Reviews may be lightly edited for formatting and clarity.
Imagine waking up to an unfamiliar ceiling, in an unfamiliar living room, with no memory of who you are or how you got here. Scratched into the wall are the words “Welcome to the Habitrails."
This rather alarming scenario is the exact setup for the podcast Soul Operator and the solo-journaling game “Welcome to the Habitrails” which acts as the structure for the show’s story. The premise of the game is simple: you wake up with your head in a fog in a place that is just wrong. What do you do? The concept of the podcast is more complicated: what do you do when you’ve been stripped of a core aspect of your humanity?
The concept of the game, in and of itself, is horrifying. The isolatory feeling of being trapped in a place that is curated to look uncanny. The existential dread of living in a world where if you try to keep track of when the sun rises it’ll change the time for the next day. The world of the Habitrails is weird, wrong, and woefully all encompassing and that’s where Soul Operator takes this premise and pushes it a step further by making the choice to make Tessa, our protagonist, have amnesia.
“Welcome to the Habitrails” is very explicit that “You remember your life before here, but it seems distant.” It’s on the first page of the game. This is then followed up on page 6 where you create your character by examining your old life. Building the person you will inhabit as they explore this very wrong place. The prompts of the game care about the immediate situation and what might happen in the future, though it does give the player many chances to reflect on how they’ve changed. It's usually from the perspective where the character knows who they are on a fundamental level. This is not true for Tessa and it’s this key change that sells Soul Operator as a story.
When we are first introduced to Tessa, performed by Tatiana Gefter, it is through the scratchy lo-fi quality of cassette recorder speakers on a tape that we’ve presumably just found. The sound design, done by J Strautman, is impeccable and grounds the listener into the fiction immediately. We are listening to a story, left behind for us to find. She’s only woken up a few days ago and spends the episode recounting the events, the people she’s met, and information she’s learned since she’s been up.
This episode is titled “The Awakening” and covers the Prologue section of the game. Specifically the “Who You Were” and “Your Arrival” sections. These are the foundational elements as we learn who our protagonist is, where they are exactly, and how they feel about things. Tessa is anxious and understandably unnerved by everything around her and Tatiana’s performance is heartwrenchingly sympathetic as she describes her situation to us.
It quickly becomes clear that whatever is left of her memory is just enough for her to realize there is so much of herself that she’s missing. She doesn’t remember her birthday or favorite color but she does know the furniture looks like it came from Ikea. She knows this body technically belongs to her but it doesn’t feel like it because she barely remembers being in it. She talks about the nooks and crannies of this house she woke up in and the neighbor boy who is helping her through adapting to the circumstances and the strange ways this world’s wrongness manifests and all of it is underscored with this pervasive self-doubt. Is any of this actually happening? Am I who I think I am? Can I trust anyone I meet here? This tension is the anchor to the show’s narrative and the hook I think was necessary to make the gameplay intriguing for an audience to listen to.
There’s a theoretical version of this show where Tessa remembers who she is. She remembers her old job, her birthday, and her family. She has people to miss and other places she can yearn to be. And I believe that this version of the show is a lot less interesting. You see, in making the show about someone who misses people they can’t be with and places they can’t be at, then that makes the show about a lot of people and places we’ll never get to see. There’s also the issue that it has the potential to undermine new positive connections and memories your character could be making by always having it come into conflict with this imagined past that was a foundational aspect of who you are.
There’s the potential for the story to get stuck in a “There’s no place like home vs Be where you are” feedback loop that could get really boring really quickly. Soul Operator competently sidesteps this issue and offers something more decadent with the proposition of a main character whose conflict isn’t just “where they are vs where they want to be.” Instead conflict with the eldritch workings of the Habitrails is almost made into disconcerting background noise to the horror of body dysmorphia as Tessa contends with her failing sense of self in an already terrible situation. Even as she begins to make connections with the other people lost here in the Habitrails there is a wariness because how can she trust anything when she can’t even confidently speak to who she is in a world that changes the parameters of space time like a petty ex.
And it’s insightful choices like this, as well as its stunning sound design and marvelous performances, that will keep me coming back to Soul Operator. This is a crew that “gets it” and has the chops to execute their vision in spectacular style. I’m excited to see what they do next.
This review was written collaboratively by Aida and Michelle, two staff at EUphoria. We both watched/listened to the assigned show, made individual notes, then discussed and collated our thoughts into one review. In particular we aimed to consider how each show screener delivered on their stated purpose and themes, as well as considering the following elements: accessibility and inclusion, visual/sound design, incorporation of game mechanics, and performances.
Conveyance of Theme:
The show info document states this show has “themes of personhood and what we as creators are willing to put characters through." We absolutely felt this throughout, particularly as Tessa established a clear sense of who she was as a person despite not being able to remember any biographical details about herself. We loved this as an exploration of what makes us who we are and how much of our personality is innate versus shaped by our memories. Based on this single episode we cannot say much about how much this character is going to be put through, but we felt a strong sense of unknown dangers to come and we were interested in what happens next.
