The Operator is the deep state sim I’ve been craving for so long

Knowledge is power, and few games make that as literal as The Operator.

The Operator is an indie game in which you take on the role of Evan Tanner, a fresh recruit at the Federal Department of Intelligence (FDI). It’s the early 90s and an old friend has helped you land this cushy government job. All you have to do is master a set of high-tech tools and serve as the man in the chair for agents on the front lines.

In The OperatorThe action all takes place on Evan’s work computer. There are brief vignettes where Evan goes home to feed his cat, or moves into a restricted area of ​​the FDI building, but the vast majority of your time will be spent sorting through files, hunting for clues, and solving mysteries.

It’s hard to base a game on a core mechanic, but thankfully The Operator‘s core system of talking to agents, watching short videos, and doing lab work is a lot of fun. I’m a former kid who cried during math homework, and part of me worried that the game would expect me to solve serious equations. Thankfully, the challenges are based more on reading instructions and solving logic puzzles.

I have access to the best technology of the nineties, which means I can stop the recording on a specific frame and improve, improve, to expand to pick up a suspect’s face, a key code, or a license plate. None of the solutions are incredibly difficult, but they’re hard enough that I’d have to stop and sketch things out and be satisfied if I found the answer.

None of the solutions are like the infamous old-school adventure puzzlers, where the solution is an esoteric combination of riddles. I can ask my supervisor for help, which is a nice set of training wheels, but for the most part I could enjoy the natural feats of identifying suspects, tracking down addresses or investigating criminal complexes.

It’s just a shame that the agents I work with are a bit flat. Agent Pendell is a fresh rookie on the case and Agent Walker is an old FDI veteran. Those are nice archetypes, but the characters don’t stray too far from that first impression. There was one line that made me laugh, where Pendell finds himself in a particularly dangerous situation and yells, “It’s my third day!” But mostly the characters are window dressing that help move the plot along to the next puzzle.

Image: Bureau 81/Indienova

An antagonistic hacker, HAL, also enters the story by hacking his way into Evan’s terminal. They’re another character that falls flat, which is disappointing since HAL immediately wraps Evan up in a trick and deception. The high stakes situation is stressful, but I was also annoyed as a player because HAL isn’t an interesting character. They’re full of useful information, but their voice sounds similar to the other characters, aside from the occasional emoticon.

At times, it felt like the characters were interfering with my detective work in a way that detracted from the experience. I’d solve a puzzle and gain an intriguing piece of information, only to have the music swell dramatically and my supporting cast rush to explain the conclusion. I would have preferred a little more time to myself to process things; it felt a little like developer Bureau 81 was afraid to leave players in the dark. While I appreciate the handrails and the ability to ask for help, it occasionally pulled me out of my immersion.

With all that said, the central mechanism of The Operator is interesting enough to keep me hooked. The puzzles are sensible, my 90s surgical tools are fun to use, and there’s an interesting story behind it. Sure, the peanut gallery of supporting characters is a little talkative and there’s a bit too much dialogue for my taste, but I’ll accept those flaws if it means I can finally be the man in the chair, scanning images and telling the computer to fix them. It’s a new way to play a game, and I’d love to see Bureau 81 revisit the concept if this game is a success.

The Operator was released on July 22 on Windows PC. The game was reviewed on PC using a code from Bureau 81. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.