Orwell
I don't have many negative things to say about Orwell. The game is very simple, with the gameplay mostly involving you browsing webpages and dragging useful information about persons of interest into Orwell. The artstyle is simple and cohesive, and the minimalist soundtrack stays in the background until the moment your eyes fall on some shocking information that completely changes how you see a person or even the entire story thus far. There are musical changes for both dramatic twists and tragic realizations.
I was impressed how a game that essentially works like a browser managed to tell such a compelling story about the information we share online and how it could be used against us, and forces the player to make choices. The Orwell system can't take contradicting information, even if the contradiction would be cleared up by simple common sense like "They changed their mind" or "They misspoke." Say a person has a certain view of the government; if a person changed their opinion on or lied about their opinion at one point, you can only choose to submit one single piece of information to define what Orwell thinks his or her opinion is.
I'd go more in-depth about the profoundly disturbing implications of Orwell, but I went in with certain expectations and the game managed to shock, surprise and delight me in its own way; I don't want to take that from you, so I'll just recommend that you play it yourself:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/491950/Orwell_Keeping_an_Eye_On_You/
Whispering Willows
Whispering Willows mostly involves 2D exploration and plays a lot like an adventure game or point & click, where you are expected to find items to use in the appropriate places and make progress; the gimmick is that the main character can separate her spirit from her body to explore different areas and possess objects like levers.
The game had good visuals and music - the main character's animations, especially her body language when enemies are nearby or the flowing hair of her spirit form - are impressive. I didn't mind the exploration and some of the puzzles were quite fun, but there were scenarios were the main character could get hurt. In these situations, the character's slow movement and lack of other mobility options meant that you simply had to wait for enemies to patrol by and then move with little other strategy or thought. I also got stuck at one point in a maze, because I had to turn into a ghost to speak to a ghost dog elsewhere in the maze. The problem is that ghosts only appear to you in your spirit form, and your only clue to their presence in your normal, non-spirit state is a whispering sound. Missing this was partially my fault, but the dog's presence could have been a bit more clear if it was going to be so vital to progress. At the very least, I would've appreciated a guarantee from the game that the solution was in the maze with me, as it still let me explore every prior area.
Aside from talking to spirits, the spirit form also has little else going for it beyond being a door opener. You occasionally get to fly items over to your body, but I was disappointed that it didn't really get more interesting than that.
The story mainly revolves around the protagonist saving her father, but the mansion where he disappeared has a history of its own that reveals itself through diaries and journals, as many games like to do. I thought both the backstory and the protagonist's own quest were interesting enough, but the way they were brought together in the end seemed a little clunky to me.
All in all, though, Whispering Willows was still fun and its flaws were less impactful because the game was short and sweet. If you're looking for a short, spooky adventure with some decent puzzles and story, you can do a lot worse. Buy it on sale:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/288060/Whispering_Willows/
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And that's it for the Halloween leftovers! Halloween might be done, but there's still plenty on my list. I'm happy to be updating this blog more regularly again, I'll try to keep up the pace and publish at least one article per month.
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