Follow up to the award-winning surveillance thriller explores power and democracy in a post-truth world
Developer, Osmotic Studios, and indie label, Surprise Attack Games, today announced Orwell: Ignorance is Strength, the second season of the award-winning surveillance thriller, Orwell. Coming soon for PC, Mac and Linux, the game turns its gaze to explore power and democracy in a post-truth world.
Inspired by the rise of fake news, the social media echo chamber and the death of “truth”-Orwell: Ignorance is Strength places the player in the shoes of a government official in a top-secret department of the Orwell program. A political crisis has arisen across borders, threatening to plunge The Nation and Parges into violent civil unrest.
Given the power to both uncover and fabricate “the truth”, the player must decide for themselves how far they will go in the service of their country and whether the truth is sacred or ignorance is strength.
Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You, was released as a weekly episodic series in October and November 2016 and is a surveillance thriller set in a fictional country called The Nation. Playing as themselves, the player was tasked with using the Orwell surveillance program to dig into the private and public communications of suspects in a series of terrorist attacks. The core question asked by the game was – “What would you do if you were Big Brother?”
Orwell was both commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning multiple awards and receiving prestigious nominations including the IGF Excellence in Narrative and an Honorable Mention in the IGF Seamus McNally Grand Prize. Orwell: Ignorance is Strength takes place in parallel to the events of the first season but this time the player takes on the role of an insider with access to additional features of the Orwell program. Ignorance is Strength brings a darker tone and introduces new tools that provide the player with more control over how the investigation unfolds and even the ability to influence public opinion directly.
Orwell: Ignorance is Strength will be releasing soon as a weekly episodic series and will be available at release on PC, Mac and Linux.
