When I first decided to write a review of Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You this past September, it was before applying for this 'games journalism' position. I wrote a laboriously lengthy and pretentious piece, almost describing just how 'right on' I am when it comes to privacy. I used this long piece to propagate a way in the door. I used it as an example of my writing and received a few flattering comments. Recently, I read over it and saw just how poorly constructed it was, with more commas than a list of reason to protect your privacy. I knew I had to go back and rewrite this long piece to make it make sense months later.
So let's not skirt around what Orwell is. Let's talk about it. Orwell is a modern interpretation of what George Orwell's 1949 classic, 1984, would look like in the modern digital age of a faux Brittish-America by German developer Osmotic studios. Alongside being based on a book I was reading, Orwell is one of the best games I've played this year. The feeling Orwell gave me while playing propelled it onto my short list of games of the year, or at least that I had played this year, and nothing else came close to how unsettling some sections can get in Orwell.
Orwell is a pure totalitarian nightmare that has been proposed by the incumbent government of the United Kingdom. With suggested Chinese style 'deep packet inspection' on all communications outwards of the UK, all your personal information would be under scrutiny. Even back in 2015 as the general election was in the counting process and days after the US made it illegal Theresa May, the incumbent Prime Minister, announced the renewal of 'Snooper's Charter', an NSA style spying system.
The Snooper's Charter is a truly horrifying and real prospect, in a terrifying world that no one genuinely desires. Yes, one could say, 'It is to stop terrorism.', A hat in time soundtrack 01. though there are few cases where this claim rings true. Instead it often exclusively encroaches on law-abiding citizens rather than genuine criminals.
We have a brand new showcase interview for you. Daniel Marx from Osmotic Studios talked to us about Orwell: Keeping an eye on you, and the challenges of putting socially relevant topics into games. Orwell: Keeping an eye on you lets you look through the eyes of Big Brother. You have to investigate the lives of citizens to find those responsible. Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You Big Brother has arrived - and it's you. Investigate the lives of citizens to find those responsible for a series of terror attacks. Information from the internet, personal communications and private files are all accessible to you.
With that said, Orwell is about a utopian society that has welcomed surveillance to an alarming degree, as I'm sure the last paragraph made abundantly clear. The story starts with an artistic drawing depicting a camera looking down the fictional town square of Bonton, at the daily goings on of the people walking to and fro work and stores. Focusing on a blue-haired woman called Cassandra Watergate, who is the crux of our narrative, is the point where everything hits the fan, including fecal matter.
This is where Orwell, a government surveillance system that can access any personal information on a person, is introduced to you. Orwell has everything, including their phone calls, phone records, criminal record, computer data, social media, dating sites, and many other means of digital records pertaining to an individual. We are also introduced to Symes, your manager in the Orwell system who commands your full cooperation.
Looking through all of this information, I can honestly say I have never felt more uncomfortable than those moments. The hardest moment was reading comments or messages on a dating site, taken directly from messages from men. This felt like one of the most realistic moments in a video game. Reading that, I forgot I was playing a game and felt I was working at my computer, for want of a better term, for an Orwellian government. How persistent and full of conviction this man is, with a profile picture that shows his 80s bowl-like haircut and sexual deviant's mustache, made the moment even more realistic. Because of this, I would recommend Orwell on its own. After all, what we remember from video games the most are our experiences.
Orwell is a pure totalitarian nightmare that has been proposed by the incumbent government of the United Kingdom. With suggested Chinese style 'deep packet inspection' on all communications outwards of the UK, all your personal information would be under scrutiny. Even back in 2015 as the general election was in the counting process and days after the US made it illegal Theresa May, the incumbent Prime Minister, announced the renewal of 'Snooper's Charter', an NSA style spying system.
The Snooper's Charter is a truly horrifying and real prospect, in a terrifying world that no one genuinely desires. Yes, one could say, 'It is to stop terrorism.', A hat in time soundtrack 01. though there are few cases where this claim rings true. Instead it often exclusively encroaches on law-abiding citizens rather than genuine criminals.
