You can check out the first episode right now for free

People close to me would know that I pay far too much attention to news and politics for my own good, despite it being quite a soul-crushing affair more often than not. Of course, this does mean that I've become quite interested in the games and medias that try to discuss or tackle subjects relating to news and current events.

Developed by Osmotic Studios, Orwell is an episodic game that very clearly takes inspiration from current events, such as the leaking of several documents relating to online mass surveillance by Edward Snowden, as well as other politically-motivated games like Papers, Please. In it, you’ll play as a surveillance operative who utilises a classified piece of software commissioned by The Nation in order to spy on the online activities of people who are deemed to be threats.

The first episode of Orwell is currently available on Steam as a free demo, although access to the full season will cost $10 USD. New episodes will be released on a weekly basis until the 17th of November, meaning that there will be five in total. According to the publisher, Surprise Attack Games, each episode will take approximately one hour to complete.

Feel free to check out the trailer below:

Considering that this news comes on the same day as the Nintendo Switch reveal, as well as the first official trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2, I can’t help but find the timing for this announcement to be somewhat unfortunate.