Release Date: 24/02/2017
Played On: Win
Available On: Droid / iOS / Mac / Win / XBO
Time Played: 9h 50m (still playing)
Progress: Half the campaign and about 30+ other shifts.
Developer: Jutsu Games
Publisher: PlayWay SA
Sometimes having a good idea isn't enough to really make an impression among the myriad of indie games released on a regular basis. Most of the time, a game really needs to be the complete package if it's going to catch your eye, but there are always exceptions to the rule.
Pardon the cliché, but 911 Operator is one such exception, as it's a fantastic idea that manages to carry itself despite a half-cooked execution. It says a lot to think that I've been compelled to play more and more of the game, even though I've sworn blue murder at my screen on account of some questionable choices.
To begin with though; 911 Operator is a simulation game that attempts to provide you with the feeling of being a real person working on the end of an emergency services line. Not only do you take calls, but it's your job to deploy resources to take care of incidents as they occur on a top down view of any city you choose.
Each shift (or "duty") is performed over the course of a set period of time, which you can speed up and pause as you see fit. When things are really busy, it can feel a little like playing FTL as you'll end up pausing between every decision so that you don't waste precious time.
Incidents appear on the map and require a combination of the three services you have available to deploy. The police patrol the streets and can be sent to deal with crimes and general unrest. Medical resources like ambulances are available for medical emergencies, or to care for wounded in danger zones. Finally, the fire department are on call to put out fires and deal with technical jobs like car crashes, or cats stuck in trees.
The scenarios are varied enough to keep things interesting and keep you on your toes as often they require a combination of two or three services. At times the situation will change, such as when the police are sent to check on a disturbance that becomes violent, so medical resources are suddenly needed to resolve the situation.
Most of the game is spent looking at a map of a city and clicking on vehicle icons to send them to the appropriate incident icon. It's an abstraction, but it feels good to use this interface. At times it feels like you're an air traffic controller conducting a tense dance of maximising efficiency and coverage.
Incidents have a time before they expire, so you can't leave that cat in the tree forever. Likewise, when services arrive on the scene, they are designated a time that it will take to perform their duties. By clicking on the incident you are even given details of how long each action will take at the scene. Everything can be improved with more resources, so if your police are taking forever to process a bunch of criminals, it might be worth sending over another squad to help them out and speed things up.
Similarly there are a number of events that can happen during an incident, like police taking fire from someone with a weapon. On the other side of town, the fire brigade might be struggling with a building fire because a load of rubble is in their way and they're struggling to clear it before heading inside.
All these elements are indicated through simple icons and diagrams on the game's main interface. It works well and has been put together with attention given to keeping it simple and limiting information to only what's needed.
If this were the extent of 911 Operator it would be a really nice little indie simulation that's compelling to play and does a good job with its management system. Unfortunately, there's more to it, which only serves to bring everything down a few notches.
The main system I'm going to mention is the call system where you are tasked with answering a 911 call and responding to the caller appropriately. It sounds awesome on paper, as there are multiple responses to choose from depending on the situation, and it adds a depth to the simulation that I can only assume gives it more authenticity.
The developers mention a few times that while they did research the job of a 911 operator, the game is an abstraction and things are changed to suit gameplay, rather than strictly adhering to an accurate reproduction of reality. That's all fair enough, but there are some things that have nothing to do with enhancing the gameplay that are holding it back.
From the start there's only one operator's voice to choose (you don't get a choice), so every time a call comes in you hear this dude answer who is meant to be your character in the game. I don't mind only having one dude, as there are probably budget reasons for not spending more money on voice actors. It's why I don't really mind that the voice acting for the phone calls is pretty spotty at best, and at times it's completely awful. That's one of the downsides to a small game that probably doesn't have heaps of money to spend on actors.
The real thing that annoys me about the operator who is speaking for me, is that every few lines are delivered with a snarky cynicism that only frustrates me and takes me out of the experience. It's usually when someone is calling and there's a need to determine if they have a genuine emergency or not. Instead of asking a series of questions professionally, the voice on the player's side of the phone adopts an accusatory tone if the legitimacy of the caller is in question. Amplify this by a factor of ten when you consider that as the player you're selecting responses from a list, which are not full descriptors of what the operator will say. It's a bit Fallout 4 in that way, and it's super jarring to select "NATURE OF EMERGENCY" on the list, only to hear "Sir, are you SUUUURE you're ACTUALLY sick? You haven't been drinking HAVE YOU?!"
See the dissonance that emerges? Of course it's hard to convey vocal tones in text, but it's like the operator puts the sarcasm filter on whenever something fishy might be going on. The voice acting quality doesn't even matter at that point, as I'm more annoyed that the game isn't respecting my line of inquiry. It would have been better to have an operator with no personality or inflection in their voice at all, than for the intermediate voice between player and game to editorialise everything along the way.
I realised quickly that the reason this bothers me so much is because the calling system should be the strongest part of the game, instead of the most annoying. There are some genuinely great calls to experience that really make you feel like you're operating an emergency line.
For instance, if you answer a call and there's no answer you are given the option of hanging up, pressing a button, or asking the caller to push a button on their phone if they're unable to talk. After a while, the last option ends up being the first choice for calls without a talking caller, but it isn't always reliable either. Often it's just a kid who's dialled 911 on their parent's phone by mistake, so it ends up being a waste of your time. In that scenario though, you have the option to hang up and call them back, at which point the parent answers the phone. As the operator you ask them if there's an emergency, but they tell you their kid was messing around, so you check again in case there in danger (which is a nice experience of performing duty of care), and then end the phone call.