Clarity of Purpose:
The show info document states that this show aims to “[marry] together the narrative, arc forward format of audio drama with the gamification found through solo TTRPGs." There is without a doubt a strong narrative arc in this show, and we acknowledge that the introduction at the top of the show did mention the TTRPG system that was used in the creation of the story.
However, at no point in the show did we learn anything more about the system or how elementsof gamification contributed to the narrative. We were expecting to learn a bit more about the game itself at some point - what are the genre, setting and/or parameters of the game, what are its mechanics, and how did those mechanics lead to the creation of this character and story? What aspects of the narrative came from the player versus the game and what kind of unexpected moments or unintended consequences were the result of TTRPG mechanics? We would have liked to have felt this more, and perhaps heard a bit about it after the outro credits, or even briefly in the intro before the opening music.
Access and Inclusion:
The intro of the episode was strong and clear, with an explanation of what the show is, a list of content warnings, and a description of where to find more in-depth content warnings and information. We love to hear it!
Some of the language in the show strayed into using ableist terms when talking about memory loss, such as “losing my mind” or “insane." We understand that these terms are deeply ingrained in the English language and their use may be an intentional character choice, but regardless we think this should be in content warnings if it’s going to be included.
The setting of modern-day North America was made clear with specific cultural references (such as Great Wolf Lodge, Bed Bath and Beyond). We were slightly confused by the description of an NPC simply as “a normal boy." We don’t know what “normal” means to the character or to the writer and would encourage interrogation of the assumptions this kind of description leads the audience to make.
Performance:
The central performance in this episode is exceptional. Tessa felt likeable and real as a character and we were immediately interested in what she had to say. Again, a show that relies so heavily on monologue is a real challenge, and the performer did a great job of varying their voice acting and avoiding the trap of delivering every line with the same cadence. The changes in thought felt natural and we could sense the internal conflict of trying to stay calm and make sense of things against the creeping confusion, dread and fear. Exposition never felt like an info-dump as there was always so much character in its delivery. The inclusion of Tessa talking directly to the audience was a clever way to make the audience feel invested in the story and invite them to think for themselves about what exactly is going on.
During the conversation with the little boy, it was sometimes a little hard to understand which character was talking. We wonder whether using a sound design element such as changing the directionality of the NPC voice would help make this distinction more clear.
Sound Design:
The sound design in this show is incredibly strong and immersive. From the very beginning, the atmospheric intro music abruptly cutting to an echoing voice beautifully conveyed the tone of the episode and set our expectations for what was to come. A show which relies so heavily on monologue is a unique challenge in terms of keeping the listener engaged, and the use of sound design elements such as piano chords, changes in ambient noise, or sound effects caused by character movement did a wonderful job of indicating changes in thought and action, as well as drawing attention to important information. The tracks were balanced and mixed excellently, so that the narration was always clear and easy to follow.
At times the choice of sound was a little confusing - one of us thought the character was on a boat at the start due to the creaking wood sounds, whereas the echo on the character’s voice made another of us think she was in a cave. However, given the character herself was disoriented and didn’t know where she was at the start, we ultimately concluded that the choice of sounds used was fitting - and once the narration had established a clearer sense of place the sound design felt well aligned.
The distortion around the mention of The Fog was very affecting (and scary! we appreciated the warning in the content notes). It gave a real sense of urgency, fear and drama to the end of the episode. Who doesn’t love a mystery?
Overall/closing thoughts:
Soul Operator is a compelling, tense and beautifully sound designed audio drama elevated even further by its terrific central performance. We were locked in throughout and intrigued by the story and world. We do wonder whether the stated aim of marrying audio drama and AP is fully realised by the show in its current form, or whether this show lives more firmly in the realm of audio drama as no elements of the game remain in the final product. Either way, we thoroughly enjoyed listening and hope our thoughts and feedback are useful as the project continues.
Podcast, R
Drama, Experimental, Horror, Thriller
System: Welcome to the Habitrails by Ayolland
Content Notices: Fear, Isolation, Paranoia, Audio Distortion around 19:50
Description
'Soul Operator' is a liminal, emotional horror solo ttrp actual play and audio drama focusing on solo ttrpgs as a genre and how they can be used as an avenue for storytelling. The show focuses on themes of personhood and what we as creators are willing to put characters through for the sake of said storytelling. It marries together the narrative, arc forward format of audio drama with the gamification found through solo ttrpgs. Each season will be based on a different game, which is played through to completion and then said gameplay is adapted to an audio drama.
Liberatory Artistic Practices
Soul Operator has very intentionally cast racialized people of color in several prominent roles throughout the show and will continue to do so. We endeavor to work with marginalized creatives at all levels of production such as art, sound design, and acting, with intentionality. We do not do colorblind casting. Additionally, we pay the cast and crew for their labor, as much as possible. We have also utilized the show's official platform to consistently advocate for the end of the violence in and the liberation of Gaza, at one point offering early access to episodes to those who donated esims. We are vehemently against AI in every capacity.