Game Review: Papers, Please

Papers, Please is one of those games that shouldn’t be as fun as it is.  I mean, the entire point of this game is to check people’s documents as they enter your country.  It involves a lot of what people at border stations actually do, such as comparing numbers, checking for forgeries and running fingerprint checks.  And while that may sound like the game is little more than another job that you have to do at home, the reality is that this game is both challenging and captivating in its own quirky way.

The basic story is that you are an immigration inspector in the country of Arstotzka, an insular cold-war type place where life is hard and jobs are difficult to come by.  You must make enough money each day to feed your family, keep them warm and pay the rent.  In order to make money, you must check people through the border.  Unfortunately, many of those looking to enter the country are trying to do so illegally.

While trying to let the good folks in and keep the bad ones out, you must check their passports to make sure all information is correct.  This means looking over expiration dates, making sure the photo matches the face, ensuring that the country the passport says it is from is actually a real country, and many, many other things.  As the game goes on, the rules will change.  Sometimes entries will only be allowed from certain countries.  Other times, people will require additional documents.  Basically, each time you have a successful day, the next one becomes more of a challenge.

The dark humor comes in when people try to beg or threaten their way across the border.  People will claim that they need to enter the country because they will be killed; they will argue that their documents are not wrong; they will attempt to sweet-talk you.  There’s even one pleasant old man that repeatedly shows up with the worst forged documents you can imagine.  And while you can let people in out of pity, it will come out of your paycheck.  Fail to make enough in a day, and then you have to choose whether to go hungry or not buy medicine for your sick relatives.  Yes, in Arstotzka it’s a matter of life and death.

Again, the game may not sound extremely entertaining to most, but if you’re one of those folks that enjoy speed-based memory games, Papers, Please is one of the best.  It’s still under development, so the overall game only encompasses around eight or ten “days” worth of play, but it’s getting worked on all the time to make it better.  If you get a kick out of brain-games, give this one a try.  You can pick it up for the low price of ten bucks at the official site here.

Photo Credits -           

Papers Please courtesy of giantbomb.com