Papers, Please review

Papers, Please Review.

Working at a border checkpoint may not sound like everyone’s idea of a fun time but Papers, Please, the self described ‘dystopian document thriller’ makes the somewhat mundane activity of checking passports and various other documents not only engaging, but also surprisingly fun.

Papers, Please is set in an alternate 1980’s communist state called Arstotzka, and it puts you in the shoes of an individual whose name has been drawn from a lottery to run the border checkpoint. Things start out easy enough, the sole condition being only letting Arstotzkan citizens in, while turning everyone else away. As the game progresses new conditions and paperwork are introduced to make your job harder.

At the end of every workday, you come home to your family and have to figure out how best to split your wages. The ideal situation is to pay the rent, and provide heat and food for your wife, son, uncle and mother-in-law. However, if you don’t earn enough during the day, or get too many citations by making mistakes then you won’t have enough money to go around, so you may have to choose between heat and food. Your workday may even be cut short by a terrorist attack, and that will mean even less money.

The inclusion of a family really gives another sense of depth, perhaps even urgency to the game, since you want to provide for them but you will almost always never have enough money for everything, so trying to choose between heat/food can be quite hard since going without one may mean that a family member becomes sick, which means that you have to provide medicine for them to get better. This is another drain on your already scarce income, but if you don’t supply medicine then the sick may die. If you decide to buy medicine but not food/heat, then someone else may get sick and so a dilemma starts; do you take care of the sick and put the rest of your family at risk, or just ignore the sick entirely and focus on the healthy?

Going back to the main gameplay, your main tool in the checkpoint booth is your state-issue journal; this journal contains a map of Arstotzka and all the surrounding countries, it also contains descriptions of each country including document issuing cities and districts. Your other main tool is your approval/denial stamp that, as the name suggests, lets you approve or deny entry into Arstotzka. The sound of the stamp when it hammers down onto the passport is satisfying in a rather strange way.

While more documents are introduced into the gameplay, the core conditions of approval may change. For example all Arstotzkan citizens only need their passport for entry, while people from other countries will need their passport and a valid entry ticket. If they do not have this secondary item or it is invalid in anyway, even if the passport is OK, they will be denied entry. This gets more complex as the game goes on with as many as 5 pieces of documentation on your desk at any one time.

Documentation isn’t the only thing that you have to deal with at the booth; people may sometimes give you items like a brothels business card. Other things you have to deal with are bribes, instructions from secret underground organizations and even your own superior depending on your performance. As the days progress, relations between the countries may sour and new conditions may be introduced, possibly due to actions that you have, or have not taken.

The presentation is simple, despite this the game looks good and the animation of the next person entering/exiting the booth is especially nice. There is virtually no voice acting apart from some mumbles. There is no soundtrack apart from the opening theme, which is very distinctive due to its very heavy, Soviet inspired beat.

Papers, Please is a game like no other in the best possible way. It takes an activity that seems boring and mundane and makes it fun and engaging. There is nothing else quite like it and it will be referenced in the future for a comparison. While the premise may turn some people away, for everyone else it’s a trip definitely worth taking. Just remember to bring your passport.

Papers, Please is available on Steam for £6.99/$9.99, GOG for $9.99 and the Humble Store for $9.99