People's lives are in your hands!
911 Operator is a Real-Time Strategy/Simulation Game developed by Polish studio Jutsu Games and published by PlayWay S. A.. It was funded
by a Kickstarter campaign on August 20th, 2016, and was then first released on PC through Steam in February 2017. It was later released to Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Android devices later that year. A release for the Nintendo Switch followed in October 2018.
In this game the player takes the role of a 9-1-1 telephone operator who must take calls for emergencies and then dispatch firefighters, paramedics, and police officers to where they are needed. The game had two DLC Packs released. The first, Every Life Matters, added reinforcements to aid in assigned calls as well as events mode during free play style. The second DLC Pack Special Resources added new emergency vehicles and tools to use on calls.
A sequel, 112 Operator, was announced in September 2019, and was funded the following month. The sequel moves the focus to cities across Europe but also includes more content such as bigger city maps with 3D renders and the progression of seasons with changing weather that changes the kind of emergencies that happen. The game includes all the same features as the first including the ability to play in any major city in the world.
This game contains examples of:
- Cat Up a Tree: You can get calls about this "emergency" alongside a few more false positives for each emergency service (i.e. someone suffering from indigestion believing it's something way worse and that they need a medic) to provide contrast with the genuinely serious reports. Of course, actually responding is very much a mistake, especially if the fire crew then becomes unavailable for an actual fire. 112 Operator introduces a Morton's Fork aspect to this "emergency", as ignoring this event may or may not lead to the owner seriously injuring themself in an attempt to rescue the cat, which will spawn a call for an ambulance and thus tie up a medical unit that might otherwise be needed for another medical emergency.
- Clean Pretty Reliable: Averted. You can give callers instructions on how to do C.P.R, but it's only meant to keep a person they have found alive until the medics you called arrive on the scene and help the unconscious person.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The situations that demand a police response are illustrated on the map with blue icons, fires in red, and medical situations are in white. Sometimes, though, a situation of one type will need back-up from one or both of other services: i.e. more dangerous police situations benefit from an ambulance being on scene to treat any wounded, while the severe car crashes require firefighters to clear the pile-up and avoid any fuel ignition, ambulances to deliver the wounded to hospitals, and police to deal with the paperwork.
- Cop Killer: Some criminals have the potential to become this if you don't send enough police or don't act when they attack on duty officers.
- Creator Provincialism: Considering the globe-spanning nature of this game, this is practically unavoidable. For instance, the player may receive minor police call-outs on "drinking in public", even in, say, Munich.
- Dialogue Tree: You respond to the calls by picking options in this manner, which then lead to further voiced responses from the callers.
- Fame Gate: In the Career mode, you are only able to move on from the town you picked as your starting point to larger ones, and the correspondingly greater work load and more difficult situations, once your reputation grows high enough for the transfer to become approved.
- Foregone Conclusion: Even if you didn't know about the Stealth Sequel, the very name of 112 Operator - The Last Duty' tells you that eventually you fail.
- Going Down with the Ship: Not literally but in spirit. The Operator in The Last Duty stays at their dispatch post until the very end. The trailer for Infection Free Zone implies he escapes.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The Operator in The Last Duty. As the situation grows worse and worse, with each new day the Operator still shows up to their shift. Even as other Operators die or disappear and as emergency personnel dwindle, they stay at their post until the very end.
- Instant Death Bullet: Averted. Some situations may end with the people getting shot on the scene, whether by the police you dispatch, but if you also dispatch an ambulance alongside them, they will often be able to save them in time.
- Interrupted Suicide: In 112 Operator one of the missions involves trying to stop a man from committing suicide.
- Man on Fire: One of these shows up in a warehouse fire-specific call, to the abject horror of the witnessing caller. You have to supply the correct information on how to help and get emergency services there on time or they'll die horribly.
- Menu Time Lockout: Zig-zagged. The time doesn't stop when you are on the phone with a caller or managing crew members. All the units you sent out will continue to be on their way, while the timer on the situations you didn't yet address will continue to tick down. However, you are allowed to put the game on pause and make some adjustments to response unit routes and such.
- Mistaken for Prank Call: One of the situations is a phone call from someone ordering pizza. The caller had actually been kidnapped, with the person forced to speak in code in order to avoid spooking their captor. Failing to realize this and hanging up results in them getting killed. 112 Operator has a similar situation with a caller pretending to speak to her mother; ignoring this one turns out even worse for you, since a child is involved.
- No Communities Were Harmed: Averted. In the Freeplay mode, the player is explicitly asked to pick a real-world city or town. In fact, it can be any settlement on Earth, as the game will then download its real-world location data.
- Phone-Trace Race: the best way to stop the terrorist bombings in Washington: if you let the terrorist rant at length about his demands you can pinpoint his location and send police to arrest him.
- RPG Elements: All of the first responders you manage come with stats like first aid or driving skills, which get improved as they gain experience.
- Slave to PR: Reputation determines your career and your funding. Somewhat Justified as you are a literal public servant funded by tax dollars.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: Quite a few criminals will attempt to pick a fight with the officers arriving on the scene, especially if they are in a state of intoxication. Needless to say, that rarely goes well for them.
- Sometimes, you'll get reports of criminals attacking officers already on duty. As long as you manage to send out a police response unit in time, this will also be severely punished.
- Stealth Sequel: 112 Operator - The Last Duty is actually the prequel to Jutsu Games' future game Infection Free Zone.
- Talking Down the Suicidal: One scenario in 112 Operator has a man calling and saying that his whole life has become a joke and is warning you that he is suicidal. The main goal of the mission is to talk him out of it or send someone in time to stop it.
- Timed Mission: You get a certain amount of time to resolve each report before they get timed out, which results in a hit to your reputation.
- Worst Aid: You can be the cause of it if you give the caller the wrong information.
- Would Hurt a Child: 112 Operator has a call that can result in the death of a child if handled poorly.
- Zombie Apocalypse: 112 Operator - The Last Duty is a DLC expansion where you're the poor schmuck that has to try to delay one through emergency response.
