Review 911 Operator (Switch)

Game: 911 Operator
System: Switch.
Publisher: SONKA
Developer: Bartosz Gajewski
Price: $14.99 | £11.54 | € 14,99
DLC Price $3.99/$5.99 | £3.55/£5.29
Bundle price $22.00 | £19.69
Age rating: EU 12/USA Teen
Release Date: 26th October 2018
(Also Available on: STEAM/ PS4/XBox one)

Review code kindly provided by SONKA

We all know what an outstanding job our emergency personnel and 911 operators ( or 999 operators depending on where you live) do and this game by SONKA lets you get a taste of what being a 911 operator is like.

Being in the central hub

In 911 Operator it’s your job is to answer emergency calls or reports. Dispatch the right emergency team to deal with the incident that was called in. All teams are represented by a coloured icon on the map: police officers are in blue, medics are coloured white and last but not least firefighters are in red.

The game includes several modes. There’s Career mode that has 6 city maps, Duty mode and Management mode. Duty mode represents a day of the operators work, answering  911 calls and dispatching  the services, you also receive reports from the units on patrol.

Management mode isn’t just about dispatching the teams. You also have to manage your emergency service teams by buying new equipment or vehicles and organise your team and check statistics.

The equipment in Management mode ranges from different emergency vehicles, ambulances and helicopters, and bulletproof vests for your Police or first aid kits and weapons.The statistics range from reputation, finance, basic income, rewards bills and salaries.

Your reputation is key

Reputation is the most important key as you earn reputation points when you answer a call successfully. Reputation can go down when you fail to answer a call successfully or someone dies or a criminal escapes or you run out of time.

And it’s not just about being a spider in the web: sometimes calls come in that aren’t real. Pranksters on the other side of the line that think they are funny. Of course, you don’t want to send valuable resources to a fake emergency. Ignoring a  call because you don’t think it’s an emergency this can have a positive impact on your reputation. But if it turns out you misjudged the case, and it’s a real calamity your reputation will take a hit.

Picture yourself at your Operator desk

All sorts of calls come in, they range from “ My cat is stuck up a tree” to “Someone has been shot”. There are more than 140 types of different calls ranging from shootings to broken bones.

You decide who you send to help. On the map screen there are two ways to answer calls, answer an incoming call 911 (green) or from another dispatcher or one of your emergency team(red).

When the green icon pops up on the bottom of the screen a new call has been received. Clicking L answers the new call and an info screen and dialogue box appears about the emergency. If a red icon appears and you answer it (by using R) you automatically move on the map to where that emergency is taking place and an info screen appears to help you deal with the call.

All the incident icons that appear on the map are coloured to match the relevant emergency service to deal with that emergency. Sometimes the icon can have two colours like white and red so then you would dispatch firefighters and medics to that incident.

To dispatch an emergency team to an incident you press A on that teams icon and move it on the map to the incident icon press A again. And off your team goes.

Find your own countries maps in 911 Operator

There is lots of variety in the maps as over 900 maps of cities worldwide are included in the Switch version of the game. A free game mode in 911 Operator lets you play on any world map and I was happy to find one of my own home city. That was fun to play on as I recognised the street names that I was sending my emergency teams to. Makes it feel even more real!

There isn’t much of a soundtrack to the game. You do hear all the emergency units talking on their radios to one another….more background noise than music.

A good tutorial system is in place. While the game loads it shows you some first aid tips. For instance how to stop blood flow or how to deal with a fractured bone. Comes in very handy in real life too.

Aside from the main game, two DLC’s have been released for 911 Operator, I didn’t get a chance to play them myself but the details for them are at the top of this review.

Conclusion

911 Operator is a great simulation game. It’s a game where I found I had to concentrate. If you don’t you might miss a few calls and my reputation would drop. There can be times it gets a bit frantic answering calls and making sure all incidents have a good conclusion. Some of the emergency calls are repeated and that can get a bit repetitive. Other than that I liked 911 Operator and I’m considering buying the DLC.