Alternatively, sometimes you'll hear a keypad tone after answering and asking the caller to press a button if they're unable to talk. You then proceed through a series of questions to determine the nature of their emergency via one press for "yes", two for "no". All the while, your system is tracking their address, so as soon as it's discovered you can get the right services on the job.
This idea of navigating through scenarios over the phone is a real strength of the game and I wish it were better implemented. There are a few scenarios that work really well (another is talking someone through giving birth), but most of the calls will be repetitive and boring. Perhaps that's the authentic nature of being a 911 operator, but I doubt that they would get the exact same call multiple times from the same voice actor.
However, I have to reiterate that it's not the bad voice acting that bothers me, it's the tone of the operator and the limited calls that come in. I've played through about 40-50 shifts in total (I think), and I reckon I could list off the call scenarios off the top of my head. There's such a lack in variety that you even get the same call during the same shift at times.
So with all that being said; what could have been the strongest part of 911 Operator, actually turns out to be one of the worst. Although keep in mind that the main loop of incidents appearing on a map, and being tasked to distribute and manage resources, is fine in itself. This is what keeps me playing, and why I feel compelled to try and finish the campaign.
Aside from the problems I have with the call system, there are a couple of other minor gripes that thankfully don't get in the way of enjoying the game.
Before each shift you have the option of outfitting your emergency teams with gear, new vehicles, and even new recruits. Every shift earns you money and reputation, the former of which can be spent on new staff, equipment, and vehicles. Reputation is like your XP that determines whether you advance to the next city or not, and is earned by responding to incidents quickly and correctly.
The gripe I have with this layer of the game is that it simply feels a bit unpolished. Equipping staff with an item involves dragging each item onto a small box below each staff member. It would have been much easier to just throw the equipment on the staff portrait, than having to fiddle around with a small equipment slot. What's more, during each shift, it would be nice to have the ability to change speed by pressing a numeric key or something like that. As it is, you must click on the speed you want with the mouse, which is a minor detail, but changing it would mean a huge quality of life improvement.
The final aspect of 911 Operator I'd like to touch on is the cultural bias that's inherent in the game's design. By no means am I saying that this is bad thing, it's simply a neutral element that stood out to me as I played.
The developer's website says that they are based in Warsaw, Poland. However, playing the game feels like it's heavily based on American culture and experience, which ultimately confuses me a little. I noticed it first when I loaded up the game and was asked if I'd like to download the Adelaide map to play on, seeing as it's the closest city to me. Naturally I clicked okay and started playing the game on a map of a city I know very well in real life.
So when I finished a shift and there had been a number of incidents with gun wielding perpetrators, I could feel the dissonance growing. Without making a statement on the political argument of gun control, it's obvious that there's much more gun violence in America than there is in Australia. If a cop even sees a gun in Adelaide, it makes the news, which barely happens once a year. Hence when I acted as the emergency services for Adelaide, and a number of incidents involved gun violence, it became increasingly difficult to link the gameplay with the location.
It's a nice idea having the ability to play on any map in the world through some clever implementation of a mapping API or something (I'm guessing here), but the interesting side effect is cultural difference. I was surprised to feel disconnected from the game due to this little dissonant fact, but it's hard to avoid when everything in the game seems to be so geared toward an American view on crime.
It even led me to botching one of the calls that came in from a woman whose violent ex-partner was breaking into her house via the back door. In real life, my response was "get the fuck out of there and let the police deal with him", but the game steered me to a choice whether the caller should use her gun and shoot him or not. As someone from a culture where guns are rare and practically non-existent in day-to-day life, I told her not to use her gun, which then led to her getting shot by the ex.
I'm not saying that this would never happen in Australia, but my instincts for how to react to violent situations don't automatically include an understanding of how guns affect these scenarios. Add that to the sheer frequency of gun violence in the game, and it becomes bleedingly obvious that these events are not taking place in Adelaide; no matter what the map looks like.
After all is said and done though, I have to recommend 911 Operator due to it being a fun proof of concept. It's easy to sum up all my criticism as saying that the game lacks polish, but I can forgive it to an extent because it's a small indie title that visibly has limited resources. It's the kind of game that would make me exited for a sequel if they earned enough to make a better version. I'd love to see how deep and compelling the calls and scenarios could be if there was a good amount of cash behind it to spend on getting that quality of life raised.
Lastly, there are mods available, which is a nice thing for the developers to implement as it means that the available scenarios can grow forever. However, I haven't tried any of the modded scenarios, as the thought of adding in some random player's voice into the game isn't one I can get behind. They could all be brilliant for all I know, but I couldn't be bothered sorting through the jank to find any gems that might be out there.
911 Operator does what it sets out to do, but falls flat in a few key areas that end up bringing it down from the deep simulation it's aiming for. Despite this, there's a lot in there to enjoy and I find myself playing "just one more shift" after I've been on a roll, so that has to count for something! Definitely pick it up if it's on sale and you like management simulation games like FTL and Plague Inc.
Just remember that it might make sense to stick to the American cities for your tour of duty manning the phones.