We’ve seen a lot of games depicting a dystopian world in the spirit of the novel "1984" George Orwell (George Orwell) – one may recall Papers, Please, duology Beholder, Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You and others. But unlike them, in the “pixel” platformer Ministry of Broadcast, which won a bunch of awards even before its release, we are shown not how a person, a small cog in a big machine, makes difficult moral decisions, suffers from conscience and somewhere even tries to fight the regime, but how he voluntarily plays by its rules. And he plays in the literal sense – taking part in a government TV show. In this sense Ministry of Broadcast – perhaps the most gloomy and fatalistic of the list, but also the most humorous. True, the humor here is dark..
I’m on TV!
The action takes place in a country where Big Brother is watching everyone and human rights don’t matter. Recently a huge Wall was built here, which divided the country in two, cutting off many people from their loved ones. One of the few opportunities to see the family again is to participate in the government TV show “The Wall”, which supposedly allows you to get out to the other side and gain freedom.
The red-haired protagonist wants to meet his wife again and therefore decides to take part in the program. He arrives at the camp, which in some places looks like a prison, where the show’s participants live. The organizers place the protagonist in a barracks with one of those like him. And every day we leave there to go through the next stage of testing on air, and then return, answer questions and go to sleep in the barracks. Moreover, every time the same guards ask for a pass, although they have known the redhead by sight for a long time. “But it’s me, guys, don’t you recognize me??" – "Answer the question. Where is your pass?»
The Last Antihero
However, absurdity and bureaucracy are not the worst thing. It’s much worse that our hero is forced to set up and even kill others in order to pass the next test. He spends the whole game waiting to see when and what role in the program he will be assigned: some are playing police officers, others are playing oppositionists with posters who want to vote not for the Blues, but for the so-called Reds in the elections. And our ward does not suspect that he has already chosen his role when he agreed to play by the rules of the regime, naively believing that participation in the show will really give him freedom.
Naturally, the ending turns out to be very sad, and the choice of endings is not very rich and joyful. Our hero tries to help someone, uses someone, lowering dogs or throwing victims from a cliff onto spears sticking out in the floor in order to run further over their bodies. But even those whom he helps, in the end, still pursue only their own goals in the same way. And the whole moral of this story literally screams that people turn into animals for profit.
All this is diluted with black humor, https://alwaysvegascasino.co.uk/login/ attempts to break the fourth wall (“Can I press F to skip our dialogue?") and the cynical chatter of a crow, which appears both in dreams and in reality – and always flies with another malicious comment to the place of death of the main character. Moreover, in a dream, at some point the red-haired man imagines himself as James Bond and even starts shooting at enemies with his finger. It seems funny, but given the general atmosphere and message of the game, I don’t want to smile at all.
Stay alive
If, as far as history and atmosphere are concerned, the authors Ministry of Broadcast were clearly guided by the novel “1984” and games in the same spirit, then among the gameplay inspirations they name the original Prince of Persia 1989 and Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus.
This is a fairly complex, almost hardcore platformer in places, where agility and reaction speed are mainly tested. Traps, dogs, guards with machine guns at the ready, falling icicles, schools of piranhas, large crocodiles, jets of fire or gas, discharges of electricity – there are many dangers, so you have to die often and in a variety of ways. But most often we die from falls from great heights.
Victory at any cost
We don’t have any special gadgets or even weapons (well, except our fingers). All the way we run and jump and activate levers to raise or lower the platform. Almost the main assistants are boxes, which must not only be moved to climb higher, but also used as a shield from jets of fire.
But this does not mean that the game is monotonous. And how can a platformer be boring and monotonous, in which you periodically need to throw civilians onto stakes in order to run over their bloody bodies?? There are also some discoveries – you need to move on the ice carefully and slowly so that the hero does not slip, and it is better not to run under icicles, otherwise they will fall.
Watch the movements
The authors constantly introduce new situations. Either in complete darkness we quickly follow a raven, which illuminates the outlines of platforms where we need to jump, then we move just as quickly along a moving platform, dodging electrical discharges, then we play tag with piranhas. In general, there are a lot of timed exercises here – for example, managing to get out of radiation-filled rooms before the redhead throws away his skates. Or jump and climb at speed, trying to get ahead of a challenger comfortably riding an elevator.
The only problem is inertia and excessive responsiveness, control sensitivity. We have to press the movement and jump buttons very clearly and at the right time, otherwise our ward strives to make an extra movement that could cost him his life.
Ministry of Broadcast can be placed on a par with Papers, Please And Beholder. But at the same time, focusing on literary and game classics, the authors managed to tell a unique and very instructive story. In addition, this is a non-trivial and very difficult platformer in its own way, where it is much more scary not to fall into traps, but to do those terrible things that help you get to these same traps.
Pros: interesting plot; an atmosphere woven from dystopia, absurdity and black humor; exciting and challenging gameplay, where something new constantly happens; many different and interesting levels; stylish picture; dark music.
Cons: some control problems; we need to go through many obstacles for a long time, trying to understand what the authors want from us.
