The Occupation Reviews

Very interesting idea with the time being limited (kind of Jordan Mechner's The Last Express back in 1997) and intriguing storyline (late 80's Britain on the verge of a political crisis). In such a game, one expects to try different approaches and see which approach shall yield which results, i.e., experimentation. However, I understand that the game does not offer any manual saving which eliminates any capability of experimentation. Therefore, in order to fully experience the game one should need to play again and again whole chapters which kills off any desire to experiment. I wished there should be an option for manual saving. Until then, hard pass.

The concept of this game is fantastic. The execution falls short. There are a couple satisfying AHA moments, punctuated by extremely frustrating choices by the developers. If you are very patient, much more patient than me, I recommend this game. Here are a couple comments. * Walking is absurdly slow * The interaction controls are insane. How do you mess up doors? I don't want to be worried I'm standing too close to a door to open in inwards, haha. * The objectives are fuzzy. As you play, you discover the objectives, which is a fun mechanic for sure, but it's nearly impossible to accomplish them in the allotted time the first go round. The game lets you play on through the story anyway, but it's clear you're failing. It's clear the developers imagine you will play through again to tick all the boxes, but... I can't imagine walking around at 1mph all over again, memorizing which secret passages lead where so I can sit through a 15 min (!) cutscene where I work through a mandatory dialogue tree. * trick cutscenes. By this I mean, there are entire 20 min+ levels where it slowly dawns on you that this inn't a real level, even though you can walk around, it's a huge waste of time where they develop the story while you walk around and listen. Like I said, awesome idea though, wish it had turned out better.

Fun game, but i've run into multiple game breaking bugs. They wouldn't be so frustrating except you have to restart the entire level (sometimes losing 1 hour + of playtime. The worst being a computer not wanting to print or a NPC derping out in a doorway not letting me leave the room for 10 minutes. Storyline jumps around quite bit and is very easy to miss important details. I really wanted to like this game, but after restarting a 5th time because of wierd bugs not letting me continue i just can't/won't sink more time into this game. 2/5 Game was released over a year ago and still has these wierd issues

The save system is daft, it bugs out in infuriating ways and it's often fiddly and confusing - but, man, is this a great game. The tension is unparalleled, the world realised in incredible detail, the story very engaging, and the level design delightfully twisty. A cornucopia of bugs can't defeat what is one of the most immersive games I've ever played. Once this is patched (i.e. fully developed), it will be an absolute marvel. It's a shame that, like so many quality unassured games these days, The Occupation has been thrown out into the streets before it put its trousers on. An utterly unnecessary knock on what could have been one of the most talked about indie games this year, but will instead likely languish in mixed review limbo until it can sort itself out. It deserves much better than that.

I wish I could give this game a positive review, but... I can't. Other reviews go into a fair amount of depth about the technical issues, so I won't discuss them here -- I, personally, only ran into a single bug (other actors walking through gates that wipe floppy disks causing a floppy disk in *my* inventory to wipe, which the developers have plans to fix), but that's not my issue with this game. The reason for my negative review is that this game tries very hard to tell a story, but the gameplay mechanics undermine the story at every turn. You play the role of an investigative reporter who, for unknown reasons, has decided (been assigned?) to investigate a bombing (kinda?) at a local, high profile, technology firm. For some reason, you start with no knowledge at all of what this firm does -- initial impressions are that they are a PR firm advocating for the passage of "The Union Act", but later revelations reveal that this is incorrect (I think?). One would think that this sort of background information would be easily accessible (perhaps in the handy briefcase), but... It turns out that this reporter also has an... Unusual investigative style: rather than talking to anyone, he proceeds to break into / steal a wide range of information, evading a (single) guard to do so. Then, oddly enough, after successfully evading detection and uncovering critical information he then proceeds to [b]show[/b] the fruits of his labor to various high ranking officials of the company in question. These officials don't seem to think that "Hey, this reporter is showing me an e-mail that I know I deleted" / "an audio tape that was stored in my personal locker" / "a secret encryption key that was faxed offsite" as anything to be alarmed about. Even when they security guard eventually points out that the information was stolen, the action taken is... To allow the "reporter" to roam an [i]even more sensitive[/i] facility waiting for a meeting that will never happen. Yeah. Play Republique if you are looking for stealth / espionage gameplay with a good story -- even if they later chapters in that game are disappointing, its much, much better than this game on almost every level. This game would have been much, much better if all of the story elements had been dropped and it had been presented as a straight puzzle game (for example, The Talos Principal). The actual gameplay isn't all that bad, although my preference would be to allow the player to end each chapter when he/she chooses, with the times being tracked (perhaps with a leaderboard) to encourage fast gameplay. Other notes:[list][*]I didn't play the game as the developers intended: I restarted each chapter over and over again to ensure that I found all the information that there was to find. Since there is no way to replay chapters after you've completed them (without restarting the [i]entire[/i] game from the beginning), I think this is a legitimate way to play the game, but... YMMV. [*]Another bizarre thing about this world is that, in the first chapter of the game, you discover that someone (?) is apparently stealing and hiding keycards in vents all over the facility. Who this person is, or how they are doing it, and why nobody has taken action to prevent it is left totally undefined. Even more oddly, this only happens in this chapter -- although people do drop keycards in the oddest of places in later chapters. [*]As mentioned before, there are magnetic gates that corrupt floppy disks when you pass through them. They [i]only[/i] wipe floppy disks -- not cassettes (excusable, as these are collectibles, mostly) and not [b]hard drive drums[/b]. Yeah, that makes zero sense. [*]Only read if you don't mind the big 'plot twist' being revealed (its just another plot hole): [spoiler]It turns out that company is actually producing a 'Big Brother'-style surveillance software that will collect and send sensitive data back to the company from everyone in the country. Given that this takes place in the 80s... The network infrastructure doesn't exist to do this -- which would be excusable, but the game makes a [i]big deal[/i] about the lack of network infrastructure for gameplay reasons (the 'sneakernet' used throughout the facility)[/spoiler][/list]

