Gamescom 2017 round-up: Part 2
Orwell: Ignorance is Strength
by Ingmar Böke
The episodic surveillance thriller Orwell was one of my highlights from 2016’s fair. As the second season, Orwell: Ignorance is Strength, had been announced right in time for gamescom 2017, I was eager to unravel some details on the follow-up effort. Luckily, I got what I was hoping for as Osmotic Studios’ Mel Taylor showed me a preview build of the sequel and gave me a good idea of what to expect. To come straight to the point: I was no less intrigued by what I saw this time around than I was last year.
Anyone who deals with the works of visionary writer George Orwell (1903-1950) in the present day is unavoidably going to be confronted with many issues of our modern world – including the detestable prevalance of fake news. Certainly, with Ignorance is Strength, the ambitious German developers have their finger on the pulse of today’s society once again. Yet they’re spicing things up by keeping the surveillance aspect of the first season while adding new contemporary themes to the mix, as well as some time-critical elements for a little added tension.
Once more, players are commissioned by “The Nation” to spy on potential suspects who might mean harm to the country. Using the surveillance OS Orwell, we are going to delve deeper and deeper into people’s lives – for example, by monitoring phone calls, chat conversations and e-mails, or by accessing private files on computers and mobile phones. While season one focused on a bombing in the interior of the Nation, season two relates to events taking place at the same time in the neighboring country of Parges. If the name sounds familiar, there is good reason for that as season one contained several references to the destabilized Parges and the suffering of its citizens. I was told that profiles and choices made in the first game can optionally be imported to Ignorance is Strength. Since both stories take place simultaneously, and no further info is available yet, though, we’ll have to wait and see whether our decisions from the premier season will influence the successor in meaningful ways.
The tagline “Ignorance is Strength” underlines that the game still deals with some very contemporary themes, including fake news and how the reception of news can change depending on individual social media bubbles. One character that is going to play an important role during your investigations is the editor-in-chief of “The People’s Voice”, a populist blogger from Parges who blames the Nation for the citizens’ misery. Using this man as an example, Mel mentioned the importance of gray areas when it comes to characters and their motivations. The more we find out about the blogger in question, for example, the more we come to understand his personal backstory, and as a result, this might change the way we look at some of his actions. Having said that, Ignorance is Strength will repeatedly ask players whether “the end justifies the means.” This applies not only to the events we observe, but also to our own actions, such as whether we’re willing to post fake news ourselves to accomplish a certain objective.
Once again, nearly the entire game will take place within the Orwell OS. Due to its high accessibility, even newcomers to the series should have no problem getting used to the interface. The screen is still split into two halves: while the left side shows Orwell’s database, the right allows us to go back-and-forth between all our different sources of information. Potentially relevant bits are automatically highlighted and can be transferred to Orwell via drag-and-drop. Once new information is added to the OS, it can’t be removed anymore, and the data can be accessed by our superior who – in some cases – will take further action against suspects.
Visually, Ignorance is Strength sticks with the characteristic polygon look of the original season. While season one didn’t have any kind of voice recording, the new season is at least going to have some voiced elements, though I was not able to hear any of it at this point. Unlike before, players will now need to figure out passwords for secure sources. There is no need for a text parser, though, as passwords will also be assembled via drag-and-drop. To create more tension throughout the season, and make particular choices even harder, several time-critical sequences are going to be included. Taylor explained that this is also supposed to result in a higher level of replayability, as it will require more than one playthrough to see the different outcomes of such scenes.
Just like in season one, publisher Surprise Attack Games is again planning to release the game episodically on a weekly basis, but as Mel told me, the sequel is only going to contain three episodes instead of five. With the technological framework that was laid out for the original game allowing the team to produce new content a lot faster, the current plan is to release Orwell: Ignorance is Strength for Windows, Mac and Linux around the end of 2017. Based on what I saw, if you’re a fan of the first season, it seems there are many excellent reasons to look forward to Orwell’s return!
Jengo
by Matthias Glanznig
Robot Wizard is working on Jengo, a point-and-click adventure game in the spirit of the old genre classics of the 1980s and 1990s. While this project still has a long way to go, the first few minutes were already playable at gamescom.
In this story we play Jeff, an old-school gamer hoping to find a game in a local store. Unfortunately, no one around seems to share his passion for old games. DLC, dating games, and other modern trends are certainly not what this diehard gamer is looking for. After a few disappointing conversations, Jeff relocates his search elsewhere and ends up in a weird little shop, where a mysterious Asian guy invites him to play a very retro-looking game. Little does Jeff know that this is no ordinary game. As the computer activates, a portal pops up and pulls him right into a different world. After a short cut scene, he finds himself in a town called Old Meta, which looks like an Old Western town. Old Meta is a lonely place at the edge of the Pixelverse, and soon Jeff realizes that the end is near and only he can fight the pixel apocalypse.
In the short demo, we saw many allusions to the good old days and as with every traditional adventure game, story and puzzles are the core of the gameplay. On PC you will be able to play with the mouse. There is going to be an action wheel which is quite similar to the verb coin interface known from Full Throttle and Curse of Monkey Island. From what we could see, the visuals and jokes definitely appear to be in the vein of the classics, from LucasArts to Sierra. At the same time, the comic art style does its own part and feels fresh. Jengo also deals with other genres that had a rivalry going on with adventure games back then (for example shooters like Doom). The first minutes were promising, and we are curious to see how the game further evolves.
Initially, the plan was to release Jengo in episodes, but that idea has changed. The small indie studio from South Africa now wants to release one complete game on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Switch. English voice-overs can be expected. Currently, they are preparing a demo for their upcoming crowdfunding campaign. If everything is going as planned, Jengo might even be ready next year.
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