We have a brand new showcase interview for you. Daniel Marx from Osmotic Studios talked to us about Orwell: Keeping an eye on you, and the challenges of putting socially relevant topics into games. Orwell: Keeping an eye on you lets you look through the eyes of Big Brother. You have to investigate the lives of citizens to find those responsible. Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You Big Brother has arrived - and it's you. Investigate the lives of citizens to find those responsible for a series of terror attacks. Information from the internet, personal communications and private files are all accessible to you.
With that said, Orwell is about a utopian society that has welcomed surveillance to an alarming degree, as I'm sure the last paragraph made abundantly clear. The story starts with an artistic drawing depicting a camera looking down the fictional town square of Bonton, at the daily goings on of the people walking to and fro work and stores. Focusing on a blue-haired woman called Cassandra Watergate, who is the crux of our narrative, is the point where everything hits the fan, including fecal matter.
This is where Orwell, a government surveillance system that can access any personal information on a person, is introduced to you. Orwell has everything, including their phone calls, phone records, criminal record, computer data, social media, dating sites, and many other means of digital records pertaining to an individual. We are also introduced to Symes, your manager in the Orwell system who commands your full cooperation.
Looking through all of this information, I can honestly say I have never felt more uncomfortable than those moments. The hardest moment was reading comments or messages on a dating site, taken directly from messages from men. This felt like one of the most realistic moments in a video game. Reading that, I forgot I was playing a game and felt I was working at my computer, for want of a better term, for an Orwellian government. How persistent and full of conviction this man is, with a profile picture that shows his 80s bowl-like haircut and sexual deviant's mustache, made the moment even more realistic. Because of this, I would recommend Orwell on its own. After all, what we remember from video games the most are our experiences.
In my first iteration of this review, I said I don't usually play this type of game, which is referred to as a 'visual novel', something I have previously equated to the likes of manga and my pre-existing notions of Japanese storytelling wasn't favorable either. Well, I say this as I am quite enjoying a box set of a manga series that I'd go as far to say I relish, along with having mostly favorable things to say about the Capcom series Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney. In short, my assumptions have changed greatly in a brief few months, and I think it is thanks to games like Orwell, Hacknet, and Ace Attorney that require this much reading. Nevertheless, I am not a reviewer of books… I presume for that job you need long words like sesquipedalian.
Assumptions aside, I don't think the story of Orwell is exceptional. Yes, it does take a more personal note on the story of 1984, though there are tropes I think Orwell presumably has fallen into as a consequence of design constrictions. Symes somewhat acts as a director. You can shirk all the blame for the evil you do off on him as he tells you to wiretap phones or hack into a woman's computer, and in the end, he has ultimate control. This is what I think Orwell does well, you feel like a small piece in a larger puzzle that is out of your control even when given decisions to make. Yes, while true that they are similar to Telltale's split narrative, they feel more impactful.
I think if I were to recommend a 'visual novel' it would be Orwell, as it is more personal to all of us. We all wear clothes, we all have curtains in our house, and we all have passwords on our mobile phones. Privacy is a basic right and sometimes we need a reminder what that right entails. Entertainment, as it so often does, reminds us who we are and what surrounds us. Giving up a basic human right shouldn't be the desire of any human, yet we are deviating more and more into allowing others into our personal lives to a frightening degree.
In conclusion, I think Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You is a great experience, though the gameplay lacks the gripping nature of 'conventional games' because it is a visual novel. It not a perfect detective game either. The investigation is drilled down to nothing more than reading, with almost every detail spoonfed to you. If you had to ask why I enjoy Orwell so much, it is the world building; the feeling, the sense, that you are someone scratching the surface of a larger and scarier nightmare you can't wake up from. Another reason I highly recommend it is both 'seasons' of Orwell are available now with Twitch Prime along with Bomber Crew, Republique, and Hyper Light Drifter. Zen chess: mate in four download free. full.
