911 Operator Review. Lives Depend On Your Strategy

This strategy game places you in the prime position of a 911 dispatcher who works overtime to save lives from a control room. Anything from the fire department, police to ambulance units are all awaiting your instruction to go and save lives.

Graphics: 3.0

The setting is primarily a stationary emergency room which looks like a heavily rendered 2D photograph, making this game essentially lifeless. For the entire session of the game, you’ll be staring at blue maps based on OSM. Calls will be coming on the screen and notifications will alert you about what emergencies are taking place currently. There’s a lot of interactive screens throughout the game, and you’ll mostly be staring at map and squad details.

Gameplay: 3.0

Once you press start, the game gives you pointers such as first aid tips, action plans, and pointers when dealing with different emergencies and situations. You can check resources, squads, and shops. Resources include staff, vehicles, and equipment. You can build up teams and optimize your resources based on the kinds of emergencies that you want to focus on. If you need more resources, you can purchase them (for example, fire trucks).

The game is mostly about judgment calls, as opposed to actual combat. You may be forced to reject some calls and give priority to others. Initially, the game is exhilarating but after a while, it becomes a bit mechanical as you learn which emergencies to prioritize and which ones to ignore. What makes the game interesting is the fact that you can download actual OSM maps, with real streets and addresses, making you feel like you are in an actual control room.

As the pace of the game moves faster, you’ll quickly learn why strategy is an integral part of the game.

Controls: 4.0

If you’re playing this game on an Xbox with an attached mouse then controlling the entire operation is quite easy. However, a gamepad is just as effective, as you can quickly move around and make selections. The controls are quite easy, and you can create your squads, answer calls, check your inventory or select which emergencies to choose from. I’d say the controls are quite sufficient for a strategy genre which in this case is almost static.

Replay Value: 2.5

As I mentioned, the game starts out exhilarating at first, and you can feel a mad adrenaline rush in the initial few minutes of the game. However, everything starts to get quite boring after that, and unless you like staring at a static screen for hours, you won’t get much of a high from this game. You’ll get calls for all kinds of emergencies, and you do get a taste of the dispatch room. However, this isn’t a game I’d spend too much time replaying.

Conclusion

This game ultimately creates a drag effect for you, and the blue visuals will soon wear your out. There is an absolute lack of depth to the game, almost as if it were designed to be part of something bigger. The gameplay is quite bland and downright boring after a few hours of playing. The stressful calls are welcome at first, but gradually take a toll on you.