Review: The Operator

One of my favorite sub-genres is the type of adventure game that takes place almost entirely on a fictional operating system. It allows me to play out my fantasy of not having to use Windows every day.

I know, I know. I could switch to Linux, but learning new things is scary.

Really, I like worming my way through fictional systems. Even hacking games like Uplink are brain candy for me, but when they’re combined with a narrative, like Hypnospace Outlaw, they’re even better.

The Operator is similar to the idea, but since it casts you as a government worker, you’re at least getting paid well.

The Operator (PC)
Developer: Bureau 81
Publisher: Bureau 81, Indienova
Released: July 22, 2024
MSRP: $13.99

You play as Evan Tanner, a man with severe cataracts that obscure his eyesight unless he’s looking at a computer screen. You begin on his first day as an Operator in the legally distinct Federal Department of Investigation. Your job is to assist field agents by helping them dig deeper into evidence.

This may surprise you, but you soon discover there’s a deeper conspiracy going on. And I’m going to tell you, it’s not all that clever about it. On your first case, you get a list. It’s barely related to that first case, but, like, everyone has seen that list and it gets brought up at every turn. There are over a hundred names on the list, most are crossed out, a few are circled, and one is mysteriously redacted.

You’re given access to a database of names and a few programs that are used about once throughout the game. Very quickly, you’re contacted by a hacker who goes by the handle of HAL. They give you more details about the conspiracy in exchange for your assistance. This sort of feels like that resistance group in Papers, Please, where you have good reason to help them, but you also don’t want your employer to find out. However, unlike Papers, Please, I’m not sure you can fully be discovered, but I didn’t test to see how hard you can fail.

The Operator does a lot of things decently enough, but many facets of it could have been done better. For one thing, the grand conspiracy isn’t all that interesting, nor is it that well-developed. A lot of hand-waving is done in the form of happenstance. Things fall neatly into place when they are ludicrously unlikely. If the plot had paced itself better and given some of its ideas space to breathe, the whole thing would have come out a lot more believable. Instead, it relies on fridge logic; stuff that seems logical in the moment until you walk away and think about it.

The gameplay is also fun but not very deep or challenging. I thought I’d be plumbing the nooks and crannies of the presented data, but a lot of the time, it was mostly just interpreting instructions. The puzzles were more brain teasers than tests of skill. I didn’t get caught on anything and found myself trying to make my own challenge by getting ahead of the story or trying to get into inaccessible files early. It’s not always a failure on the game’s part if I try to find my own stimulation, but it does feel that way here.

On the other hand, while the characters similarly lack depth, they fill the needs of the narrative quite well. The agents are extremely likable, and the central antagonist is mysterious enough to feel like a threat. They maybe won’t live on in your memory, but they fit their role well enough that you’ll probably care when the pudding hits the turbine.

There are only a few agents you actually work with, and each has their own case. They’ll ask for your help with something they’re stuck on and send over evidence for you to analyze with your fancy, government-funded software. They’ll ask you to find one specific thing in that evidence, whether it’s a name, an address, or something amiss. You find exactly what they’re looking for, then connect it with the keyword on the top of your screen to see if you got it right.

I mentioned that the problems don’t really become apparent until you’ve walked away from The Operator, and that’s because, in the moment, it can be compelling and exciting. While the mystery is clumsy, digging into it and trying to make the connections is handled well enough, even if it should have probably slowed down a bit.

The mechanics are varied. While some of it is sifting through data, toward the end you get into a sequence that feels like a single-player Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes and another where maps and security cameras come into play.

There is genuine strength in the fact that these sequences take up substantial parts of the game’s runtime. There’s no time to really consider The Operator’s weaknesses when you’re so constantly immersed in its strengths. But, when all is said and done, you might find yourself unsatisfied with how superficial it all seems. It could have been much more.

Maybe that comes down to expectations. When I see an OS sim, I expect that the fictional file browser and command prompt are there as a way of providing the tools to get through the game’s various challenges. The Operator mostly just gives you tools that only relate to specific puzzles. The chemical composition tool isn’t there as something that might help you crack a case, it’s its own puzzle and nothing else. Instead of making you feel inventive and smart, it just makes it feel like you’re making progress.

That’s fine if you go in knowing that. The Operator presents a number of fun puzzles and situations and gives you a story that is compelling, if rather clumsy. It’s about 5 hours long and manages to be entertaining throughout. Once it’s over, you might find yourself unsatisfied by its strict straightforwardness and the short leash it keeps you on. However, if you’re able to settle into the rigidity, you’ll find something enjoyable but hollow.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}