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Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You
$9.998Score
8.0/10Pros
- A Great Experience
- Relatable Story
- Impactful Decisions
Cons
- More Could be Done with Gameplay
- Spoon Feeds Information
- The Only Way to Fail is Through Choices
| Orwell | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Osmotic |
| Publisher(s) | Fellow Traveller |
| Series | Orwell |
| Engine | Unity |
| Platform(s) | Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, iOS |
| Release | October 20, 2016 |
| Genre(s) | Simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Orwell is a series of episodic simulation video games by German indie developer Osmotic Studios in which the player assumes the role of a state operative and monitors surveillance sources to find national security threats. [1]
About[edit]
The series is named after George Orwell, the author of the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, references to which can be found throughout the game. The first game in the series, subtitled 'Keeping an Eye on You', was released as a five part episodic series on October 20, 2016. A three part sequel subtitled 'Ignorance is Strength' was released February 22, 2018. [1]
Plot[edit]
Orwell takes place in a country called The Nation, led by a paternalistic and authoritarian government known as The Party in the capital of Bonton. In 2012, The Party passed the Safety Bill, a law expanding the government's ability to spy on its citizens in the name of national security. As part of the bill the Ministry of Security, led by Secretary of Security Catherine Delacroix, commissioned a covert surveillance system codenamed Orwell.
The player takes the role of an Orwell investigator outside of The Nation, who has just been selected to use the system.
Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You (2016)[edit]
| Episode No. | Title | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 'The Clocks Were Striking Thirteen' | October 20, 2016 |
On April 12, 2017, a bomb explodes in the populated Freedom Plaza in Bonton, destroying the statue and killing several people. A note containing the first three stanzas of the German folk song Die Gedanken sind frei (The Thoughts are Free) is found at the site. Present at the Plaza shortly before the explosion was Cassandra Watergate, an artist who was arrested for assaulting a police officer at a protest at the Plaza several weeks prior. The player is tasked by their assigned Advisor Symes to investigate Cassandra as their only lead, with the goal of determining whether she had anything to do with the bombing. The player explores Cassandra's various correspondence and finds various connections - Her acquittal from the assault charge due to lack of evidence, her relationship with her defense lawyer Josef Langley, her reliance on antidepressants, and her association with a group called Thought, via a man called Goldfels. Eventually, Cassandra confesses in a private conversation with Juliet that she did assault the police officer in a rage, although Juliet counters that Cassandra did it to defend her against him. It is up to the player which version they upload, but either way the assault charge is reopened and Cassandra is again arrested for it. Suddenly, a second bomb explodes at Bonton's Stelligan University, ruling Cassandra out as the bomber. | ||
| 2 | 'A Place Where There Is No Darkness' | October 27, 2016 |
Still reeling from the news of the second explosion, Symes tasks the player with investigating the Thought group and Goldfels in particular. It isn't long before the player is able to identify Goldfels as Abraham Goldfels, a former Stelligan lecturer and activist. Thought is soon identified as an activist group protesting the government's pro-surveillance stance, identifying Abraham as the leader and two of his former students as key members: national newspaper columnist Harrison O'Donnell and Rhosen Tech's PR Assistant Juliet Kerrington. At the same time, the group's blog is hacked by an individual identifying themselves as Initiate, with Harrison reversing the hack shortly after. In addition to finding another Thought activist known as Nina, the player also finds out that Thought had previously protested at Freedom Plaza, Stelligan and an unknown third location, suggesting a third bomb was about to explode. Investigating further, the player finds two separate locations the bomb could be. To get a definitive answer, Symes remotely interrogates Cassandra using the information acquired by the player. If the player chooses the right location and has found enough information on Cassandra, she identifies the third location as the Circle Mall, and the bomb is defused. Otherwise, the bomb explodes with many casualties. | ||
| 3 | 'Unperson' | November 3, 2016 |
