“The best indie game of this year by far?” In less than 5 hours, this French video game inspired by X-Files will turn your brain inside out

Game news “The best indie game of this year by far?” In less than 5 hours, this French video game inspired by X-Files will turn your brain inside out

Do you enjoy slouching in front of the 100th episode of CSI: Miami, admiring Fox Mulder’s haircut from The X-Files, and scrolling through the latest conspiracy theories? You certainly won’t want to miss out on the little sensation that is currently The Operator, a short, concise and surprising experience born in our French nest. On Steam, the debut game from studio Bureau 81 is currently receiving praise; “This game is a pure masterpiece, worthy of a cinematic achievement!”“What can I say… Best indie game of this year by far? Yes” can be read among a myriad of compliments spread across the comments page. On the day of its release, the title surprisingly peaked at more than 15,000 sales in less than 48 hours, inheriting a deserved place in the world top 3. It even found support from indienova, a Chinese publisher who helped it reach international homes, with success. If your favorite kind of game is one that places you in front of a fictional operating system, you’re in the right place. And if you hope every day for the arrival of an experience that will remind you of your beautiful moments spent on Sam Barlow’s Her Story, do not leave this page under any circumstances.

1st day at your dream job

It’s your first day as an operator at the FDI and you’re being handed cutting-edge software that will fulfill all your hidden ambitions as a budding investigator: Track down criminals, sift through suspicious video footage and identify culprits by analyzing the few pixels of their faces that you manage to find on surveillance footage. ; “When our field agents need assistance, you’re the one they call.”sums up the game’s Steam page very well. You are the little hands of the brave who work on the ground, but a large part of the credit goes to you.

A very exciting program, which very early on confronts some really annoying disappointments (but not for the player): a hacker makes life difficult for the secret services and the cases you are working on slowly start to get bogged down in UFO stories that smell of burning. We warned you, this investigation story is in fact not traditional and contains a deeper conspiracy that you will be eager to uncover. Also during your first case, you receive a list. On this list, a hundred names, most crossed out, some circled, but one of them is strangely censored. Why? It’s up to you to find out.

4 hours of pure happiness

At your disposal, a whole bunch of very fun programs: an image and chemical sample analyzer, a database of citizens and vehicles, a notepad, and even a terminal. And if you thought you’d manage a somewhat rigid interface and perform summary tasks mechanically during your few hours of play on The Operator, you’re going to like being surprised. The software, beyond the attractive proposition of slipping into the shoes of Penelope Garcia from Criminal Minds, stands out with a damn good sense of narration. So while it’s already very enjoyable to play matchmaker for the agents by rummaging through every confidential file they transfer to you from the crime scenes, letting yourself be carried away by a handful of twists and turns is all the more enjoyable. The pace is really so well maintained that the hours seem like minutes and the game can even boast of ending with finesse.

The Operator also provides impeccable sound design work that easily compensates for the game’s lack of visuals other than the interface. When the work day ends, the screen leaves us in a slightly hazy darkness, in which the sound of our agent’s footsteps, his sighs and the clatter of the beer bottles he downs brilliantly and originally narrates the rest of life outside the office. Add to that some absolutely excellent dubbing performances.

Only regret: we would have liked to investigate more. The mechanics are varied, from image analysis to component research, but it would have been nice to exploit them more, and to rack our brains for a few more hours, perhaps on individual cases that would have had their place here. The Operator clearly has the potential for one or more sequels, which we hope to see land on Steam one day.