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Out with same-day Linux support, Tonight We Riot is a game all about rising up with the masses to take down those greedy suits sucking up all the money and joy. Note: Key provided by GOG.com.

It's clearly political (although what isn't?) and leans fully into it. You won't be pulling any punches here, in fact you're using bricks and petrol bombs and all sorts to take down riot police firing great big crowd-control water cannons at you. Tonight We Riot is all about liberation! You control a group of people, and as long as one is left you can keep going. You take over buildings while amassing more into your group as you go.

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For the gameplay, the developer said it ended up a bit like classic Streets of Rage merged with something akin to Pikmin for the crowd control. Personally, I think it's definitely got a bit of a SoR vibe going on. Quite a bit more chaotic though giving how you're amassing people to blast through the state protecting billionaire ghouls.

Tonight We Riot actually starts off pretty tame considering the setting. However, it really doesn't take long for the big guns to start coming out. I mean that literally too, big guns will be aimed at you. There's more challenging mini-boss encounter types too. The first of which sees you take down a big mech unit that's jumping around trying to squash your crew. Then you get to the actual boss battles and it gets quite intense!

It's actually a surprising challenge. It's not just mindless violence, you need to have a method to the madness so that you can keep a decent amount of your people alive to unlock more weapons. Each level has a certain amount of people you need left to do so and so you might find you need to replay a few levels later on.

You don't need to care about the politics of it to enjoy it, since really it's just a fun game to blast through. It perfectly succeeds in what it sets out to do: allow you to blow off some steam and have some good old fashioned rioting fun.

What makes it quite interesting too, is that the developer Pixel Pushers are a worker-owned co-op studio.

You can pick up Tonight We Riot on GOG.com, itch.io and Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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hardpenguin May 9, 2020
Awesome, I will pick this game up!
ssj17vegeta May 9, 2020
Thank you Samsai. You summed things up pretty well in a quite detailed and civil way. A welcome sight on a website about gaming ;) I also tend to be wary of over-simplifications such as "XXX doesn't work", or putting people in arbitrary categories ("SJW").

Apart from that, the game seems OK, though I wonder (and hope) if there's more to it than just what the trailer shows, in terms of gameplay and depth.
Samsai May 9, 2020
Quoting: SolitaryThis is already reality in most of the EU, capitalism mixed in with (more or less) democratic socialism... "free" healthcare and decent quality public education with certain assurances that you wont end up homeless after one mistake. I would say it is working pretty well.
This is true in the sense that us Europeans tend to have it better than others in some ways. However, it's still a constant fight to protect these public systems from privatization attempts, not to mention having to fight the capitalist aspects when they do shitty things like threaten to sue people 3D printing ventilator valves in the middle of a pandemic because the company cannot manufacture or transport them in adequate amounts.

Quoting: SolitaryWe have seen what marxist socialism can do, all through out 20th century and it is always only good on paper. Fighting for the little man, the workers, peasants, or in current day it is minorities...
People hungry for power often justify their attempt to grab power with beautiful words and promises. I mean, the US only goes to war to bring democracy to undemocratic countries. That, however, does not make democracy itself a negative thing...

Quoting: Solitary...but it always boils down to one weak point and that is people itself.
... unless you believe that democracy doesn't work, which I very much don't agree with.
Dunc May 9, 2020
Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: GuestThese people are nuts, truly thinking the world would be better if it was conquered by china...
China? I think you're confusing Socialism with Communism there.
I think you are. Socialism is, by the Marxian analysis, allegedly the transitional state between “capitalism” and communism. No communist party has ever declared that it has actually “achieved communism”; it's always a sort of hypothetical platonic ideal which might be reached at some unknown point in the future. Try convincing the Chinese Communist Party that what they have over there isn't socialism (or that it is communism) and see how you get along.

But this isn't the place. I don't want to lose friends here. Let's keep this stuff on the political blogs, eh?
Solitary May 9, 2020
Quoting: Samsai
Quoting: Solitary...but it always boils down to one weak point and that is people itself.
... unless you believe that democracy doesn't work, which I very much don't agree with.

I am not sure you or I understand each other. I think democracy works wonders... because it basically limits the aspect of "people problem" that I mentioned, because nobody is allowed to have too much power. The system is designed to limit, slowdown and prevent any radical changes.

Meanwhile with socialism, where you have strong government you get that problem, because you are governed by people that inherently have more power thanks to stronger standing of the state. People with too much power = abuse of power.
Samsai May 9, 2020
Quoting: Solitary
Quoting: Samsai
Quoting: Solitary...but it always boils down to one weak point and that is people itself.
... unless you believe that democracy doesn't work, which I very much don't agree with.

