The Occupation

This is one of those games that invite you to play through several times. Generally, i don't this, in this case, i did. The game plays in real time, meaning, for example, you have 60 minutes until a meeting begins where you have to attend to. In these 60 minutes you try to find out as much as you can. Then, after this meeting, you will be in a similar situation, having time to find out more, having access to different areas. This is how you play this game in a nutshell, what you do in these 60 or 30 minutes is up to you: sneaking into a hidden area, trying to access the office, eavesdropping a conversation...so yes, during your first run, you might miss some information, you might miss to figure out how to get into this office, but you will have an idea how to try it. You could say that stealth and time limits are not made to work well together, but in this case, in my 6, they do! The game comes with a chapter select, what i think was not implemented in the original release and added by a patch...this is an important feature, because when you have figured out how to get everything you want in a chapter, you can concentrate on doing it for the next one. So yes, the game might not be extremely long, but the mechanics of solving this case completely was a ton of fun for me. And again: generally i don't play through games several times, but here, i did. Can't wait for the next game of the developers!

Most found stealth and timers not mixing well, but I didn't mind it. In fact, I found it exciting. The game has some problems, though - not being able to save mid-level and not so obvious cut content being the main ones. I didn't encounter any game-breaking bugs. I would rate it as 4.5/5 if it was possible, but it's not, so it's a 4.

Apart from the slightly clunky controls a good game with an unusual Playstyle.

The promised real time timer is a bit of a half truth. The game doesn't have one overarching timer that chronicles an entire day. Instead, the game is divided into a series of 3 stealth levels, two of which have a strict one-hour timer, and a few other levels with no timer. It's the former where you can see what the devs were cooking. You're sneaking through an office building, minimizing your time in restricted areas and avoiding the security guard (just the one), all while trying to steal info from notoriously slow 80s computers and put it on floppy disks. On that note, it's rare that a game lets its setting dictate gameplay, but it works quite well. You actually need to use these computers realistically, and you can't rely on modern networking. Some still use punchcards, and some files need to be printed and faxed because there's no email yet. It's part of what makes this such an interesting ImSim, but sadly, that's where my praise has to end. The story is really bad. Despite its 1987 setting, the plot is pulled from directly from 2010s headlines, and written to be confidently pretentious. When you're tackling a topic as nuanced and difficult as illegal immigration, the fastest way to make yourself look ill-informed is to lead with the question "what makes a person illegal?" Its flimsy attempts at nuance amount to the evil racists saying "I'm just doing me job, guv" when you confront them. The actual conspiracy unfolds without any major shocks or twists. The good guys are good, the bad guys are (affably) evil, and the solutions are always obvious. The voice acting is usually quite good, but some (including the main villain) stick out as obvious miscasts. Some key characters don't even have a British accent, despite the setting. All this, and a series of ridiculous bugs might make you wonder if you should play this game. I can't really answer that for you. It gets dirt cheap around sale season, though, so if any of this interests you... have at it, I guess.

Bad controls. Developers sure never played frst-person games using the mouse & keyboard. So I red playing with the controller... with wich I can't catch a drawer in less than ten seconds because of unaccurate controls. All this in a time-limited game and fixed saves. I'll go back to Deus Ex, since I play games to enjoy, not to get frustrated.