The Operator

Okay, while I said I liked this game, [b]I think in terms of recommendation, this is more a "maybe" than an outright "yes."[/b] There are several things to consider before you purchase this one, and while I ultimately think you'll enjoy the experience either way, you may be slightly frustrated by at least one or two of these points. I know I was. (-) First, the game is short. It took me less than 4 hours to finish it, and that's with several long cut scenes. Speaking of those cut scenes... pay attention to them. I didn't, because some of them seemed pointless, and that led me to the only time I felt truly stuck in this game LOL. (+) You play as an operator in the FDI, and the entire gameplay involves sitting in front of your computer, connecting dots, and solving puzzles. I absolutely loved it. It was fresh and interesting, and the feeling of things connecting and unraveling was really fun. I actually wish we had more of it—I would've gladly played more hours of more cases, slowly connecting them to this huge conspiracy. It made me hope that someone would make an entire mystery murder game (as opposed to a conspiracy) as "the guy in the chair," slowly unraveling everything and helping the "heroes" solve the mystery. (-/+) For a game that's sitting in front of your computer... the stakes are high and so is the tension. I actually got really anxious at parts, in a way that doesn't really happen with most games because, the way everything is set up, WE are Tenner. So I felt like there was a gun aimed at [i]me[/i] at times, LOL. For me, this was a point in favor of the game, but if you're looking for a more relaxed experience, this may not be it. (-/+) The ending. Personally? Not a fan. Oh, I loved the reveal. The minute [i]I[/i] started connecting the dots, my stomach dropped. 10/10 for that. But everything after that?... I will be playing the next game, if there is one, but overall, [spoiler]I am not really the kind of person to enjoy an "everybody died" ending. After all the brilliant puzzle solving, I wanted these characters to have a good ending. I have seen people talk about how this was actually a good ending - how Hal is still thwarting the organization 30 years later, and that's realistic and optimistic but damn. I got attached to [i]these[/i] characters. I wanted to see them happy, even if we fail to totally crush the bad guys in the end of the game. And I wanted to understand what the goal of the "bad guys" in this game is, and I don't. They're evil people, but... why are they doing what they're doing? No clue. Which is another thing I don't like. For me, a game needs to be able to stand on its own, even if it's part of a larger narrative. [/spoiler] Essentially, this felt like a game meant to [i]set up[/i] another game, and truthfully, I don't like that.

i got this game for free on Epic Games, and then i played it, and felt bad for not paying for it, so i got here and payed for it.. good story, nice puzzles, outstanding characters + sound + character relation buildups. the only cons is that its a short game, 9.5/10

Its a well made game however it lacks in replayability/content department. It has around 2-3 hours of gameplay. The story is amazing however would be even better if it was more extended. Amazing sounds/music the music used felt amazing. The music also interacted with actions like discovering major facts in cases. Overall I would rate this game 8/10

This is an ok story game, but it's definitely not a 'detective' type game like I assumed. It's a railroady, handholdy type game that barely lets you discover anything. If you click the wrong thing it immediately tells you. If you want a short 'walking simulator' type game, where you essentially watch a mystery unfold, then this might be for you. If you're expecting to solve cases, you might want to pass.

Fake Game. It tries to make you think theres branching or hidden information, but its just a linear VN with a very unsatisfying ending.

This is like the walking simulator of detective games. Don't go into this game expecting deduction gameplay as in Return of the Obra Dinn or The Roottrees Are Dead. While the game has a handful of genuinely fun puzzles and some cool twists and ideas, they're presented extremely linearly, and the latter half of this 3-hour game is basically one extended cutscene. Normally this wouldn't be enough for me to give a negative review, but this game explicitly markets itself as a detective game where you "solve crimes". And you really don't. For a price of about half the two aforementioned detective games, you get a fraction of the gameplay, and not that much more narrative.

Love the details of the game, feels like u really experiencing it. After finishing the game, u'll understand lot of things, or maybe confused ?? Dont wanna spoiler it, play it. Worth ur time & money !!

such a great and immersive game! the music really adds to everything and the development is so natural!