So I have loved this game since I started playing it though I was hitting a bunch of bugs and crashes it was frustrating but then a patch came out today (1.4.0) it seems to fix the bugs I had encountered. I never replayed the earlier levels but the last 3 went flawlessly so I am assuming its good now! I can't recommend this game enough, Man I loved it so much. The story is incredible and the gameplay is top notch. Immersive sim without combat you're trying to figure out a case as a reporter sneaking around finding evidence and doing other stuff. Your choices can change things and you have various options throughout on how you want to side with multiple endings. It's beautiful, I really love the art style and the soundtrack is top notch! set in '87 in an alternate history. Voice acting and writing is also great. discarding the issues I had with crashes and bugs since the patch seems to have fixed that. I am going to give it a 10/10 will be in my top 5 games of 2019 for sure.

I played a level for one hour, then a game breaking bug took me to a black screen that I couldn't leave, unless I quit the game. When I returned, the progress hadn't saved. No way I was playing through all that again for one hour. The game looks nice, but it simply doesn't work.

i had written a long review but why bother. basically the game has plenty of bugs and some comically bad voice acting just know what you're getting into because in its core lies a good stealth/immersive sim game either wait for the bugs to be squashed or get it if you need that itch scratched. cautiously recommend/10 (it be like that)

[i]The Occupation[/i] has a lot going for it, with some charming visuals and a dope soundtrack to match. Unfortunately, there are a few things about it that I can't get past. My main gripe is that there is no option to skip or advance dialogue, in neither conversation or cutscenes. On the first playthrough, this won't be much of a problem. However, the further you get into the game, the more you'll realize the devs meant for it to be played more than once to fully explore the levels, what they may offer the player, and the different outcomes that result from your exploration. As mentioned [url=https://steamcommunity.com/app/765880/discussions/0/1843566500534557712/#c1839063537796007263]here[/url] and [url=https://steamcommunity.com/app/765880/discussions/0/1843566500534557712/#c1839063537802629730]here.[/url] [quote=destroyermaker Mar 9, 2019 @ 12:27pm]Encourages multiple playthroughs. Don't restart, just continue on. When you replay the game, you'll have more knowledge.[/quote] [quote=Pete_Bottomley (developer) Mar 11, 2019 @ 8:03am]In line with what destroyermaker mentioned above, that was our thinking in design. We didn't design it with the intention that everyone needs to get 100% before continuing.[/quote] When I realized you couldn't skip dialogue during my first playthrough, I knew immediately it would become a problem but I was hoping, hey, maybe it being my first playthrough was why I couldn't do that. It wasn't, it isn't. Even on the second playthrough, I can't skip anything. This game consists of walking (very slowly, might I add), sneaking, listening, and talking. And when the former half of the game is already so slow.. it does nothing but contribute to how frustrating and tedious it all becomes when it cannot be skipped. I think it's important to mention: Regardless of what progress you make and the ending you earn, at the completion of your first playthrough, you unlock 'Chapter Selection' on the main menu, which allows you to replay specific Chapters, instead of having to start from the beginning again. I read in the patch notes that this was added in [url=https://steamcommunity.com/app/765880/discussions/0/1643167006286011662]v1.4.0[/url], which was the 5th update, 7 months after the games' release, so good on the devs for adding that in, as it is very useful. Sadly, it seems that the game's last update was well over a year ago, in [url=https://steamcommunity.com/app/765880/discussions/0/1631916887505222951]October of 2019[/url]. Weirdly enough, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/265950/Ether_One]Ether One[/url], a game [i]White Paper[/i] released 7 years ago, received an update [url=https://steamcommunity.com/app/391920/discussions/0/2826511721282337371]March 2020[/url] that even included some fixes to their save system, which I find interesting. It does seem like [i]The Occupation[/i] has been abandoned, or if it hasn't, the devs haven't kept communication on Steam but because they've added Chapter Select, I'm led to believe that if they had any plans to patch-in skippable dialogue/cutscenes, they would have done it by now. And to think I haven't mentioned the game's saving system. It works like this: you play through various levels of different time constraints, that go by real-time minutes, and the game only ever saves once at the end of each chapter. Smaller levels are 15-30 minutes, that branch in-between the larger levels that are 60 minutes each. It's awful. And even worse, it's intentional. In response to players complaining about lack of manual saves, [url=https://steamcommunity.com/app/765880/discussions/0/1843566500534557712/#c1839063537787306026]a dev stated and I quote:[/url] [quote=Pete_Bottomley (developer) Mar 7, 2019 @ 4:36am]We designed the world to get immersed and hopefully lose yourself in. We appreciate sometimes people only have 20 minutes or so to pick up and play a game in a day, but with the systems and the way you investigate leads, we didn't think it would make too much sense if you were picking it up and putting it down in short bursts and instead felt that most people would be OK seeing a fully chapter through before saving and exiting (much like when reading a book I guess!).