The Occupation Reviews
The Occupation is uneven experiment to create a nonlinear political thriller with unpleasant restrictions and not always clear motives of the main characters. Bugs, terrible interface, problems with choices in the second half of the game and annoying stealth mechanics cause disappointment.
Review in Russian | Read full review
The Occupation merges the political thriller into a video game in a fantastic way, but the slow burn of politics and its drama seeps into the gameplay and makes the title more tedious overall.
When The Occupation works, it's a thrilling investigative adventure that allows the player freedom to explore and chase leads in a way that feels incredibly exciting. Frustrating controls can be overlooked, but unfortunately, the bugs in the game are incredibly persistent and capable of completely turning a promising experience into one that's too annoying to go on.
A great idea executed in a mediocre way. If you can deal with the lack of polish, there is an interesting game here.
The Occupation is a serious and well crafted first-person thriller dripping with nuance and subtleties.
Despite its issues, The Occupation is thrilling, even with its lack of traditional life threatening situations. Hiding behind chairs to wait for Steve the Security guard to leave after you’ve accidentally set off an alarm, nervously awaiting the full 2 minutes for a safe to open while desperately hoping someone doesn’t walk in on you, hiding under a desk while a file slowly transfers to a disk, waiting just out of view until someone opens a door than attempting to follow them in unseen – The Occupation is full of moment to moment nail biting situations where time is your enemy and your most precious resource.
Despite being held back by pesky bugs, The Occupation is nonetheless an enjoyable and immersive game that handles weighty subject matter with aplomb.
On the whole though, a very well done game with an outstandingly impressive attention to detail.
The Occupation is an intriguing video game with some cool gameplay mechanics, but it's flawed by many issues.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Occupation was on the right track. The developers were on the right track. Everything could have been on the right track. It just needed debuggers.
Although imperfect in many ways, I still consider The Occupation to be a totally worthwhile experience and a great display of ambitious game design. The investigative components and political thriller narrative are highly engaging in spite of its clunky packaging.
A remarkable political thriller with real-time elements that differentiate it from other games in the same genre. The fairly common and serious technical problems are a deal breaker, sadly.
Review in Greek | Read full review
The Occupation it's an intelligent and ambitious game that could have become one of this year's surprises —and maybe it will, when it's properly finished.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The main problem with The Occupation is that it hides all the good things (i.e. great concept, strong narrative) under a layer of wrong design decision, bugs, glitches and awkward controls. I had high hopes for this one, but in this state I would not recommend The Occupation to just anyone.
Freeform investigation with multiple outcomes is scarcely as good as it is in The Occupation, so it's disappointing to see it paired with clunky stealth and an unwillingness to give players enough time to find the game's best-kept secrets.
The Occupation brilliantly blends elaborate levels, breadcrumb-chasing, gotcha journalism, and a politically-charged drama to become one of 2019's most interesting games.
Brilliantly conceived but sloppily executed, The Occupation's potential as an immersive detective sim suffers from too many technical problems to recommend it.
The Occupation is one of the most unique games in recent years, and despite some weird issues and shortages, it is still one the best in the Immersive Sim genre. Its solid narrative and smart design will keep you engaged form the start to the very end and even after you beat the game, you'll still want some more.
Review in Persian | Read full review
The Occupation has a politically charged story with a moral quandary you may not be able to answer due to the game's forced stealth.
The Occupation is a great experience that will have you breaking a sweat as you attempt to use every last second you have to discover the truth about the Turing Incident.