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.
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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