This had so much potential.
I expected a crossover between 112 Operator and Orwell, and I got the german sim Security Desk Guard Simulator.
[h2]Gameplay[/h2]
You progress in the game by unlocking 4 city blocks, in which you can install/upgrade 3 types of cameras.
The basic cameras will have you click between them, and watch for a helpful icon indicating an event, and then you look for something suspicious, and click on it to pop a circular menu to dispatch services (which nets you money for cameras) and tag suspects (which lowers crime rate, for unlocking new blocks). There is no intelligence required, the game won't let you dispatch the wrong units or tag the wrong people. The events always involve people, and sometimes a parked car on fire; there are moving cars on the road but they don't seem to have a purpose.
There is no way to make a wrong move; the worst you can do is do nothing, and then you still get paid a lot. Probably the most effective way to progress is to leave the game open during the night, with an autoclicker to start the new shifts.
[h2]Progression[/h2]
Once you have enough cash to buy the semi-automated cameras, you will be notified of new events by a red dot on the map. The core gameplay loop then becomes:
- wait for red dot to appear on map
- click on it then pause the game
- move the camera around until you locate the event (yes, cameras can move when the game is paused)
- click on the event and click all the dispatch and tag buttons
- repeat
Unfortunately, the only next level of upgrade is the fully automated camera, which is 10 times more expensive. With the aforementioned tactic, you'll be able to afford about one every two shifts, for about 15 locations. The game time runs at roughly 100x, and time cannot be accelerated. Shifts last for 12 in-game hours, ao about 10 minutes of real time if you use the pause, meaning you are looking at a minimum of 10 hours to get fully automated cameras.
Do you want fully automated cameras? No, they are a noob trap, as they will dispatch but not tag, meaning you need to monitor what the automated camera is doing, or you won't get any tags, and thus no progression for unlocking the city blocks. They also make one achievement impossible to get.
[h2]Implementation and QoL[/h2]
Let's talk about the events. There is a total of 9:
- Building on fire
- Dude set car on fire
- Dude set trashcan on fire
- Dude pissing in public
- Dude making graffiti
- Dude making a drug deal
- Dude threatening another one with a gun
- Dude punching another one
- Dude collapsing from heart attack
There is nothing procedural in these events; they always happen at the exact same places, with the exact same NPCs. For the events involving a perpetrator, the dude just hangs around.
There's a system of special objectives over several shifts, which I could not figure out, and some wanted NPCs that give a very significant cash bonus if you spot and tag them, which you do by cycling through your cameras and clicking on every NPC you see (because they more or less all look the same), until you see a tagging button not greyed out.
Did I mention that the circular menu can only be closed by choosing the close option in it ?
Did I mention the circular menu doesn't implement the feature that makes circular menus fast (choice by direction only, instead of precise positioning ?)
The game has potential for and deserves so many design and QoL improvements. Procedural events, consequences for wrong dispatch, tracking people across several cameras, tagging with the camera position instead of the mouse, crazy upgrades like unrealistically powerful zoom lens, locations only visible from some angles and actual camera placement strategy, events involving networks of people, moral dilemmas over reporting a crime or not...
The best thing in this game is the sound and music, which are pretty ok.
