Recently, I was on a trip and during this trip, I had a desire to play a game from my backlog during the flights. Looking at my collection, I decided to download the two games in the Orwell series: the original Orwell and it’s sequel/expansion Ignorance is Strength. While I didn’t end up playing either of them during my flights, I did finish both of them once, so I figured I could write up a review on them based on my experience.
In Summary
For those that are unfamiliar with Orwell, it is a episodic simulation game about government surveillance. You play as an Agent that has been tasked at investigating a terrorist attack using the titular Orwell system. This agent browses the web (and eventually the devices) of target suspects and chooses which information (datachunks as the game calls it) to upload to the government, allowing them to investigate the case accordingly.
Essentially, it’s Violating One’s Privacy Simulator. As the game progresses, you get to tackle more cases, each of which is intertwined with the previous ones. For the sake of spoilers, I won’t be delving much into the plot of this game, but if you are to play it, I suggest you do so blind to the game’s plot.
Is it Good?
While it was fun, I don’t think I can say much about both. For the first Orwell, the story is it’s main draw, and I don’t want to spoil it, but there were moments that got rather tense. The decisions I made were based on the logic of trying to please the government, but as the game goes on, it really tries to turn you against it. I felt really bad when I missed some valuable information, and every time you upload bad, out of context datachunks about someone, you feel a bit like a jerk. The characters were well written for the most part, and they each have their own distinct personality. The story was able to keep me engaged enough to see it all the way through.
That being said, some aspects of the game were very frustrating. The thing about this game is that it is pushed as quite a heavily choice based, however, the game sometimes refused to progress unless you provide information you don’t wish to. Most of the the essential choices were highlighted for convenience, but there were times that I spent a lot of time backtracking through a lot of the web pages I previously visited. While this is a natural part of the game, looking for that small datachunk sometimes was incredibly frustrating. It makes me wonder whether it was an intentional design choice, or a simple mistake.
Upon finishing the game, I looked up the other ending alternatives and while the choices I made did have an impact, the only choice that really impacts the ending is the final one. It’s a bit irritating that the game handles it this way.
The sequel/expansion, Ignorance is Strength, is much better than the original. They added the extra pressure of a time limit throughout the entire game, (the original does this in some way, but only near the end), added voice acting (which helps the calls sound more realistic) and had a much more focused story. The game has the neat touch of utilizing your previous save files from the original to match continuities (both games take place at the same time), but I wish they were able to utilize this integration more. The new ideas that the game introduces are mostly near the end of the game, and the game itself is much shorter than the previous one. Had this sequel been given a full length treatment, it probably would have been so much more better, but the short playtime and missed potential sometimes sours the experience.
In Conclusion
In general, both games were good, thoughtful experiences. At it’s best, Orwell makes you question not only your own government surveillance, but also your own personal morals. The issue is that those best moments are inconsistent. Both are good games, but I don’t think going for the alternate endings are worth it. Still, if one is looking for a story based game that is different from everything else, it’s definitely worth a shot at least.
Scores
Since this is a series of games being reviewed, each game is scored individually. (Keep in mind that Orwell:Ignorance is Strength was built as a sequel/expansion to the original, and may assume that you played that first)
Orwell-7/10
Orwell:Ignorance is Strength-7.5/10
Links to both games’ Steam pages are found below. (I’d recommend you try the demo of the first one, and if you do like it, buy the full game. Wait for a sale on the second one)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/491950/Orwell_Keeping_an_Eye_On_You/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/633060/Orwell_Ignorance_is_Strength/
(Wrap Up Note- Not a bad game to start off my review series. Hopefully I am able to get out more content soon. I know it’s been quite a while since that last post, and despite the fact that nobody even knows this exists, I do kinda feel bad a bit. But no worries! We’ll hopefully be able to provide more content in the future.)
DGAMER's Blog About Gaming 