The Operator Review – An Interactive & Immersive Experience

The Operator on PC

The Operator is an interactive puzzle-solving game that juggles visual novel-esque storytelling with immersive gameplay to make a memorable experience.

I completed The Operator in a single sitting, which speaks to how gripping the narrative and mystery of this game can get. At just four hours, the length isn’t a bad thing, as the game will get you hooked and you won’t even notice by the time it’s over. There was no time or moment when I wanted to put it down.

In The Operator, you play as well, an Operator for the fictional FDI, a replacement for the FBI in an alternate reality version of 1991 America. This alternate reality gives you access to things like futuristic image scanning, facial recognition technologies, and chemical analysis, but the game still manages to keep its own unique, almost retro feeling.

The game drops you straight into your first day at the job and guides you through the basics. In terms of gameplay, every action you perform is done through a computer screen or terminal of sorts. The developer has tried to recreate a Linux-style desktop for all of your Operator-related work, and there’s even a working terminal for those of you familiar with Linux.

Your job is to be the IT guy behind the scenes, supporting all the on-field agents with various analyses and support for their investigations. For example, identifying a victim or figuring out the killer’s address through footage of their car. The system is surprisingly well built for a four-hour game and I was expecting a ton more content.

To describe some of the key systems, there’s a HumanDB that lets you look up information on any person in the country. You’ll be going through various case files including images, videos, and testimonies, and the game manages to keep these things fresh by introducing new mechanics on top of things you already know. Honestly, one of the standout aspects of The Operator has been finishing the game and thinking about all the potential this formula has for the future.

The Operator does a great job of challenging you with puzzles that require different approaches and methods to solve. However, the formula never remains the same and each puzzle brings something new to the equation. On top of this, the game is highly intuitive, and even people who aren’t very familiar with puzzle games can grasp the challenges and solve them. I had a ton of fun playing through the game with a friend who didn’t know much about gaming in general, but still solved some puzzles I was stuck on.

These puzzles are sometimes trivial, sometimes slightly frustrating, and other times completely stressful and anxiety-inducing. This was done on purpose and the game does a good job of making you experience everything our main character does. A defusal puzzle in particular was a highlight for me and it was amazing that this was used as a singular set piece. This speaks volumes to the potential of this style of storytelling and gameplay, and I would have loved to go through even more content.

Some of the the tasks and puzzles can get quite challenging, however, the game is committed to its accessibility and ensures that you almost always have a hint system in place to solve it in case you get stuck. There is no hardcore puzzle that requires way too much thinking, and while there are some choices with consequences, the game at large is focused only on telling its primary narrative.

The Operator is dedicated to providing an immersive cinematic experience and it achieves this with flying colors. From the sound design to the layout of the game, and even the voice acting, everything feels superbly done. The dialogue is very well written and the characters feel very much like real people with actual personalities. This can be attributed to the excellent voice acting done by the cast that never really stood out as odd or strange at any point.

The game has purposefully chosen a style where the real world is as blurred as possible and the only world we find ourselves immersed in is that of the screens as an Operator. At first, this confused me, but ultimately it serves the purpose of the game that fully puts you in your position on the desk in the place of our protagonist. Join your colleagues at the FDI, alongside the mysterious hacker HAL as you try to uncover a conspiracy that invisible forces seem determined to hide.

As you get closer to the answer, that sense of dread keeps increasing and more questions keep popping up. It makes for an incredibly atmospheric and immersive environment that is elevated by the game’s music. A lot of attention has been paid to the game’s music to ensure that it remains fresh and impactful throughout the whole four-hour experience, and it does its job splendidly.

As you keep playing the game, the plot keeps getting thicker, threads tangle and ultimately we get a major reveal followed by another plot twist that’s well worth the wait. There are unexpected twists and turns and the plot gets extremely grim to a point where it actually surprised me. The developers aren’t afraid to step out of the generic storytelling formulas and it’s honestly refreshing. My only complaint is that the game ended too quickly and the ending left me with even more questions than it answered.

In fact, I was so gripped by the plot that when I got the ending, I reached out to the developer himself to ask “Really? Was that it? Did I do something wrong? Surely, there’s more!”, and while I can’t give away any of the specifics of the response, I eagerly await any and all news surrounding this project. The Operator has won me over as a fan, and if you’re someone who enjoys puzzle-solving, and immersive cinema, The Operator is definitely a must-play.

Check our full walkthrough for The Operator if you’re interested in what the game has to offer!