I’m all in favour of as many A Normal Lost Phone/Orwell-like games as individuals could make. A faux cellphone or desktop, during which a narrative performs out through the mundane apps we’re used to utilizing day-after-day. But, they do are inclined to miss extra usually than they hit. Tech Support actually wants some.
Tech Support: Error Unknown creates a super-simple, if frustratingly low-res, desktop. You’ve electronic mail, a really restricted browser, an app on your financial institution, and a music participant. And, after all, the tech assist program that allows you to reply individuals’s queries from the distant working consolation of your individual dwelling.
You are that particular person on the different finish of the textual content chat assist line, who replies in incongruously utilized inventory sentences to Quasar prospects’ cell phone tech queries. You’re shortly launched to the idea with a brief tutorial together with your boss, and then you definately’re serving to individuals out by suggesting they change it on and off once more like a champ. With every profitable interplay, you earn cash straight into your checking account. The additional you progress, the extra duties you achieve, the extra there’s to do, home windows to juggle, apps concerned, all whereas the story of company espionage, potential terrorism, and police investigations begins to unfold.
At its greatest, Tech Support has you juggling all these parts, whereas making ethical and moral selections, making an attempt to work out should you’re working for or towards the baddies, or maybe each, all whereas making an attempt to reply prospects’ tech queries as effectively as attainable. In these moments, it flows, you’ll be able to see what the game was aiming to be. But yeah, aiming to be.
Because sadly, regardless of an terrible lot occurring right here that’s attention-grabbing, the problems with the core idea grow to be obvious far too shortly. From the start, the only a few screens of explanatory textual content within the Quasar staff’ on-line wiki are riddled with typos and spelling errors, which doesn’t precisely counsel knowledgeable endeavour. The design additionally seems to be clumsy, the home windows on the desktop all outsized and fiddly. I might get previous that. But I couldn’t get previous simply how damaged it seems to be.
Almost right away, points with the game itself, slightly than the fictional software program, appeared. Open tickets refused to shut, regardless of declaring themselves full, all listed as “ongoing”. On Day three I used to be capable of take one assist chat within the given time, but on my Daily Performance Report it mentioned I’d accomplished three, with a median ticket time of “None”. Oh expensive. One of the opposite chats was a tech man from Quasar providing me some software program I might purchase from him in a frenetic collection of messages that made little sense. The different, and making this all of the weirder, was the invasion of a chat from my brother, one “Colten Walker”, who had one way or the other gotten by way of to me to inform me our mom could be very sick.
But on this game you’re solely capable of reply with inventory phrases, chosen from a menu, probably the most generic out there responses being “Yes” and “No”. Colten didn’t ask me sure or no questions, however as a substitute demanded to know why I hadn’t answered his calls or emails (which the game hadn’t featured) about our ailing mum. I entertained myself by asking if he’d turned her on and off once more, and when he complained about being drained I instructed he change his battery. The game didn’t decide up on my extraordinary wit. Although after I enquired if he had a guaranty, the game by chance slipped into normal responses and my panicked brother calmly knowledgeable me that he had one, however solely the usual model.
What I used to be supposed to do, it appears, is juggle the “Problem” and “How did it happen” textual content decisions at random till he finally asks me for cash. Oh. Anyway, I bought rated 5 stars for that day’s work, so it was going nicely!
Except, um, no. I bought fired. I wasn’t advised why, simply my boss Kamala telling me that she was dissatisfied with me, after which including, “Your resume was really promising, but we can’t keep someone who doesn’t adhere to our quality standards on payroll.” Presumably she means she will’t preserve somebody on payroll who doesn’t adhere to high quality requirements, however that apart, what? What did I DO?! I repeated that third day, answered one additional ticket, bought graded solely 4/5 stars this time, after which wasn’t fired.
It is, sadly, consistently this bizarre. I had a buyer name me a barrage of insults, inform me I used to be silly and ineffective at my job, after which depart a evaluation that reads, “I’ve have never received this kind of committed technical support, and I’m amazed. Thank you, bless you.” Another buyer left a constructive evaluation after telling me to “die in a fire” and hanging up.
Early on, Kamala despatched me an electronic mail about warranties, during which she made it explicitly clear that any buyer with an “extended warranty” ought to all the time have their concern escalated up the chain if I couldn’t instantly resolve it. When doing so, I obtained an electronic mail from her admonishing me, explaining that, “because she had an extended warranty, a better solution would be that we can’t help her.” What? This is simply gibberish. And sadly not distinctive. Later the game provides VIP prospects, who you might be strictly instructed will need to have each want met. I provided to restore a cracked display screen without spending a dime for one such shopper, and was advised I’d failed the ticket. Kamala emailed to say, “Because she had a vip (sic) account in working order, you should have suggested that we can’t help her.” Sigh.
Where these points took an actual flip for the ugly comes with the sick mum story, nevertheless. I used to be requested by my in-game brother to ship him $1000 to pay for very important checks to maintain her alive. I labored quick to earn that cash, however the game by no means gave me the flexibility to ship it. It ought to have appeared on the financial institution internet web page, nevertheless it simply wasn’t there. There was no approach to pay it. A couple of ‘days’ later I obtained an electronic mail that reads. “Mom just died. Don’t bother coming to the funeral.” Yeah, really that’s not cool.
It simply continues to disintegrate. On Day 20 it’s nonetheless introducing new options, which is nice, nevertheless it’s additionally forgetting most of its personal plotlines. A colleague requested for monetary assist in desperation, I gave it to him, and nothing occurred, no response, no additional particulars. Another organisation that requested me to add some paperwork to buyer telephones over the subsequent three days by no means replied after that point. So as a substitute, I’m simply left battling towards the bugs and idiosyncrasies, slightly than the game itself.
By Day 21 seemingly nothing else was occurring. It added antivirus software program to upsell, however no new plot, no developments, no reactions to something I used to be doing. And I realised at this level that each one I used to be doing was imaginary tech assist. Out of morbid curiosity I carried on till Day 27, and never a single factor occurred. Which marked my level of being accomplished with this.
It clearly wants an entire lot extra work, with so many points, from contradictory directions to completely deserted plots. But even then, I feel it wants a critical rethink about the way it tries to mix the rushing-you-along mechanics borrowed from one thing like Papers Please, with the unfolding thriller narrative of A Normal Lost Phone. Here the mechanics and thriller are usually not completely appropriate, and since failing to maintain up with the previous causes immediate game overs, it means you’re compelled to hurry by way of the latter.
There’s positively a pleasant concept in enjoying as a tech assist trapped behind deploying inventory phrases, as some bigger story unfolds about you, however Tech Support: Error Unknown simply doesn’t ship it.