Regardless of the events in the previous episode, Symes tasks the player with investigating Nina as the suspected bomber. The player soon learns that Nina is Sergeant Nina Maternova, a single mother who was a former combat engineer in the Nation's army. After her lover was killed in battle, she was dishonorably discharged for going AWOL and has since suffered from PTSD. While the player investigates, Initiate contacts Nina asking about the bombs which Nina denies knowledge of. As a prank, Initiate attempts to hack the Party's website - The player is able to warn the site's IT people in time, or can instead allow it to happen. Getting paranoid, Nina notices the player's intrusions into her computer and decides to escape with her son. Depending on the information the player has previously uploaded about Nina, as well as what the player uploads during Nina's attempted escape, she can either be arrested, escape or be killed in a shootout. After the events with Nina, her email account receives an email from Abraham, detailing the bombs as a plan between the two of them. | ||
| 4 | 'Memory Hole' | November 10, 2016 |
Shocked at the revelation from the previous day, Symes tasks the player with once again investigating Abraham with the goal of finding his location. While this is going on, Harrison & Juliet discuss the events with Nina, deciding to seek help from Josef. At the same time, Josef is contacted by an anonymous sender offering to release Cassandra from custody in exchange for information on Thought's members. The player is able to separately investigate Josef due to his past connection with Abraham & Cassandra - It's revealed that Josef once represented Abraham in a court case, and was asked by him to represent Cassandra for her assault charge. A regular money transfer from his bank account can also be found by the player and marked as charitable or suspicious. At the same time, Harrison gets in touch with Initiate and tries to recruit him into Thought, to which Initiate identifies himself as an existing member. Initiate reveals the existence of Orwell to Harrison - Knowing they're both being listened to, they quickly make plans using an encryption cipher provided by Initiate. Shortly after, the investigation into Thought is leaked to the National Beholder newspaper, causing Harrison to lose his columnist job and Thought's blog to be flooded with hate comments. Soon after, the player investigates Juliet's computer and suffers a strange disconnection from Orwell's servers. Feeling the pressure, Harrison & Juliet call Josef who reveals the implication of the Safety Bill; out-of-context quotes can be used against a target, and with their collective association with Thought, they can all be arrested if Thought is determined to have been created for terrorist purposes. Depending on the player's actions with Josef's regular account, he is either arrested shortly after the call or he incriminates Harrison as a person of interest. Eventually, the player finds that Abraham was once called Gunther Aarons, a person from Stuttgart who went missing in 1993 and migrated to the Nation. In addition, they find that Abraham had suffered from an inoperable cancer and had died over a year prior to the game's events, meaning that someone else was using his identity to cause the bombings. At the same time, the previous disconnection is revealed to have been an attack on Orwell by Initiate. In a new post on Thought's blog, Harrison reveals Symes as Benjamin Costigan and reveals his personal information, including his address. | ||
| 5 | 'Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree' | November 18, 2016 |
Instead of Symes, the player is greeted by Minister Delacroix as their new advisor, rating their performance so far. Depending on whether the player let Nina escape, Symes is revealed to either be in hiding or shot to death at his home. Abraham, is revealed to have returned and calls all Thought members to a conference call at 4pm. Noting the time needed to process datachunks, Delacroix limits the player to uploading only 20 datachunks. Each member of Thought reacts differently to Abraham's return, with Initiate in particular believing it to be a trap. At the same time, Cassandra is released by the authorities. Once the player has used up their datachunk limit, the conference call starts with all remaining Thought members (excluding Nina) present. At the same time, Initiate attacks Orwell again using an IP provided by Abraham, taking over the player's control. Within the conference call, Initiate reads the information acquired by the player and realises that Abraham died long before the bombings and deducing that Abraham is in fact Juliet. During the call, depending on whether the player has uploaded a certain location on Harrison's phone, Harrison will stay in the call or be arrested. Juliet confesses to orchestrating the game's events, including masquerading as Abraham, the manipulation of Nina and the re-incrimination of Cassandra. Juliet then reveals that Thought had failed in its goals of peaceful protest and that everything was meant to convince only one person of Orwell's failings: The player. Juliet notes that as an observer of everything that had played out, the player understood the fundamental issues with Orwell and could bring down the system by highlighting themselves as a target person. Initiate protests against this, and instead suggests the player incriminates Delacroix. Each member of Thought reads the player's record on themselves and decides to either support the player or refuses to do so. At this stage, the player has the choice of one of several actions:
