Orwell Episode One & Two Review

The concept of the government spying on its people isn’t just something invented when Edward Snowden revealed the extent of the National Security Agency’s spying on American citizens. It’s been in the public consciousness since the time of George Orwell when he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four, in the mid 1900s.

Orwell sees you, in a twist, not opposing Big Brother, but actually becoming them. You are employed by Orwell to keep an eye on people, and check into their affairs should they become persons of interest. After a terrorist bombing in a public plaza, the safety of The Nation is in your hands, as you’re tasked to check into the life of the lead suspect, and find out whether she did it or not.

Normally I would be reviewing each episode as they come out, but given that Episode 1: The Clocks Were Striking Thirteen is available for free as an hour-long demo on Steam, I figured I would bundle it with Episode Two: A Place where there is No Darkness.

The first episode does a great job of engrossing you in the world that Osmotic Studios have created. You’re introduced to all of the systems which Orwell have provided, told that some of the information you gather can be contradictory, and some of it is downright useless. The system automatically highlights things which might be relevant, or will provide links to other information -- chat accounts, blogs and such.

The pacing is great, the art style is fantastic and the subtle, smooth soundtrack does its job well. I had high hopes for Episode Two. Of course, the music and art weren’t going to change, but they wouldn’t be the first developer to mess up a second episode.

A Place where there is No Darkness takes place the day after the first episode, and sees you profiling multiple people. It’s more challenging, as there is lots of information thrown at you, and you have to sift through to find out which parts are relevant. In the first episode the majority of it is relevant, so it’s kind of a shock.

I hope that increases in future episodes, as the frequent asides from your boss about irrelevant information are quite funny. It is well written and does a great job of being funny, yet tense when it needs to be. Reading a live chat log complete with spelling errors, and reading emails full of “leetspeak” are another highlight.

The problem is that Episode Two also takes about an hour to complete. It sets up Episode Three perfectly, with multiple endings, but once all of the episodes are out in the middle of November, there really doesn’t appear to be much reason to go back. And if you know the options you can choose, future replays won’t take a full hour each.

Honestly, I’m eager for the next episode -- I want to keep working to keep The Nation safe! In a way, it’s like Watch_Dogs in reverse. Whereas in that, you were working against CTOS, and whoever was controlling that, in Orwell you are CTOS. So far there’s no car chases, but you never know…

However, given the polish which the game has, and the fact that it’s only £8 at full price, I’ve no qualms about scoring this high. I eagerly await the next three episodes, and am already hoping for a sequel.