Need to Know
Skip · Strategy · 2018
The verdict
SKIP IT.
It scores 20, under the fair line, at $14.99.
- Length
- 19.6h 28.3h to 100%
- Value
- $0.76/hr
- Reviews
- 67% of 296 positive
Watch this gameOne alert at a price you pick.
Buy now or wait
Discounted in 6 of its last 8 seasonal sales. Last cut ended 111 days ago.
- Next sale
- Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
About the game
Welcome to the Department of Liberty. Ascend the ranks of the NSA-like surveillance agency and decide: will you stand up for privacy, or help create an unstoppable police state? Spy on people’s deepest secrets, pick apart their private lives and decide their fate in this modern surveillance thriller.
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 4 GB of memory, Intel HD 520 or equivalent, 3 GB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
The value story
It has been discounted 33 times in the 8 years tracked here. The median cut across all of them is 34 percent, about 12 weeks apart. Today it is at full price, and its last discount ended about 16 weeks ago.
It is pricier than 83 percent of its genre, and less well reviewed than 80 percent. Among the games that feel like it, Beholder 2 ($17.99, scores 66) beats it on value, while it beats Telling Lies ($4.99, scores 12).
The drop-off
94% start to 9% rarestNo achievement in this game marks the ending, so there is no finish rate. The curve runs from the most-unlocked achievement to the rarest, and its shape is where players stop. Steam global achievements
Players
- Players online
- 1 when we last checked, on Oct 9, 21:55 UTC
Player counts from the Steam Web API.
What players say
So overall I would recommend this game, it has decent writing, somewhat annoying music sometimes but overall is pretty good and sets a proper mood for what you are setting out to do. Unfortunately there are many, various and sundry game breaking bugs and it has been abandoned. I ran into multiple soft locks and finally was unable to progress further as the game wouldn't recognize that I completed all the available...
2 more reviews, 1 not recommended
It was alright. If just alright is good enough for you, and you enjoy these kind of investigative sim games, I might suggest getting it on sale. It's nothing to write home about though, and I don't think I'd encourage a friend to get it. I was severely dissatisfied with how railroaded the story was. When given a chance to help the DoL or anti-government agencies, you're forced to help both or you lose the game...
Fun game for if you enjoy working for the government or "good guys" in games. Humour is awesome too.
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic).
Cite this score
Need to Know scores 20/100 on the BANG Score (a skip) as of Oct 19, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/490930/need-to-knowReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 29, price as of Oct 18. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.