Orwell

This "game" is more like a moving book with choices to change the story's outcome. It has fun twist and turns at every corner and then some, very enjoyable and executes them well. Orwell may not be for everyone (especially if you hate reading) but I encourage anyone and everyone to at least try it out. You may find Orwell to be a very fulfilling and exhilarating experience.

Aesethic: great. Idea: creepy. Gameplay: ah, well, we've found a large banquet with only a few crumbs that are tedious to follow with not much else to do or eat. If you've never spent any time in your professional or personal life as a paper-pusher (or modern equivalent, data shovelller) then this game will educate you on how anodyne and beige such an endevaour is. I can understand why doing menial work all day long results in marriage breakdowns, mid-life crises, nervous breakdowns and other such ills that befall the poor sods whose role is merely that of conduit with nothing really touching the sides of your soul regardless of what horrors are being transferred. Shame really because to invoke Orwell sets the bar high but as anyone who has read anything the man wrote knows he was the very opposite of the tedium and unambitious gameplay found here.

Orwell is a very interesting game. Very much leaves the Papers Please vibes once you go through the whole game. Both of these games are seemingly mechanics orientated but the core of the game is actually getting to go pass the wall of "doing my seemingly little part" of a system and seeing how the system is fundamentally flawed. Don't expect the same level of execution and investment as you got from Papers Please (where its literally your family's survival that's constantly on the line), but do enjoy, it's a nice little game. Overall score, 7 bananas out of a coconut. Be aware: The game attempts to be deep and incite THOUGHT!

So the game is basically Papers Please but with a slightly more serious tone, weirdly, with less Soviet Bloc vibes and more modern day USA and a less focused day-to-day task. I can't say that I think it's better than Papers, Please but I can say that I enjoyed both equally for different reasons. If you enjoy the idea of social commentary and getting to feel like a real internet sleuth then you're probably going to love this game. I personally really enjoyed it. You are tasked with running the new government-funded surveillance system, dubbed Orwell - which is only slightly on the nose in the same way that a steel beam to the forehead is only slightly inconvenient. The Orwell computer system allows you to run deep searches on various characters throughout the game and dig into their activities - all while you're being hounded by your superiors to accomplish certain tasks. If you think that combing through details is not fun then you're probably not going to have a great time. As the game progresses you get access to more and more information and ways to extract information concerning your designated targets so you'll have to pay attention as you go along. Not really a zone-out experience, you'll be hunting for details through people's internet search histories and phone calls and making judgments on how to proceed with those people. Overall I played this with my spouse and we had a great time. It's definitely not for everyone, but it's fun if you like playing detective for a few hours.

A cautionary tale about surveillance. Well written, interestingly illustrated and very atmospheric