Hello developers, I just finished playing your game on the Switch, and I immediately bought the Steam version to add to my library. The game's atmosphere and narrative pacing really drew me in, and the background music was perfectly fitting. Because of this, I'm happy to leave a positive review, though it also left me with higher expectations. [spoiler] The game is about four hours long, and playing it felt more like watching a movie. However, as a game, it offered too few choices for the player. During my play through, I tried to deliberately not answer the supervisor's calls or even pretended to be a 'good kid' to see if there was a way to betray HAL. But the game didn't give me any more options. I believe that in an interactive story game, player choices and their consequences are its true charm and what keeps players engaged. The bomb disposal segment really stood out. I felt a strong sense of immersion and genuinely enjoyed being able to help someone. It's a shame that, probably due to the game's length, such a brilliant sequence only happened once. The core puzzle was very cleverly designed, and its reveal was absolutely an adrenaline rush. I completely understand what you, as developers, wanted players to feel with that ending—the horror, the profound sense of melancholy, the sadness for the characters, and the lingering regret that a bigger enemy wasn't truly dealt with. However, even after experiencing all that, I still wished players could help the characters achieve a good ending. I truly love these characters. Overall, this is a fantastic game! I really hope to play more from you in the future! [/spoiler]

A fantastic little gem! This is really a classic adventure game in disguise, with some very very clever art direction!

Cons: * The bomb defusal mission is just nonsensical. While it's obviously designed and written to be deliberately confusing to challenge the player, it is also ridiculous. The supervisor, Skinner, would be handling this, or at least offering assistance, not just casually leaving another agent's life up to a 3rd day employee who is reading the bomb defusal manual for the first time. Was having a good time in the game up until this mission. If you look at this achievement as well, only some ~50% of players have this achievement, and then you have to wonder, of those 50% how many had to look up a walk-through online in order to complete it? * Game was definitely somewhat dry at times where I felt a little bit bored. * I won't spoil any specifics but I will say the ending of the game is...not good, in my opinion. Pros: * UI is clean and easy to use. The applications work smoothly without any issues. * Gameplay is straight forward and easy to understand. * Solid voice acting. * Storytelling is pretty engaging. * Game very stable, zero crashes or bugs / glitches. * No additional DRM beyond Steam. * No Epic Online Services. Gameplay Style: Point and click with some typing here and there related to puzzle solving. This requires some research into files on your in-game computer as well as using the provided tools as well. Game Length: ~5 Hours or thereabouts. Final Rating: 4.5/10. I got the game on sale and puzzle games aren't usually my thing but I wanted to give it a try as it sounded interesting and I like to support indie developers when I can, but this is a game that, despite some story aspects being well-done, the ending soured things for me as well as the bomb defusal mission to the point that I really would not recommend the game to others.

(SPOILERS AHEAD) i had a lot of fun playing this game, up until the very end. wth was that ending?? it just felt like i took 3 hours of my life just to be annoyed that all my work didn't really mean anything. it'd be cool to have that ending only if there was another ending you could get where you actually win. idk... just kinda disappointed. obvi not every game has to have a happy conclusion but like... c'mon.

The ending felt quite underwhelming but I would still definitely recommend it for the unique concept! It's not the first game to use a OS to tell its story but The Operator really delivers. There are so many cool ideas and moments in this and I had a great time playing it (even tho the story was weird at times). Definitely worth a try if you're interested in mystery/deduction games with a OS look! (tho the deduction part is rather light)

Fantastic game, very enjoyable. You play as a call-operator for the "FDI", helping field agents to analyse the evidence they're obtaining. It's like you're at a screen with a headset, using the information to help solve crimes, and eventually, to get to the heart of the growing conspiracy that you begin to suspect within the FDI itself... Very intuitive to play, with the right level of puzzles that don't bog you down, and a brilliant story and voice-acting to help make it as immersive as possible. If you want to pretend to work at the FBI, this is a good game for you :) Also, passing or failing at various key points seems to lead to multiple endings, leading to a certain amount of replayability. STEAM DECK COMPATIBILITY: This game functions perfectly well on the steam deck, but I highly recommend playing this game at a desk PC with over-ear headphones on; the game has been designed to be immersive and this setup helps that the most.

oh my god this game is BEAUTIFUL. the voice acting, the use of music, THE STORY!! if you are considering getting this game, PLEASE DOOO.

Great story, great voice acting, great gameplay but suffers from the amount of content (or lack there of). The game gives you all sorts of fun tools, uses them once, and then the game is all but over in less than 2.5 hours, give or take. There are a few achievements that you can miss through the game, and the only way to get them back is to play it all over again, unskippable dialog and cut scenes from start to finish, further 'padding' the runtime. Ultimately, the ending is hollow and melancholic, with loose ends and threads begging to be tied up. Overall, wasn't really worth the price of admission considering the shortness of the game.

