25 December 2025 | S25E12 - replay to 100%
Rating upgraded from 'Dreadful' to 'Acceptable' simply due to how much I like this type of gameplay. The story is good but the execution and the ending is still terrible. In achievement replay I managed to get what I think is the best ending (Ilya and Karen run away; the partial truth is spread via Percoleaks), which I still don't like. The developers of Orwell, both in this game and in the previous one, really try to send a message (about state-level surveillance in the first game, or about manipulating the truth via media/social media in this one) but I simply don't like how there is never some middle ground for the player, when technically and logically there should be. As a player, you are in a position of Investigator which is constantly presented as shaping the 'truth' via Orwell, and it is not explained anywhere why the actual truth is never turned in datachunks that you can submit to Orwell or even Percoleaks. I hated Raban (yeah he's hurt, but he's also an insane fuckin' liar) and yet if you leak the truth, he is redeemed in the eyes of the public (no ending credits means no way to know for sure, but it sure seems like it). It's like in the previous game, where you either consider Thought to be terrorists, or innocent free-thinkers, when they are neither. The game forces you to make irrational choices and I hate it.
