Do you sit at home in your large palatial house, wistfully counting your money dreaming of a simpler life where you can sit on a Tech Support Desk and help people with their mobile phone queries? You do? Of course you do, we all do. Well the chaps at Dragon Slumber certainly do, which is why they’ve created Tech Support: Error Unknown. A game that puts you in the shoes of a day one Tech Support associate, a job that puts you resolving customer queries but do you work hard and honest or lie, cheat, steal and try to bring the organisation down form the inside? Choice is yours. Let’s take a closer look.
The story of tech Support Error Unknown, is of you joining the Quasar Telecommunications as a level one technical support assistant. You have been brought on board to ensure that customer mobile phone issues are resolved in line with customer policy. The better you do your job the higher you rise in the ranks, and the more tools and ways to help you have access to.
However, all is not as it seems. Rogue hacktivists claim that Quasar is hiding something and needs your help. Do you work with Indigo Fox to bring Quasar down, or do you rise to the top of the company diligently and mindlessly following orders? The choice is yours, but through your choice you must always be solving customer issues, else you’re found out and fired.
Tech Support: Error Unknown is a brilliantly unique game. From the very point of starting the game, you’re drawn into their world. The intro sequence looks like a computer boot-up, while the load game screen looks like an employee login screen.
Once the game starts you are faced with your desktop at
Quasar Communications, and have access to all the software a tech specialist
has, email, Ticket Support software, and a wiki.
Initially you are given a tutorial ticket to work through, given to you by the head of Tech Support. The ticket support system works like a messenger tool with a variety of options in a response menu. As the customer conversation progresses, you can respond with the correct responses. For example, if the customer says they’ve lost their phone, you can select ‘Ring Your Own Phone’ from the support menu. If this works then they’ll thank you and sign off and you get one under the passed column, if not then you’ll need to try something else.
The more tickets you answer the higher rank you become and the more complex the issues and answers become. Once you get access to the customer details, you’ll need to ask the customer for their account number, this account shows you their current warranty and also tidbits about them. Extended warranty customers will always have their issue resolved even if it means sending them a new phone, while no warranty might mean you disappoint some customers as you can’t solve their query.
You might also be asked to send logs of the conversation or try to sell them the latest phone model. As you go through the game there might also be the option to steal from customers but you wouldn’t do that would you.
This is basically your job however, at some point you will be contacted by a mysterious hacktivist via email and then the police. Who do you go with? Go with the hacktivist and they will send you tools to hide your contact. Help the police to unveil the rebels and the company will love you, but is there any truth to their claims. Not to mention the requests for cash from your brother, the offers of timeshare and trying to actually do your job, Tech Support: Error Unknown is a great replica of a tech support’s job.
For me, having spent at least some time working on tech support, it’s a fairly realistic representation of the tools of the trade. From the email client, and the ticket support software through to the login screen and the types of corporate emails you’ll receive via your email client. It’s fairly basic as fair as actual graphics go, but as it mirrors those systems, I’ll give the graphics top marks.
The difficulty curve of Tech Support : Error Unknown is set at a nice curve. At first there are no real problems. The customer issues are fairly basic and easily solved and you’ll find yourself getting through the days with very little issue. As the days go on, not only do the issues get more complex, but there is more for you to remember. One day my console would reset if I didn’t enter a security password emailed to me. My console reset three times that day because I couldn’t remember the password or get to my email where it was.
Once you start dabbling with Indigo Fox, you have to make
sure you cover your tracks. I got fired for not hiding my contacts properly. I
also got fired for two many bad ticket resolutions. You can start from the
beginning of the last day you got to, but it does test your multitasking
ability.
Because of the sandbox nature of the game there is a fair
bit of replayability, you can play through multiple times, and side with the
company or with the hacktivists, plus the calls and problems will be different
each time.
Jim Franklin is a freelance writer, living in Derby UK with his wife and his player 3. When time allows he likes nothing more than losing himself in a multi-hour gaming session. He likes most games and will play anything but prefers MMO's, and sandbox RPG's.
