On his way to the camp, Quentin meets a girl who is quite distressed about being taken from her family and her previous life, having to take part in the experiment. Later they talk though a ventilation shaft, with Quentin hesitant to support her over fear of being watched. Soon enough, Quentin is assigned to a group of four—two boys and two girls—with whom he shares assigned duties. Two of them are content or even happy with the situation, while one of the girls, Lorelei, is keen to get to the bottom of things. Though they don't like each other much, Quentin and Lorelei team up to investigate the premises.
With the pacing being just right, you're always wondering what will happen next. For the studio's first work, Anomie gets a lot of things right—the characters are well-written and believable, Quentin and Lorelei slowly growing closer is nicely done, presentation is minimalistic but on-point, making good use of the soundtrack.
Despite having this amazing Orwell-meets-Golding premise, Anomie gradually neglects its plot in favour of its characters and themes, burying the latter half of its dramatic arc in narrative smoke and mirrors. While this is obviously the writer's choice, and the bittersweet ending we get is not bad in itself, being the pedestrian reader I am I would rather see the premise and setting fully fleshed out in a traditional story. (It worked well enough for Swan Song.)
Overall, I enjoyed reading Anomie and would recommend it, especially if you're interested in psychology or philosophy—if you're in for the dystopian plot, you might not get out of it as much. In any case, I'm looking forward to more games from the studio, it looks promising!
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