Orwell: Ignorance is Strength

You have been recruited as a new analyst for a government system that watches over the residents to keep them safe, and to weed out all potential threats that might appear visibly or in the recesses of society. You will be given access to a powerful system that will allow you to access websites, social media, e-mails, phone calls, and a sub-system that will allow you to tailor/change the public narrative to help save society from dangerous people. In Osmotic Studios’ second installation into their Orwell series, Orwell: Ignorance is Bliss, you will once again play an operative who is a central cog in the “Big Brother” reality created in the game. 

I know I stated that I felt dirty after playing the first “chapter”/”season”/”episode”, but the story was so intricate with plenty of twists and turns that I had to see what the next installation was going to bring. Regarding the first chapter, if you did play through it, you can add your saved game information to your game, it will mostly show up in the news feeds during the game, but there is a possible crossover that can happen. This does make for a very personalized experience, but it also made me face some of the mistakes I felt I made in the first game. In the end I don’t think that the story this time around was as impactful as the first one was, but I think that might have to do with the fact that I was better prepared for what the game could bring based on your actions.

This time around you will be watching over the life of an activist who is starting to make more and more noise about the leaders of The State, the place you and he currently reside, and of his birth. You will be charged to keep a watchful eye on his life, and the lives of others considered in his inner circle. Just like the first one, your web of contacts will grow based on decisions you make throughout the game. I do feel that this time around you have to be much more focused on the in-game clock. The reason is that your main target likes to post articles on this site when the biggest impact will occur (most of the time this will occur during early evening). Speaking of posts, some of the posts will be in audio format. As I have stated over and over again when it comes to having “audio” components in a game I really enjoy when they are voiced (well voiced well, not voiced for the sake of being voiced), thankfully this game’s “audio” portions are well done, and add to the depth of the characters that are attached to them.

I once again have to reference that I played the “first season” of the game because I feel that the effect on me was lessened simply because I was prepared for the hard choices and twists and turns. That being said I don’t know if that colors my opinion or not, what I can tell you is that, even though there were improvements here and there throughout the game, this one falls a little shorter than the first. There’s definitely still that feeling of being dirty because of the decisions I made, but maybe I am a little more desensitized to the overall effect.