Backed it on Kickstarter (I'm even in the credits if you looked!), played it, abandoned it for a few years, and then finally finished it, doesn't mean it's a boring game, hear me out.

Need to Know came from the era of Orwell - which I've also played, loved and reviewed - basically pattern matching gameplay laid on top of a "visual" novel (only without boobs). The gameplay, while has to be involved and brain-teasing, needs to tells a story.

Orwell excelled with being a more aggressively ramped-up authoritarian nightmare. A seemingly more far-fetched future. A story where an outsider can help control information, narratives, and through that, the truth and history.

(Mild spoilers ahead, skip next paragraph if you don't wanna know anything)

Need to Know, on the other hand, writes a story in a near future - where we may be right now, or in a few years. You play as a US citizen, whose sole power is to prosecute, to "just follow orders", and meanwhile trying to survive a personal political hell. You play yourself into becoming a regular crimer, a warcrimer, and a national terrorist. You see repercussion of your own actions in the story. You may justify yourself into believing you're fighting for "the truth"; yet the information you are given keeps getting worse, and it makes you wonder if you're becoming a eugenicist and a fascist. At that point, the only winning move may just be not to play, or yeet yourself into prison.

(Spoiler over)

If you choose to play on, the gameplay is more involved than Orwell - while Orwell only makes you marks single pieces of evidence, Need to Know makes you show the link between different pieces of seemingly unrelated information - only becoming related because you are given inside knowledge of what they may have been doing. Messages, tweets, locations, bank statements, satellite images, heartbeats - all the data we give willingly these days - can and will be used against them. You request more data, you use that data to find incriminating evidence, and you string them together to prosecute them. Everyday is like a mini-Sherlock Holmes mind palace minigame, only it keeps getting more complicated. It can get repetitive, but being engaged to the story and the new data types will help mitigate it a little bit.

The game represents a possible future, and you are a judge, jury, and executioner. Have fun doing war crimes.

Backed it on Kickstarter (I'm even in the credits if you looked!), played it, abandoned it for a few years, and then finally finished it, doesn't mean it's a boring game, hear me out. Need to Know came from the era of Orwell - which I've also played, loved and reviewed - basically pattern matching gameplay laid on top of a "visual" novel (only without boobs). The gameplay, while has to be involved and brain-teasing, needs to tells a story. Orwell excelled with being a more aggressively ramped-up authoritarian nightmare. A seemingly more far-fetched future. A story where an outsider can help control information, narratives, and through that, the truth and history. (Mild spoilers ahead, skip next paragraph if you don't wanna know anything) Need to Know, on the other hand, writes a story in a near future - where we may be right now, or in a few years. You play as a US citizen, whose sole power is to prosecute, to "just follow orders", and meanwhile trying to survive a personal political hell. You play yourself into becoming a regular crimer, a warcrimer, and a national terrorist. You see repercussion of your own actions in the story. You may justify yourself into believing you're fighting for "the truth"; yet the information you are given keeps getting worse, and it makes you wonder if you're becoming a eugenicist and a fascist. At that point, the only winning move may just be not to play, or yeet yourself into prison. (Spoiler over) If you choose to play on, the gameplay is more involved than Orwell - while Orwell only makes you marks single pieces of evidence, Need to Know makes you show the link between different pieces of seemingly unrelated information - only becoming related because you are given inside knowledge of what they may have been doing. Messages, tweets, locations, bank statements, satellite images, heartbeats - all the data we give willingly these days - can and will be used against them. You request more data, you use that data to find incriminating evidence, and you string them together to prosecute them. Everyday is like a mini-Sherlock Holmes mind palace minigame, only it keeps getting more complicated. It can get repetitive, but being engaged to the story and the new data types will help mitigate it a little bit. The game represents a possible future, and you are a judge, jury, and executioner. Have fun doing war crimes.