Regardless of the final outcome, the player finally uploads a chunk from the news onto their own profile, suggesting that some form of Orwell lives on. |
Orwell: Ignorance is Strength (2018)[edit]
A sequel, entitled Orwell: Ignorance is Strength, was announced in August 2017.[2]
| Episode No. | Title | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 'Thesis' | February 22, 2018 |
On the same day as the Freedom Plaza bombing, Captain Oleg Bakay of the Parges Army receives a threatening phone call on a confidential phone and subsequently disappears. The player is tasked by Advisor Ampleford with finding Bakay. The player explores the relationship between Bakay and the caller, Raban Vhart of the anti-government People's Voice blog - Both being from the neighboring country of Parges, Vhart being the principal of the school which Bakay's daughter attended, and the school being destroyed in an attack in 2007. It is also discovered that Bakay is a turned asset covertly working for the Nation, and that he disappeared because his cover was blown. Eventually, Bakay is found hiding in a reinforced cellar below the destroyed school. Depending on the information provided by the player, a team sent by Ampleford either apprehends Bakay or executes him as a traitor. Regardless of the outcome, Vhart uses footage from cameras in the cellar to show the team's actions, blaming the school attack on Bakay and inciting his followers to protest. | ||
| 2 | 'Antithesis' | March 8, 2018 |
Emboldened by the response to the previous day's events, Raban discussed with his wife Karen & brother Ilya that he intends to send a public provocation for Parges's President Kassart. Ampleford tasks the player with stopping the provocation, using Raban's relations with the two as a weapon against him. The player explores the lives of both and finds suspicious activity from both, including Ilya being accused for a missing pharmaceutical shipment and Karen quietly providing counselling to Nina Maternova. Depending on what the player uploads, either can be arrested (or depending on the player's actions in Keeping An Eye on You, Karen can be injured in the Circle Mall bombing). Alternatively, if both suspicion are accounted for, the player can instead discover that Ilya & Karen are having an affair with one another, both alienated by Raban's increasingly extreme behavior. Whatever scandal the player finds is leaked anonymously on social media. Depending on how long the player takes, the resulting coverage either diminishes the impact of Raban's provocation or forces him not to publish it altogether. | ||
| 3 | 'Synthesis' | March 22, 2018 |
| The player is introduced in this chapter to the final tool on the bar, as the player looks for information to create narratives to combat a series of articles released during the day, by literally hijacking public discourse in an attempt to discredit Raban's credibility and reach. |
Reception[edit]
| Reception | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
The first season was reviewed and generally well-received by multiple gaming news outlets.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
Orwell Game Endings
References[edit]
- ^Campbell, Colin (October 20, 2016). 'Surveillance thriller Orwell coming out as a weekly serial'. Polygon.com. Retrieved October 25, 2016.
- ^Prescott, Shaun (August 8, 2017). 'Orwell: Ignorance is Strength is inspired by fake news'. PC Gamer. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
- ^Campbell, Colin (August 22, 2016). 'A game about freedom of speech'. Polygon.com. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
- ^'Believing is seeing: Orwell and surveillance sims'. Gamasutra. September 15, 2016. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
- ^Carpenter, Nicole (August 10, 2016). 'Orwell will have you play as the surveillance state for once'. Kill Screen. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
- ^'Orwell Critic Reviews for PC'. Metacritic. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
- ^Caldwell, Brendan (August 15, 2016). 'Be A Surveillance Creep In Spy Management Sim Orwell'. Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
- ^Prescott, Shaun. 'Orwell is a surveillance thriller about the ethics of data mining'. PC Gamer. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
- ^Campbell, Colin (November 29, 2016). 'Orwell review'. Polygon.com. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
External links[edit]
Media related to Orwell (video game) at Wikimedia Commons
Orwell Keeping An Eye On You Gameplay
