Lifeline

"The next generation of voice recongnition games has arrived!"

Operator's Side is Sony Computer Entertainment's new foray into the sparse but growing genre of voice recognition games. The technology is improving, and with it unique and innovative games like this will soon be more common on the PS2 and elsewhere. Like Seaman (DC, PS2) before it, and the upcoming Dekavoice (PS2) and N.U.D.E. (Xbox), Operator's Side employs a microphone as the main method of game interaction. Unlike the others, though, this game combines the voice interaction aspect with a Survival Horror theme and manages to pack in enough extras to keep the player interested for the long haul.

STORY: 10
In the near future, when space tourism becomes commonplace, a company called JSL is ready for the Christmas Eve grand opening of it's new Space Station Hotel. Even the Prime Minister of Japan joins in the festivities which are crudely interrupted by a sudden alien attack. Many of the guests are eaten on the spot, but a lucky few manage to survive. Among the survivors is the player who finds himself wounded and in the Operator's booth of the Space Station, with only a microphone and a computer terminal to keep him in touch with happenings in the rest of the facility. I really like this aspect of the game. It MAKES SENSE that the character would use a microphone and a screen in the game, which is exactly what you, the player, is using. This lends a surreal kind of realism to the game that's hard to describe, and certainly hard to duplicate. Desperately searching for his girlfriend Sayaka, who presumably survived but was separated from him, the player soon enlists the help of a young waitress named Rio. Rio is also searching for someone. She can handle a gun, but she needs the Operator (the player) to help unlock doors from the terminal, choose sites to investigate, and direct her in combat. Along with the scattered survivors, aliens still lurk in the massive station, and Rio and the Operator are soon put through a series of perilous situations that will test their mettle and their teamwork skills.

GAMEPLAY: 10
Until now, voice recognition games have been fairly primitive, and usually require the player to read set lines or communicate in simple language with a pet. Operator's Side breaks this mold by placing the player in an action/adventure game. Rio can take orders to move to certain places (''Go to guest room #3!''), investigate objects in a room (''Examine the bottle.''), and do battle (''Shoot! Shoot! Reload!'') She is also able to answer questions, hold (relatively simple) conversations, initiate microphone and camera tests, and even play word games! If this weren't enough, items found throughout the game unlock extra modes (Japanese and English reading tests, tutorial, etc.), and teach Rio new words that can be used in the game (''Low kick,'' ''Zoom up.'') The quest itself is plenty long, and has all the traditional trappings of the Survival Horror genre: cautiously opening doors in case there's an enemy hiding behind it, conserving health restoring items, searching for save points, and solving puzzles with keys, passwords, etc. Some of the ''puzzles'' are actually the simple act of trying to figure out exactly what to say to Rio to get her to do certain things. Luckily, if you're not entirely sure precisely what an item in the background is, you can describe it by shape or color, and she'll eventually catch on.

CONTROL: 9
This game can use either the Sammy/ASCII USB microphone or the ASCII Seaman pad (basically a 6-button fighting pad with an analog stick and an awkward looking mike jutting out from the center), but traditional controller operation also comes into play. The shoulder buttons bring up maps, item menus and lists of useful words that Rio will understand. The Circle button, when held down, initiates talk mode. The Square button is used to cycle through onscreen prompts and menus used to unlock doors, and the Start button pauses. The only reason this score isn't a 10 is that the game occasionally has trouble recognizing commands. This is probably the result of a combination of factors including the limits of current voice recognition software, poor timing when holding the circle button, and my presumably less than perfect Japanese pronunciation. Occasionally, you'll come across things you want Rio to examine, but she won't understand you until you hit just the right combination of words. For example, I came across a steel pipe on a sofa, but when I told her to look on the sofa, she looked slightly to the left and saw only the item to the left of the pipe. I then tried 2 Japanese words for ''pipe,'' but she still didn't understand. Finally, after describing it as ''the long object,'' she caught on. This type of confusion can really test the limits of your patience. Sometimes, in battle too, she'll mistake clearly spoken commands and run directly into monsters or shoot the wrong target. Fortunately, this doesn't happen so often as to render the game unplayable, but it does prevent the control from scoring a 10.

GRAPHICS: 8
There's no real problem in the graphics department, but nothing really looks spectacular either. Slightly above average character models interacting in average backgrounds and fighting poorly designed but decently rendered aliens earn this game an 8.

SOUND: 9
Rio's voice is well cast and the music and sound effects sound good and suit the theme of the game well.

OVERALL: 9
Operator's Side is a great game that effectively revolutionized the voice recognition game genre. There is something creepy about holding an actual conversation (in a foreign language) with a character in a game that I really like, and I see myself playing this game for quite a while into the future.

WARNING: This is a review of the Japanese version. As of this writing, I am uncertain if an English version is in the works. Import this game only if you are fluent in both spoken and written Japanese.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/03/03, Updated 02/03/03