I am not sure you or I understand each other. I think democracy works wonders... because it basically limits the aspect of "people problem" that I mentioned, because nobody is allowed to have too much power. The system is designed to limit, slowdown and prevent any radical changes.

Meanwhile with socialism, where you have strong government you get that problem, because you are governed by people that inherently have more power thanks to stronger standing of the state. People with too much power = abuse of power.
Ah, in that case we are in agreement. Overly concentrated power creates conditions ripe for abuse. I would like to propose, however, that social causes can be furthered without concentrating power among the few. There are even people that believe socialism can be done in that way, see anarcho-communists for example.
randyl May 9, 2020
Ha, this game looks hilarious. I don't think we need to take down Capitalism though. Unbridled capitalism seems to be imploding all on its own. :D
Mumrik93 May 9, 2020
QuoteYes. Because communism doesn't work.
How do you know if they've never tried it, all "Communist" states people know of has all been dictatorships and according to Karl Marx himself, Communism and Democracy is inseparable, you need both. There are "Communist" governments still today who operate under democratic systems and those nations are all fine, Nepal and Mongolia to mention two.

QuoteCapitalism is great in that it drives progress in all fields as everyone strives to compete with each other
That's the description for a Market Economy, not Capitalism, they are two completely different things. You can have a Market Economy without Capitalism (Yugoslavia during Tito managed to do it and so did CNT-FAI during the Spanish Civil War), basically remove the whole system of stock-ownership and you're about 80% there, the remaining 20% is making sure you construct a system where workers own the companies they work for/at, if you work in a factory then you're a part-owner of said factory, such companies exists all over the world already and they work. Here in Sweden (where i live) our bigest store chain, Coop, is such a collective and we have many others. In Spain (which i mentioned before) there is a multi-sided company called 'Mondragon' which is also such a company, they all prove it's possible.

QuoteA system that's built upon eternal growth in an environment that only has limited resources doesn't sound very future proof to me.
That's the root of the problem with capitalism right there! Constant growth is not achievable nor practical if you want to keep the world from collapsing due to getting all it's resources sucked out. This is also what differentiates Capitalism from just a "Market Economy" a ME does not require constant growth, capitalism on the other hand, does.

So yeah.. never thought I'd write something political on this page but hey.. sometimes the world surprises you!
Dorrit May 9, 2020
We, the West, are Capitalist no longer.
We became exactly like our former enemies (Nazis, Communists) with an omnipresent State disguised as social justice. The current confinements are the final expression of this.
I hope this Covid-19 situation blows up the financial system (read fiat money) that underpins all this madness.
Desum May 9, 2020
Quoting: Mumrik93
QuoteYes. Because communism doesn't work.
How do you know if they've never tried it, all "Communist" states people know of has all been dictatorships and according to Karl Marx himself, Communism and Democracy is inseparable, you need both. There are "Communist" governments still today who operate under democratic systems and those nations are all fine, Nepal and Mongolia to mention two.

QuoteCapitalism is great in that it drives progress in all fields as everyone strives to compete with each other
That's the description for a Market Economy, not Capitalism, they are two completely different things. You can have a Market Economy without Capitalism (Yugoslavia during Tito managed to do it and so did CNT-FAI during the Spanish Civil War), basically remove the whole system of stock-ownership and you're about 80% there, the remaining 20% is making sure you construct a system where workers own the companies they work for/at, if you work in a factory then you're a part-owner of said factory, such companies exists all over the world already and they work. Here in Sweden (where i live) our bigest store chain, Coop, is such a collective and we have many others. In Spain (which i mentioned before) there is a multi-sided company called 'Mondragon' which is also such a company, they all prove it's possible.

QuoteA system that's built upon eternal growth in an environment that only has limited resources doesn't sound very future proof to me.
That's the root of the problem with capitalism right there! Constant growth is not achievable nor practical if you want to keep the world from collapsing due to getting all it's resources sucked out. This is also what differentiates Capitalism from just a "Market Economy" a ME does not require constant growth, capitalism on the other hand, does.

So yeah.. never thought I'd write something political on this page but hey.. sometimes the world surprises you!
\

Marx made certain hypotheses about human history and from there, human nature, which turned out to be wrong. That is why communism doesn't work. And It has never been "tried" because it runs counter to basic human evolutionary psychology.

Is the current system in the west perfect? No. But at least capitalism is somewhat self-aware that it's playing on human foibles. Communism is basically a secular religion. You have a fallen state, a state of perfection and a means to get from A to B. The problem is that it's based on a fauls idea about what people need to be happy.

As for socialism, it ironically has the same problem as what many people like to throw at capitalism: Every generation needs to chip in more resources into the system than the one before it. Elsewise, it cannot sustain itself. Or at the very least, it can't cover everyone of retirement age. Hence many of the problems socialist countries are facing now with their aging populations.
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