[/quote] Man, sometimes I just don't know. Is it me? Is it a me problem? I've never felt rushed or forced to finish the chapter of a book. Do people normally feel that way? It's so odd to me as a player to see devs acknowledging (prior to implementation) how detrimental lacking a basic [strike]mechanic[/strike] accessibility option would be for a lot of people, and still.. following through with it regardless because 'it wouldn't make sense' to their vision. Like I get where they're coming from, I do, but their excuse that being able to save when you want, or having autosaves at different intervals throughout a level would break the world's atmosphere or the player's immersion.. doesn't make sense. Thief 2 (2000) has similar level structure (even the cinematic story breaks), great atmosphere and manual saving that never once subtracts from the experience so I think that's a lame excuse. It makes even less sense with the Chapter Select addition because now you can boot the game up and start playing a chapter that's 3/4s the way through the story. And I am not knocking that feature but where's the ~flow~ of world-building in that? Besides the lack of accessibility options, the game suffers from ludonarrative dissonance. At the end of three chapters are meetings where you conduct an interview. Depending on what leads you pursued and evidence you gathered throughout the level, you'll unlock different questions to ask. After answering, characters will often ask for your opinion and you'll be given the opportunity to pick a response. It seems what's available to you is directly tied to the leads you've completed in your notebook. This is to say that even if you (playing the game) read a note that says XYZ, your character will act like they haven't read the note. Even if after reading it, your character acknowledges in the notebook a new clue based on XYZ, you won't be able to bring it up in the conversation unless the associated lead has been followed through. For example: I read a note saying X received something from Y. As the player playing the game, I know this to be true. When asked if I know anything, I'm forced to say 'I have no reason to think otherwise.' In the same scenario, I read a note saying X received something from Y. My character (in the game) updates the notebook with the clue: investigate, therefore acknowledging they too, know this to be true. Again, when asked if I know anything, I have one option available that claims I know nothing. There's a serious disconnect between the knowledge the player learns (in the same game session) and what you're allowed to do with what you have learnt. For the most part, I enjoyed my first playthrough but ultimately felt disappointed with how quickly the game became tedious and was too frustrated with how my exploration felt meaningless. Thanks for reading! [quote] check out [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42627934-stressed-creators]stressed creators[/url] for more indie recs![/quote]

What an odd game. Story is well written, graphics are well crafted, apart from some control glitches, this feels like a surprisingly polished AA game. But that is not the problem. Yes, the game totally [i]feels[/i] like an immersive sim - but it does not understand what immersive sims actually [i]are[/i]. For starters, the game does not feature any immersive systems. The most systemic it gets are some patrols wandering around and, sometimes rather randomly, catch you while sneaking around. Immersive sims live from experimenting, from reaching your objectives in different ways. Here however, what you get are a number of side-objectives and a timer pressuring you to solve these objectives in a limited time frame. This concept might still kind-of work (see [i]The Last Express[/i]), but [b]this game does not allow you to save[/b]. It is not even auto-saving. It is not even saving between all logical segments (which can be over an hour long). Within the 5.5 hours of the playthrough (more or less the same for everyone, as the game runs on a clock), the game informs you that it was kind enough to save for you four times! This is 1) utterly disrespectful towards the players' choice and flexibility of how they can and want to use their free time, and 2) runs contrary to the basic concept of the immersive sim, where the idea is to try out and experiment what could have worked differently. By the way, the game is also front-loading. Things you can do in the levels get less as time goes on. Then, the last actual level is completely bogus, as you don't know what to do (or how any of what you are supposed to be doing is supposed to make sense within the 1987 setting), but the moment the guard spots you, the game immediately skips the rest of the final level and basically robs you of the good ending. Sure, you could reload the last of the four generous save points, but is that really worth the effort? For me, it was not.