Be the guy in the chair and solve crimes in secret agent mystery The Operator, with a playable demo right now

The Operator, a story-driven puzzle detective game, is the upcoming new game for Q3 2024 and a highlight of the Future Games Show - with a playable demo that players can test out right now!

The latest of a wave of ambitious mystery and detective games that have appeared on Steam across the last few years, The Operator puts players in the shoes of FDI agent Tanner - not a field agent, but the classic "guy in the chair". Armed with a range of high-tech software, your job is to filter, sift through, scrutinize and analyze the data that field agents are sending back to you, to solve murders, missing cases and find cyber criminals.

What you have at your disposal is a broad spectrum of technology via a fully interactive in-game computer console, but all that high-tech wizardry clearly won't mean anything without a sharp mind behind it. It's your job to take the raw data that those in the field are sending back, and run it through the right programs, compare with databases, and make connections - all to lead to a break in the case.

Of course, it may not be as simple or clean as all that. We keep seeing mentions of a notorious hacker known only as HAL, and FDI policy tells you that there are some work files that you definitely shouldn't be looking into... but I'm sure that's nothing to worry about, right?

If you choose to accept the mission, you can wishlist The Operator on Steam or play the demo right now, or follow developer Bureau 81 on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube for further updates.

If you’re looking for more excellent games from today's Future Games Show, have a look at our official Steam page.

Joel Franey
Guides Writer

Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and raconteur with a Masters from Sussex University, none of which has actually equipped him for anything in real life. As a result he chooses to spend most of his time playing video games, reading old books and ingesting chemically-risky levels of caffeine. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at USgamer, Gfinity, Eurogamer and more besides.