This game was absolutely amazing. I genuinely think it is one of the best games I have ever played. Originally I had only seen a little snippet of it on youtube, but it FAR exceeded my expectations. Every aspect was polished to perfection and there is literally nothing negative I can say about it. Serious thank you and well done for making this game, it is actually amazing

This was mostly fun, a little short. YMMV, but I think this totally s***s the bed at the end. There's a 'mystery' that I figured out about 10 minutes into the game, and the ending... ugh. [spoiler]I like a dark ending as much as the next guy, but this just felt rushed and unsatisfying,[/spoiler]

Only about "3hrs" of game play. The concept is cool, but its wayyyyy too short. You basically have one story line and a lot of dialog, instead of it being focused on the cases and your tasks, you're just guided through each thing. Only goes through three days in the game. Also, there were these interludes where he'd go home after work but they were soooo long, like I;m sorry but we did not need to see all of that. I think this game was way too story rich without much choice or actual game play. Honestly, disappointed.

Short but engaging. Sometimes its tough to know what to do next but worth a buy.

Absolutely an amazing game love the story line and the quick decision making that you have to do. The visuals being blurred but still knowing what is going on from the sounds I think is such a wonderful and great aspect to the game. I would recommend this if you love story games and the thrill of uncovering secrets.

This game is so much fun! the story, dude everything, i recommend everyone giving it a try!

great game with amazing voice acting sound design and story.

The Operator is a short but sweet game about assisting "FBI" agents while on cases, and uncovering a deeper conspiracy. The main gameplay is a mix of investigating cases using your FBI database and tools, and spotting contradicting parts of evidence. I enjoyed both the gameplay and the plot, and recommend this for anyone that thinks they would be interested.

I agree with other players it is tad short :(, but I really love the interface and the story! It would be awesome for a sequel (not sure if one is out already) but I love the small details to everyone having faces and personalities, etc. I would say I wish there was a menu to select specific chapters or skip dialogue or cutscenes,, if you have played it already once. For me I failed one of the areas and I would have loved to go back and replay but I didn't think about f4 or exiting out ;-; ! But I dont want to have to go thru the whole game again

Enjoyable, short hacking/mystery game with an interesting story.

Oh my god. i looked at this game, thought "oh one of those games where i do a bit of digging, streach the boudrys a bit, sure ill play." i couldent help myself from finishing this game. i installed it and played through the whole game in about 3 and a half hours and i cannot recommend it more. this review is a bit wonky because it is currently 3am. this game is amazing, it supprised me, and had me sitting here wide eyed and open jawed. please play this game, it is so good.

I liked the story and the gameplay but had so many questions at the end, which I don't like that they were left unanswered. Wish there could be a sequel to this. But if this is on sale, worth playing

Its a rather fun detective story behind the computer screen. In "FPS" mode. Its lots of texts and instructions to read. Some events are time based and those are stressful. A fun game that for sure deserve some smaller or longer DLC's or a follow up...

great story great gameplay mechanics are cool and the voice acting is lovely 10/10

one of a kind game which doesnt surprise you by its mechanism but by its story and way of making you think. The game is quite easy and can be finished in less than 4 hours still it will change you for the best and make you think back about everything that happened to you in less than a week

Overall, an interesting idea for a game. I enjoyed the various puzzles, but it feels incomplete. You are just left wanting more, and it feels like the devs stopped working on it to get it out the door. Overall a very enjoyable experience since everything is well thought out, but the truncated nature of it means you should wait for a deep sale. It is for sure not worth the full asking price.

Love the game.. but goodness.. no happy ending.. so the message i got was dont snoop in the 3 letter orgs basically. Wonderful game just waiting on new mission or whatever may be for it.. but a bomb diffuse manual like 2 days in.. wild... So ill be waiting for whats next.. I just dont enjoy how I was up at 4:30 stressing because of such manual.. and....another star was addedf

Very cool game, but it's WAY too short. Excellent story, fun gameplay, but it introduces a lot of really cool mechanics that you end up only using once...which makes the game really unsatisfying. There's no opportunity to master them and fully explore the capabilities. Specifically, the bomb defusal. It's like being able to play, "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes" by yourself. It was such a cool moment, I wish we got to use it more. There's also the chemical analysis that only gets used once. I like that the game stays fresh and keeps moving, but I wanted to do more as the protagonist. So much of the game is spent waiting for dialogue to populate and then click the next dialogue option, which in most cases seems to have no affect on the progression of the game. All in all, still very fun. I can recommend it, but because it's so short, catch it on a sale.

very immersive, great story, and well designed game play. Great quick detective style game with deep story.

Pretty good game, but insanely short. 3 hours, maybe 4 if you take your time.

