The FED

The FED puts you undercover in an online group that an agency has identified as a potential threat. You are a new agent tasked with gathering evidence against its members by whatever means necessary. Your goal is to get as many members arrested as possible and secure the longest sentences you can; at the end, the game gives you a breakdown of your performance.

Work undercover

Each workday begins at 5pm in your office, where your boss briefs you on important information. You use your PC to interact with the group and access other services. Its main app is Postapp, the group’s chat client, where you can message members and see what they have been doing during the day. BNM provides news about recent world events, while Comfy is a streaming platform you can use to pass the time.

Manage conversations

In Postapp, you select a member and choose a topic to message them about. Some messages lead to further options, and certain replies unlock new topics. Time passes only while you chat or watch streams, so you cannot ask everyone about everything in one day. Members follow different online schedules, which may require you to wait for a particular target.

Each member has individual interests, circumstances and views on how to act. A soldier might join a military parade, an avid reader might try to write a book, and a struggling small-business owner might give up and return to school. Members also judge whether you are a friend or a foe, and whether you seem innocent or suspicious. Your conversations affect how they feel and behave, and members sometimes message you first.

You can build trust by acting innocent, bond over a member’s interests before trying to influence their choices, point to an injustice they have suffered, or discuss the news to stoke anger at society. These conversations can lead members to change jobs, leave university, skip a friend’s wedding or act on their own.

Build a case

Members can be arrested for many different actions, with charges that vary in severity. Courts do not find every defendant guilty, so collecting more evidence and bringing more charges can improve the chances of securing convictions. You may need to steer someone away from an early, minor offence if it would leave you with little evidence. The police can also arrest a criminal even when your agency does not want them to.

Choose member names

When starting a new game, you can have the game generate names for the members or enter your own. Regular names and online usernames are handled separately, so you can generate one kind and provide the other yourself.