Papers Please
Feel the power of a petty bureaucrat
Why
- Makes inspecting paperwork somewhat interesting
- Plenty of fun little interactions to discover
- Tells some interesting stories (Jorji!)
Why Not
- Pretty hard to not lose quickly on Steam Deck/a trackpad without Easy Mode
- Difficult to play for long stretches
Impressions
Papers please is definitely an interesting game; if not a fun one. But I suspect that's by design. Every part of the game from the music to the washed out color palette, tedious document checking and arbitrary rules handed down from on high conspires to make you feel like a real citizen of Arstotzka.
The opening unceremoniously informs you of your new job, a passport inspector at the newly opened border crossing to a neighbouring nation. You're quickly dumped into your tiny booth with only a rulebook and some skeuomorphic controls for stamping passports or paging through your rulebook. The rulebook starts off simple, only requiring a valid passport for Arstotzkan citizens and denying everyone else. Over the course of your 30-31 days as an inspector the rules steadily become more complex in response to changing socioeconomic realities, some of which are related to your choices.
Tension is kept up by your pay being based on how many entrants you process, with financial penalties applied after the second mistake each day. You'll need to find a balance between quickly processing enough entrants to keep your family warm and fed without making enough mistakes to end up broke or in prison. Further complicating matters, you'll sometimes be faced with ethical dilemmas, 'side quests' from entrants to earn more money or specific instructions from higher ups. Also the border is frequently attacked, and at some points you'll need to take up a gun to defend yourself after half the border guards are re-assigned.
Papers Please has a lot going on for a game where you sit at a desk all day, and it's certainly not fun to play, but it's not supposed to be. It's supposed to transport you to that Arstotzkan border station and put you in the shoes of that poor overworked peon of the system manning the counter, and it does that pretty effectively. Will you be a loyal citizen, following rules to the letter? A corrupt official, doing what's best for themselves and disregarding any consequences for others? Or a secret revolutionary, helping the weak and probably ending up jail? All these options and more are available, and while none of them are what I'd call fun they do make you think. Just not too much, or your family will starve.