TR-49: Inkle's archive puzzle probes language, censorship and a machine that eats books

Kotaku reports that TR-49, from developer Inkle, casts players as Abbi, who must use a salvage-built computer to search an archive and identify a specific digitized book to destroy in an alternative version of the UK where war is raging outside. On the surface the game is a document-discovery puzzle that has you matching dozens of excerpts and documents while amassing automatically updated, "sublime" notes that let you progress without a pen.

It draws instincts similar to Type Help and Her Story, and beneath its mechanics it layers satirical, alt-history themes about the mercenary consumption of human-created works by gen-AI, a government that refuses to adhere to reality, and questions around linguistic relativity and the Whorf–Sapir hypothesis—at times described in the piece as a linguo-punk 20th century and even as "a giant machine that eats books." The review praises the world-building, voice acting and music, notes the game was played on PC (and is on iOS), lists the release as "Out now," and says the reviewer completed the game in about six hours and checked a second ending.

The review flags a major flaw: a narrator named Liam frequently interjects, requiring players to click a pink speaker button to prompt Abbi and often speaking over other readings, which can interrupt the player's flow.