Need to Know

Need to Know is a story-driven surveillance thriller set in a modern intelligence agency, the Department of Liberty (DoL). After a catastrophic terrorist infiltration of nuclear power plants, the agency forms to hunt down those responsible and prevent further attacks, using unprecedented access to people’s daily lives. You join the DoL as a broke, directionless graduate and investigate citizens, assess their threat levels and decide what to do with what you uncover.

The Department of Liberty

In Washington, the DoL competes with rival agencies for political supremacy, combats domestic threats and silences its opponents. Your central assignment is to find the mysterious figures behind the initial terrorist attack. Clues are scattered throughout the story and tracked on your Gray Day chart, while plots and subplots unfold across chapters.

Investigations and evidence

To progress through the game and rise within the Department, you complete assignments that involve detecting or solving crimes. Each mission is an investigative puzzle grounded in story, character and moral choices: you examine people, decide whether they are guilty and determine how to deal with them. At the end of each mission, you see how your decisions affected each suspect.

The Department stores citizens’ profiles in its CodeX database. They include biographies and personal dilemmas, and cover people of different economic backgrounds, locations, ages and cultures. Evidence ranges from private emails and text messages to metadata and browsing histories; higher Clearance Levels unlock access to geo-tracking, purchases and psychological analysis.

Authority and choices

Investigations often put you between two choices, such as deciding whether someone is suspicious or innocent. As your Clearance Level rises, you gain authority, classified information and access to more powers, including searches, wiretaps, smear campaigns and abductions. You can also exonerate people you want to help or work covertly to undermine the Department. Promotions depend on impressing your superiors and bring a higher salary and prestige.

Life outside work

At home, a software backdoor lets you use CodeX for your own purposes. You can steal a corporation’s financial data to profit on the stock market, impress potential matches in online dating or help underground groups leak information to the media and resist the Department. You can act altruistically or use classified information for personal gain.

Your salary can also go toward homes and other purchases, which you use to impress or intimidate your peers. The game presents surveillance through a colorful design rather than a clinical, traditional one, emphasizing the temptation and appeal of absolute power.