112 Operator

Genre: Simulation / Strategy

Players: 1

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Review:

112 Operator, released in 2020 on PC and mobile devices, then ported to Nintendo Switch in 2021, and then to in 2024 to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, is the sequel to 911 Operator, and plays in a similar fashion, mixing Simulation and Strategy elements as players not only direct emergency response for a region’s police, fire, and medical first responders, but also manage the emergency resources to ensure that there are enough responders spread throughout the region to react in time to the emergencies that pop up.

This time around, as the title indicates, the catch is that we’re not just managing the emergency response in American cities, but in cities all over the world. This has some really great potential to diversify the way this game plays, though I’m afraid I have to report that this sequel seems to lose far more than it gains.

Apart from a title screen that uses 3D visuals of people milling about in a command center, the presentation here is much the same as the original game, using 2D wireframe maps to represent the city’s roads and facilities, with emergency responders represented by icons. This is backed by subdued, serious-sounding music joined by radio chatter that fits the theme quite well.

Another presentation element from the first game, voiced emergency calls with conversation trees, returns as well here, although I feel like it’s far worse off this time around. Not only do the voice actors make absolutely no attempt to represent the worldwide languages or even accents you would expect given this game’s international nature, but the quality of the voice acting seems worse than before, with some really fake-sounding calls. I know at least some of these are pulled from real emergency call transcripts, but the poor acting makes it hard to feel any attachment here.

What’s more, the terrible interface issues of the first game continue here, and I don’t know if it’s just me, but they seem to be even worse. Not only is the layout still atrociously bad and confusing, and the game once again fails to convey information properly to the player, but even just selecting the option you want is a chore, with an on-screen cursor that needs to swap between two modes, and which latches onto points of interest whether you want it to or not.

There’s less content here this time too – the original game’s 900+ maps have been cut down to about 230 here, and this game even reuses some of those maps. And just to add insult to injury, not only are the PC expansions for this game not included in the Nintendo Switch release, they’re not available in any form, paid or otherwise.

In the end, it’s hard to see 112 Operator as anything but a disappointment. The original game had promise, but it also had a fair share of problems, and none of those have been addressed here. Instead, they’re even worse, and things that made the original game great like realistic emergency calls and a wealth of different maps… they are also worse. Add that the Nintendo Switch version was clearly an afterthought compared to the PC version, and you have plenty of reasons to avoid this game. If you want something like this, just stick with the original 911 Operator.

tl;dr – 112 Operator is the sequel to 911 Operator, and plays in a similar fashion, mixing Simulation and Strategy elements as players direct a region’s police, fire, and medical first responders and manage resources as well. Unfortunately, this game not only doesn’t fix the first game’s problems, it actually makes them worse, and it also loses much of that game’s good qualities too. And the Nintendo Switch version of the game lacks content from the PC version as well. Despite the core gameplay here still being compelling, that’s far too many flaws to ignore, and I suggest you just skip this one.

Grade: C

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