In George Orwell’s 1984, you’re swept along in a revolution you don’t really know anything about. It’s so secretive because the stakes are so high. One wrong move and, kachunk, you’re disappeared, and it’s frightening.
Alt-FrequenciesDeveloper: Accidental QueensPublisher: ARTE France / Plug-in DigitalPlatform played: PCAvailability: Out now on PC, iOS, Android
It feels the same in Alt-Frequencies. From the moment it begins, you know you have a role in something bigger. There’s something very wrong going on at a state level and you know the truth is out there somewhere. You know that because a pirate radio station told you. You heard an illicit truth and now you want more. But who are you, who are they, and what is the truth?
You will have barely scratched the surface of the answer before time will loop on you. The five-to-10 minutes of radio you’ve been listening to will, after the screen fades to white, repeat on you. This time-loop is central to everything. It is the story you’re chasing and how you chase it.
The other central conceit is radio. It’s all you have. You are a bodiless character in a room with a radio and everything you do – all your interactions, all of your resistance – goes through the radio. You flick between stations, record clips and send them in. That’s it, nothing else.
Maybe you send in a clip of a pirate radio broadcast to another station; maybe you send a clip of one presenter to another; maybe you crack a garbled code and hear something you shouldn’t. Whatever the jackpot, when you hit it, time moves on, and in this way the story unfolds.