Orwell: 1984 from the Inside

 
Time to Beat: 5 Hours

The beginning of the year should be a fresh start, but often isn't. January is a time for a cleaning out the material carried over from the previous year. For the first few weeks, Mondays on Awkward Mixture will feature reviews of three games I played last year, but didn't have space to review.

Today the game is Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You, developed by indie startup Osmotic Studios, and produced by indie company Fellow Traveler. Released in 2016, Orwell is a mystery thriller set in the police state of The Nation. Split into five, one-hour episodes, the player controls a characteristic-less protagonist conducting a trial run of the new Orwell covert surveillance system.

The origins of Orwell began in 2012, when a country called the Nation (I assumed was the United Kingdom – I don't know why), passed the Safety Bill, which expanded the government's ability to spy on its citizens. Orwell was the final product, and in 2017 the Secretary of Security secretly deployed it to determine the source of a bombing incident. Orwell allows the user to search anything; websites, phone calls, text messages, emails, bank accounts, online profiles, and catalog the data. The designers recognized the opportunity for corruption, so they Orwell designed to be used by two people, an investigator and an Advisor. Playing as the investigator, the player accesses files and chooses the relevant facts, which are sent to the Advisor (Symes) who does not have access to the files, but uses the facts chosen by the investigator to reach conclusions and act on them.
The core game mechanic is straightforward. The player is given information in the various forms mentioned before. A small amount of information in each article is highlighted. The player must choose what highlighted material to mark as relevant and send these data-chunks to Symes. If the information submitted is particularly irrelevant, or obviously incorrect, Symes reprimands the player. Choosing data-chunks sometimes unlocks other forms and sources of data, provided by the overseers.

Initially, submitting data can be done with an easy conscience. But soon one recognizes their responsibility. One learns to enjoy the perverse pleasure of observing two targets chat in confusion, about a subject you understand. Symes leads the player into an alternate reality where he views every target as guilty, because it is easy to insinuate that an innocent person is liable. He doesn't frame people, but implies their guilt with a thousand tiny cuts. At one point he says, “I don't believe in coincidences.” He believes events which appear to be coincidences are coordinated, proving the guilt of the target. As one continues into Episodes 3 and 4, the player realizes there is value not only in choosing what to pass on, but what to withhold. And Orwell introduces a mechanical twist: the player is forced to choose between two contradictory pieces of data-chunks. They can only submit one or the other. While this feature could have be interesting, choosing between the two options felt more like guesswork than judging the facts.

And one observes how random data-chunks are twisted to condemn anyone. The player might thoughtlessly highlight a data-chunk which describes a target as reclusive. A regular person knows a synonym of reclusive is shy, but Symes interprets the word as dangerous loner. Symes, his boss, and the police are always exhilarated by the chase, jumping on irrelevant incidents as proof of some larger conspiracy, eager to cast guilt about heedlessly.
Meanwhile one watches as the various targets, caught up in an ever widening probe, scurry helplessly about. In The Nation, police can flag and hold anyone indefinitely with almost no evidence. Deleting posts is proof of guilt. Citizens are arrested, without any notification to lawyers, friends, or the news. Symes even admits that all media is controlled by the government to manipulate public opinion, and I think I noticed text being altered in the news and other information sources. When police overzealously commit grave errors, they are not punished, and the injustices are covered up. Meanwhile the targets are a conflicting bundle of emotions and perspectives. Some play at resisting, while seeking wealth and status. Others lash out with violence. Some don't worry about the surveillance, saying, “Why bother when I have nothing to hide?”

By episode four or five, one questions whether they should aid The Nation, or subvert its authoritarian fascist goals. It's a terrifying Nation, built on the fear of the other; the foreigner, the odd, the unconventional. Everyone is in deep. Powerful people try to frame each other, a multitude of factions seek power, and paranoia is rampant everywhere.

As Orwell approaches its conclusion the developer introduces new complexity. A series of events lead to a new overseer and a race against an unknown enemy. In the final episode the player is limited on the number of data-chunks they can submit, and they must choose which faction to align with. I worried that in attempting to steer events, I'd reveal my plan to my enemies, but sometimes one must take risks to continue the game. Choices build upon one another, until the final choice is already out of one's control, and the game reaches a grand finale.
Obvious references to the author of 1984 aside, there are a few other issues worth considering. At the end of every episode, Orwell does an excellent job summarizing the events of the day. The game is composed mostly of the written word, with a unique visual effect framing them. For a game composed mostly of dialogue, this aspect needs to be fantastic, but unfortunately it is not. It's about average. Finally, while the game uses the important issue of the modern surveillance state (a relevant topic for 2019) as its core topic, Orwell doesn't have anything new to offer on this issue.

In conclusion, Orwell is a reasonably thrilling game about being a cog in a surveillance state. It requires a substantial amount of reading, with many insignificant choices, and only a few consequential decisions. It makes reasonable use of a unique visual aesthetic, and good musical cues, but is hampered by only average dialogue between the characters. The story moves along swiftly enough, as long as one isn't too picky about what they pass along to Symes, especially because progressing requires submitting most of the data available. Orwell doesn't have much unique that hasn't already been said about surveillance, but the ending is reasonably powerful and compelling.

I enjoyed Orwell a bit , but it's not as much a superior offspring from 1984, as a subordinate clause. The sequel is on my wish-list, but while Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You garnered acclaim, Orwell: Ignorance is Strength suffered mixed reviews. If it's on sale I might pick it up next year.

Next week, a second game from 2018.

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