Government Surveillance Game Orwell Is Getting A Follow-Up, Ignorance Is Strength

[thunderball]

Surprise Attack and Osmotic Studios are back again with a new entry in the highly lauded and interesting game about privacy and security that has players taking on the role of an agent of Big Brother in the game Orwell. The second season is called Orwell: Ignorance Is Strength and a new trailer explains how the game will play out.

The trailer was recently published by Surprise Attack, where a minute and a half look at the game takes players through a quick overview of their mission as an agent who's part of the NSA's top secret Orwell program. Orwell: Ignorance Is Strength is due out on February 22nd over on Steam.

The handler is Ampleford, who explains that players will have to investigate a provocateur who runs an alternative media website that the government claims is inciting protests and violent uprisings. His name is Raban Vhart, and despite being wheelchair bound, his mind is a dangerous weapon that knows no bounds.

The Orwell initiative will be used by players to investigate Vhart and monitor his social media activity, his personal conversations, his phone records, and more. The game allows players to take a deep dive into Vhart's personal life in a very realistic and scary way.

Not only do you have the ability to use the program to drill into the private lives of certain targets, you'll also be able to manipulate their lives and the information that is broadcast out into the world by changing around documents and information related to who they are, including creating fake news to damage an individual's reputation.

Orwell: Ignorance Is Strength is a very scary look at the possibilities of the digital information age, where mischaracterizing information for the purpose of ruining someone's life, getting the general public to feel a certain way about them, or incriminating them should bring about some serious discussions in real life about how the information age plays a part in our everyday lives.

The original Orwell definitely raised questions about how our current security works and the ways in which social media and the profiles we attach to those sites play a significant role in how much of our personal data is exposed to the world, especially through services like Facebook and Twitter.

The title of the game is based on George Orwell's 1984 and the Big Brother oversight committee featured in the fictional work. There are parallels, in that no matter what you do, those who control the flow of information are always watching over you.

Orwell: Ignorance Is Strength is set to arrive on PC starting February 22nd.