Summary
- The Epic Games Store offers free games every week, providing players with a chance to try something new without any conditions or purchases required.
- Developers benefit from the free game promotion as it allows even unexpected titles like Spelldrifter to gain exposure and reach a wider audience.
- 911 Operator, the next free game, offers a unique experience by putting players in the role of an emergency dispatch operator, handling realistic calls and managing emergency services.
Since 2019, the Epic Games Store has marked the beginning of a new week by offering one or two of its many titles for free. Made available every Thursday at 10 AM CT, these serve as a great opportunity to try something new for many gamers. With the only condition to receiving these freebies being that players just have to have an account on the Epic Games Store itself, it's a great advertisement for the platform as a whole against other lucrative deals such as Steam's many sales throughout the year.
This deal doesn't just help Epic Games, but it also assists developers themselves. By allowing their games to take part in the weekly free games promotion, even the most unexpected titles could be offered at no extra cost. The currently available free game, Spelldrifter, serves as a great example of this as it presents an interesting shake up to the tactical RPG formula by adding card-based attacks. Spelldrifter promises to deliver on something unique to fans of the genre and new players alike. The game that's available for free on September 14 offers up something completely different, with 911 Operator aiming to put players directly in charge of the everyday drama of reality.
Epic Games Store Free Game 911 Operator Explained
911 Operator puts players in the seat of an emergency dispatch operator. As such, they're directly in charge of directing emergency services such as police, EMTs, and firetrucks, as well as which direction and emergency they should handle. 911 Operator states that most if not all the calls gamers will deal with are based on real-life situations. This means that the calls range from the mundane annoyances real EMTs witness, to deeply traumatic emergencies such as someone accidentally cutting their leg off. Epic Games Store players will handle these situations from the perspective of a management simulator, needing to make sure their units handle every emergency in a timely manner so that the lives involved will be saved in time.
To help sell the reality of 911 Operator's calls, developer Jutsu Games has even made voice recordings to go with some of them to help add weight to their situations. This means that for those who enjoy stressful management simulators, they will hear for themselves the panic that goes alongside schoolchildren being in danger, and will have to be the ones to understand coded calls when someone is hiding in the middle of a domestic abuse situation.
Some gamers need to be aware of the content that's in 911 Operator before deciding to pick the game up for free. While it may be a given that a game about being an emergency dispatch agent would deal with some troubling content, the fact that Jutsu Games tries its best to sell the reality of these situations may make these calls a source of real stress for some players. If players are concerned as to how the content of the game may affect them, then they may want to sit out on this week's free title, and a cozy indie game might be a better use to wait out the next offering on the storefront.
On the other hand, these carefully designed call and management systems are why 911 Operator has won accolades such as Best Indie Game at Digital Dragons' 2016 awards, and currently has a Mostly Positive rating on Steam. If fans enjoy what they play for free, there are plenty of DLC packs for additional challenges and even an official sequel that players can buy to support the developers. If 911 Operator isn't players' cup of tea, then they'll be able to find something else on the Epic Games Store next week once the management simulator's free promotional period begins.