Orwell (video game)

Setting

Orwell takes place in a country called the Nation, led by a modern-day authoritarian government known as The Party in the capital of Bonton. In 2012, the Party passed the Safety Bill, a law expanding the government's ability to spy on its citizens in the name of national security. As part of the bill the Ministry of Security, led by Secretary of Security Catherine Delacroix, commissioned a covert surveillance system codenamed Demiurge (later renamed Orwell).

Orwell allows investigations into the private communications of people of interest, but doesn't allow any one person full access. Instead, Orwell's operation is run by two groups; Investigators, persons outside of the Nation working for the government who search through the communication of target persons and upload items of interest (represented as "datachunks"), and Advisors, people inside of the Nation who use the received datachunks to determine the course of action and to recommend actions to the authorities.

The player takes the role of an Orwell investigator, who has just been selected to use the system.

Episode 1: The Clocks Were Striking Thirteen

On April 12th, 2017, a bomb explodes in the populated Freedom Plaza in Bonton, destroying the statue and killing several people. A note containing the first three stanzas of the German folk song Die Gedanken sind frei ("The Thoughts are Free") is found at the site. Present at the Plaza shortly before the explosion was Cassandra Watergate, an artist who was arrested for assaulting a police officer at a protest at the Plaza several weeks prior. The player is tasked by their assigned Advisor "Symes" to investigate Cassandra as their only lead, with the goal of determining whether she had anything to do with the bombing.

The player explores Cassandra's various correspondence and finds various connections - Her acquittal from the assault charge due to lack of evidence, her relationship with her defence lawyer Josef Langley, her reliance on antidepressants, and her association with a group called Thought via a man called Goldfels.

Eventually, Cassandra confesses in a private conversation with "Juliet" that she did assault the police officer in a rage, although Juliet counters that Cassandra did it to defend her against him. It is up to the player which version they upload, but either way the assault charge is reopened and Cassandra is again arrested for it.

Suddenly, a second bomb explodes at Bonton's Stelligan University, ruling Cassandra out as the bomber.

Episode 2: A Place Where There Is No Darkness

Still reeling from the news of the second explosion, Symes tasks the player with investigating the Thought group and Goldfels in particular.

It isn't long before the player is able to identify Goldfels as Abraham Goldfels, a former Stelligan lecturer and activist. Thought is soon identified as an activist group protesting the government's pro-surveillance stance, identifying Abraham as the leader and two of his former students as key members: national newspaper columnist Harrison O'Donnell and Rhosen Tech's PR Assistant Juliet Kerrington. At the same time, the group's blog is hacked by an individual identifying themselves as "Initiate", with Harrison reversing the hack shortly after.

In addition to finding another Thought activist known as "Nina", the player also finds out that Thought had previously protested at Freedom Plaza, Stelligan and an unknown third location, suggesting a third bomb was about to explode. Investigating further, the player finds two separate locations the bomb could be. To get a definitive answer, Symes remotely interrogates Cassandra using the information acquired by the player. If the player chooses the right location and has found enough information on Cassandra, she identifies the third location as the Circle Mall, and the bomb is defused. Otherwise, the bomb explodes with many casualties.

Episode 3: Unperson

Regardless of the events in the previous episode, Symes tasks the player with investigating "Nina" as the suspected bomber.

The player soon learns that "Nina" is Sergeant Nina Maternova, a single mother who was a former combat engineer in the Nation's army. After her lover was killed in battle, she was dishonorably discharged for an AWOL and has since suffered from PTSD. While the player investigates, Initiate contacts Nina asking about the bombs which Nina denies knowledge of. As a prank, Initiate attempts to hack the Party's website - The player is able to warn the site's IT people in time, or can instead allow it to happen.

Getting paranoid, Nina notices the player's intrusions into her computer and decides to escape with her son. Depending on the information the player has previously uploaded about Nina, as well as what the player uploads during Nina's attempted escape, she can either be arrested, escape or be killed in a shootout.

After the events with Nina, her email account receives an email from Abraham, detailing the bombs as a plan between the two of them.

Episode 4: Memory Hole

Shocked at the revelation from the previous day, Symes tasks the player with once again investigating Abraham with the goal of finding his location.

While this is going on, Harrison & Juliet discuss the events with Nina, deciding to seek help from Josef. At the same time, Josef is contacted by an anonymous sender offering to release Cassandra from custody in exchange for information on Thought's members. The player is able to separately investigate Josef due to his past connection with Abraham & Cassandra - It's revealed that Josef once represented Abraham in a court case, and was asked by him to represent Cassandra for her assault charge. A regular money transfer from his bank account can also be found by the player and marked as charitable or suspicious.

At the same time, Harrison gets in touch with Initiate and tries to recruit him into Thought, to which Initiate identifies himself as an existing member. Initiate reveals the existence of Orwell to Harrison - Knowing they're both being listened to, they quickly make plans using an encryption cipher provided by Initiate. Shortly after, the investigation into thought is leaked to the National Beholder newspaper, causing Harrison to lose his columnist job and Thought's blog to be flooded with hate comments. Soon after, the player investigates Juliet's computer and suffers a strange disconnection from Orwell's servers.

Feeling the pressure, Harrison & Juliet call Josef who reveals the implication of the Safety Bill; out-of-context quotes can be used against a target, and with their collective association with Thought, they can all be arrested if Thought is determined to have been created for terrorist purposes. Depending on the player's actions with Josef's regular account, he is either arrested shortly after the call or he incriminates Harrison as a person of interest.

Eventually, the player finds that Abraham was once called Gunther Aarons, a person from Stuttgart who went missing in 1993 and migrated to the Nation. In addition, they find that Abraham had suffered from an inoperable cancer and had died over a year prior to the game's events, meaning that someone else was using his identity to cause the bombings.

At the same time, the previous disconnection is revealed to have been an attack on Orwell by Initiate. In a new post on Thought's blog, Harrison reveals "Symes" as Benjamin Costigan and reveals his personal information, including his address.

Episode 5: Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree

Instead of Symes, the player is greeted by Minister Delacroix as their new advisor, rating their performance so far. Depending on whether the player let Nina escape, Symes is revealed to either be in hiding or shot to death at his home.

"Abraham" is revealed to have returned and calls all Thought members to a conference call at 4pm. Noting the time needed to process datachunks, Delacroix limits the player to uploading a limited number of datachunks. Each member of Thought reacts differently to Abraham's return, with Initiate in particular believing it to be a trap. At the same time, Cassandra is released by the authorities.

Once the player has used up their datachunk limit, the conference call starts with all remaining Thought members (excluding Nina) present. At the same time, Initiate attacks Orwell again using an IP provided by Abraham, taking over the player's control. Within the conference call, Initiate reads the information acquired by the player and realises that Abraham died long before the bombings and deducing that "Abraham" is in fact Juliet. During the call, depending on whether the player has uploaded a certain location on Harrison's phone, Harrison will stay in the call or be arrested.

Juliet confesses to orchestrating the game's events, including masquerading as Abraham, the manipulation of Nina and the reincrimination of Cassandra. Juliet then reveals that Thought had failed in its goals of peaceful protest and that everything was meant to convince only one person of Orwell's failings: The player. Juliet notes that as an observer of everything that had played out, the player understood the fundamental issues with Orwell and could bring down the system by highlighting themselves as a target person. Initiate protests against this, and instead suggests the player incriminates Delacroix. Each member of Thought reads the player's record on themselves and decides to either support the player or refuses to do so.

At this stage, the player has the choice of three actions:

Regardless of the final outcome, the player finally uploads a chunk from the news onto their own profile, suggesting that some form of Orwell lives on.