and endings along with a great storyline and well-developed characters. It takes about 2 hours to complete the game, but the game is designed for multiple playthroughs.

The only drawback of the game in my opinion is the insufficient number of small side stories. Almost everything in the game is closely intertwined with the main plot line, except, perhaps, the story of a homeless person asking to give him money.
The inclusion of two or three additional plotlines like this would perfectly complement the game.

Headliner: NoviNews is really good story driven game which could've been a bit longer, but instead it offers a great replayability. I completed game 2 times so far and i'm quite sure at least 2 more playthroughs would be fun and unique.

More reviews on our Curator Page

This game is the most disturbing, effed up stuff you can possibly put in a game with little to no graphic violence. It's AWESOME. Sucked away days of my life at a time, leaving me lying awake at night questioning my moral stance on just about everything in the world. If only I could get that last achievement...