There were times when I was enjoying the mix of puzzles and Uplink-style clicking to make a computer do something magical when I wished that I were playing as a regular, not-involved-in-a-paranoid-conspiracy Operator, just solving crimes. But this isn't a multi-season workplace drama, it's an 86-minute thriller of a game. A compact screenlife visual novel. It's great for fans of tabletop 'escape room in a box' type games. (It reminds me of Detective Society in particular.) I wish it had a level select option after beating the game once, because replaying the intro section isn't as much fun as some of the later chapters. I had a little bit of trouble nailing down the character the story wanted me to play. Am I a super-professional CTU agent? That's the tack I started on, dodging obvious bait dialogue options to the contrary, but over time I began to wonder if I wasn't in fact an incompetent boob who had failed their way up to the position. As is often the case in life, I think TANNER is meant to be somewhere in the middle.

I really liked the idea of searching for proof and clues to solve cases, find names, car licenses, aliases etc. I am recommending this game but i would want the game to have more cases, agents and puzzles. I believe this game needs more expansions, free expansions for more agents and cases.

This game is not that long, and can be finished in maybe 5 hours but it is good. I bought this game as I am interested in these 'virtual desktop' type of games, where player is introduced with this desktop and interacts with everything. The plot is about some murders and player is the operator, sort of the supporting guy for the FDI agents on the field. Story has nice flow and the most important part of this game that gives feeling of doing investigative work with these agents. It is nice but here are some flaws: the story is linear and we always have the same outcome. Still it is very nice experience that I recommend. It is a good experience and I wouldn't want to reveal spoilers.

Absolutely AMAZING!! The game I didn't even know I needed, there is life before I played this game and life after!!! I hope there is more to come and if my vote decided . . .GOTY ! Thank you for such a new and fresh puzzler, you nailed it.

Very good, pretty quick detective-y game. Just..... don't get too attached.

great game and puzzle, only complaint is it pretty short only a couple of hours long.

Really good story line and the detective work isn't just handed to you, you need to put in work. Twists and turns along the way. Quality game if you're looking for a short mystery with an engaging story.

Although it's a shorter experience, there's a lot of heart in the creation, and it shows considerably more polish than one would expect of a first-time dev. Some of the inspiration is evident (Her Story, Obra Dinn, X-Files are all named on their social media) and speaks to excellent taste on the part of the creator as well as a great hook for existing fans of those series. This also fits in with what I call 'Interfacing and Hacking Games' (Replica, A Normal Lost Phone, and Simulacra can be considered exemplars) and 'Tech Support' (Home Safety Hotline), though puzzle depth leans a little easier. The game makes up for it with competent voice acting that grounds the player in the human struggles of those you interact with most closely; at times, they can deliver a cheesy line so earnestly you'll buy it as just part of their character. With only one ending at present, narrative choices can feel at times a little self-determinant, and the some responses are differentiated only by wording, rather than by the effect. By the end of the game, several folders remain unopened or unrepaired, and the game hints to a broader world we only intersect with tangentially; our story ends, but the greater story depth remains out there to be explored in, hopefully, future entries.

Insane storytelling, engaging game play, and more. While I was able to spot certain plot twists the writing was done so well that they STILL shocked me!

really enjoyed the gameplay. Story was too short and the intermittent imagery instead of cutscenes led to an interesting feeling of having to use other senses to interpret what was happening. Overall I'm looking forward to playing this game at least another run through if not more.

i absolutely loved this game. this is such a neat idea of a game, would love to see more like it. maybe more add ons/dlc (more cases

one of the most satisfying gaming experiences i've hand in a while. the plot is fun and the gameplay is very engaging. this was awesome

This will be my first review on steam but i love this game too much not to comment. This game... woooooo. It was the best thing i've ever played, i swear. I just had to stop and look up at my ceiling after finishing it, thinking about what i just played. I will definitely be playing again just because of how great everything was. I love it so so much! Definitely buy it! I don't know if i'm just oblivious but i didn't see the twist even after they basically said it... maybe i'm a little thick... but this is honestly soooo good! Worth every pound! Oh and the end music is divine! I had to add it to my playlists because it was almost ethereal, amazing. One thing i will say is that i struggled with one of the puzzles, it was really difficult for me to understand but again i'm not the brightest of the bunch. I searched it up because i wanted to skip it, didn't change the atmosphere at all surprisingly. Basically i think you should give it a go and buy it if you're contemplating it! <3

LOVED THIS GAME! Very immersive. Definitely keeps you on your toes. Seems predictable ,but it isn't! Really hope they make another to continue the story!! 12/10 HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!