Orwell is a text-based game that puts you in the shoes of a crowdsourced cybersurveillance data clerk.



So, in the late 2000s The Nation has been suffering from a spiralling crime rate and unstable neighbours. This propelled the notoriously authoritarian Party to power, who then passed the vague-named Safety Bill. Basically, The Nation is an Americanish country that is careening towards a police state: the Safety Bill allows the government unlimited remote access to any electronic device they can identify, and extended detentions without charge for even slightly unfortunate turns of phrase. They have bots that can sift through that data for those unfortunate phrases. However, knowing the kind of jinn they are letting out the bottle, they created the solution: ORWELL, and you. As the anonymous Investigator, a foreign citizen, you are to evaluate the “datachunks” the automated system highlights among the information on designated target persons. The police only see the datachunks you feed into the system, and will generally take them literally; they can send you texts, but that’s it. It’s up to you to balance nuance, ethics and expedience, and to choose what to submit and what not to submit.



This gives you quite a bit of liberty. You can be the zealous chekist, using your omnipotent tools to not crush bones but crush souls, helping the police ravage through people’s lives. You can be the manipulator, minimizing the collateral damage and keeping the often trigger-happy police from harming their own cause. Or you can go full rebel and do your best to sabotage the investigation.



Now, as a bombing kills several people, and an apparently radicalized anti-surveillance group seems to be behind it in a massive bout of irony, you are to put your Internet detective hat on, and validate the system in a trial by fire, and a race against the clock.



Beyond the sometimes counterintuitive plot twists, I’ve found no issues with the game.



You’ll probably like it if you liked Papers, Please.

[i]Orwell[/i] is a text-based game that puts you in the shoes of a crowdsourced cybersurveillance data clerk. So, in the late 2000s The Nation has been suffering from a spiralling crime rate and unstable neighbours. This propelled the notoriously authoritarian Party to power, who then passed the vague-named Safety Bill. Basically, The Nation is an Americanish country that is careening towards a police state: the Safety Bill allows the government unlimited remote access to any electronic device they can identify, and extended detentions without charge for even slightly unfortunate turns of phrase. They have bots that can sift through that data for those unfortunate phrases. However, knowing the kind of jinn they are letting out the bottle, they created the solution: ORWELL, and you. As the anonymous Investigator, a foreign citizen, you are to evaluate the “datachunks” the automated system highlights among the information on designated target persons. The police only see the datachunks you feed into the system, and will generally take them literally; they can send you texts, but that’s it. It’s up to you to balance nuance, ethics and expedience, and to choose what to submit and what not to submit. This gives you quite a bit of liberty. You can be the zealous [i]chekist[/i], using your omnipotent tools to not crush bones but crush souls, helping the police ravage through people’s lives. You can be the manipulator, minimizing the collateral damage and keeping the often trigger-happy police from harming their own cause. Or you can go full rebel and do your best to sabotage the investigation. Now, as a bombing kills several people, and an apparently radicalized anti-surveillance group seems to be behind it in a massive bout of irony, you are to put your Internet detective hat on, and validate the system in a trial by fire, and a race against the clock. Beyond the sometimes counterintuitive plot twists, I’ve found no issues with the game. You’ll probably like it if you liked [i]Papers, Please[/i]. Check this box if you received this product for free (?) Do you recommend this game? Yes No Cancel Save Changes