You know the fantasy already. An FBI agent calls their office to have someone run a check on a piece of information. It might be a person’s name, a car licence plate, or some surveillance footage. Whatever it is, the person on the other end of the line has to do some invisible wizardry and then return the pertinent facts to the agent, fast. The agent then hangs up and the story moves on, and that invisible voice on the phoneline who did all the hard work is forgotten forever. But not any more.
The Operator is a game about being that invisible person on the other end of the line. Which, I know, sounds unglamorous. But what’s so special about the Steam Next Fest demo for The Operator is how exciting it makes that job feel in the moment. Yes, you might be operating an in-game computer terminal to comb through CCTV footage, interview transcripts and images and so on, but you’re also pivotal to the case. You’re the one joining the dots. And right from the off, developer Bureau 81 breathes maximum life and energy into it.
Case in point: you’re thrown right into the thick of things from the moment the demo begins. A blinding overhead light sears your vision in a dark room, and a voice asks – in a lie detector kind of way – who you are and what you know. It’s menacing and unsettling. You’re being interrogated, but do you know who you are? Do you know about [REDACTED]? But before you can figure out what any of it means, the game whizzes on and you’re now a new FDI recruit sitting down at a computer for your first day on the job. Your computer’s calling system is ringing with both your co-worker and supervisor on the line wanting to talk about your first case, but instead of easing you in, you find out it’s a homicide, and there’s CCTV footage to review. Erk. It’s one thing after another in quick succession. There’s never any time to get bored and I love that. Things are always moving, even if you’re only looking at a computer screen.
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