911 Operator

911 Operator is a game that mimics the job of a dispatcher who answers various emergency calls. I could not tell you about how accurately the game portrays this, but it does at least have a serious tone about it and creates a somewhat believable atmosphere. Whether this supposed authenticity means something to you is yours to decide, but thematically, this is not a game that speaks to me. Form, however, is not something I would much grade a game for, so how's the gameplay?

Well, in the game you control a number of various police, medical, and firefighting vehicles on a city map. All around the map, emergencies can pop up, and it's up to you to quickly dispatch suitable vehicles to deal with them, depending on the nature of the emergency. Occasionally, instead of getting a direct request to send a police and an ambulance, for example, you get a call, and have to, through a fully voiced dialogue with different response options, figure out the location and nature of the emergency and perhaps offer initial help while sending the vehicles you believe to be right. After the day, you get your profits from that day and can use them to buy new vehicles, new staff, new equipment, and arrange anything you already have. Not really the job of the dispatcher in reality, but whatever makes the game more interesting, I suppose.

Now, the problem is that there isn't much to do in the game past the initial couple of hours. Starting from the last things I mentioned, the "squad" management aspect of the game is pretty useless. There's a lot of detail in the personal skills of the workers, speed and capacity of vehicles, and somewhat in their equipment, but it doesn't matter. More vehicles and people, if you can afford them, is better, so buy them. You don't have the time or need to consider the specialties of your vehicles and people, except for how many patients / criminals they can fit, just send whoever is the closest suitable one. So, really, that part could be tossed out in favor of improving the rest of the game.
The calls are quite interesting at first, and can actually somewhat teach you about actual first aid in emergencies. I particularly liked one where a man had just lost a leg to an accident with a machine and you not only had to give first aid help, but also provide psychological assistance like ensuring he doesn't just give up while the medics got there. These were the best part of the game, but sadly started repeating quite frequently after just 2 hours. The rest of the game is just a game of clicking the right colored vehicles to go to the right colored locations. Helps if you take a quick glance at how many people might need to be transported away, or if a heavier police team might be necessary, but it wasn't very stimulating nonetheless.

If you particularly care for the thematic of this game, then it might be a more interesting experience, but otherwise, prepare to run out of excitement a couple of hours in. You quickly familiarize yourself with all the concepts of the game, then soon all the dialogue, and then it just becomes a game of clicking through the right choices - not very exciting. I actually liked it for the first hour or two, and I feel like it could be improved by making the map and dispatch system somewhat more complicated. There should be some challenge in performing your duties, but right now, I just can't recommend playing this.