Papers, Please is a puzzle simulation video game created by indie game developer Lucas Pope, developed and published through his production company, 3909 LLC. The communist state of Arstotzka has just ended a 6-year war with neighboring Kolechia and reclaimed its rightful half of the border town, Grestin. Your job as an immigration inspector is to control people entering the Arstotzkan side of Grestin from Kolechia. Among the throngs of immigrants and visitors looking for work are hidden smugglers, spies, and terrorists. Tasks include allowing in those with the proper paperwork while rejecting those without all proper documents, detaining those with falsified information, and balancing personal finances. Papers, Please was positively received on its release, and it has come to be seen as an example of an empathy game and a demonstration of video games as an art form.

In Papers, Please, the player takes on the role of a border-crossing immigration officer in the fictional dystopian Eastern Bloc-like country of Arstotzka, which has been and continues to be in political hostilities with its neighboring countries. The game takes place at a migration checkpoint.

 

► As a checkpoint inspector, the player reviews arrivals' documents and uses an array of tools to determine whether the papers are in order for the purpose of arresting specific individuals such as terrorists, wanted criminals, smugglers, and entrants with forged or stolen documents.

 

► For each in-game day, the player is given specific rules on what documentation is required and conditions to allow or deny entry which becomes progressively more complex as each day passes.

 

► There are opportunities for the player to have the applicant detained and the applicant may, at times, attempt to bribe the inspector. The player ultimately must stamp the entrant's passport to accept or deny entry unless the player orders the arrest of the entrant.

 

► Generally the player can make two violations without penalty, but subsequent breaches will cost the player increasing monetary penalties from their day's salaries. The player has a limited amount of real-time to process as many arrivals as possible, representing a full day shift at the checkpoint.

 

► At the end of each in-game day, the player earns money based on how many people have been processed and bribes collected, lowered by penalties for protocol violations, and then must decide on a simple budget to spend that money on rent, food, heat, and other necessities in low-class housing for themselves and their family.

 

► A mysterious organization known as EZIC also appears, with several of its members appearing at the checkpoint, giving the inspector orders to help bring down the government and establish a new one; the player can choose whether to help this organization or not, letting their members through to assassinate certain powerful individuals the organization deems too corrupt to live and even personally killing two rival agents for the organization.

 

► The player can also choose to escape to a neighboring country; Obristan, to start a new life, with or without their family. The game has a scripted story mode with twenty possible endings depending on the player's actions, as well as some unlockable randomized endless-play modes.

Papers, please © Copyright by Gamdise Do not Reproduce.

Papers, please is such an excellent game that worth more attention than it has. This vintage looking 80 ish game can be really fun to play either on a mobile phone or on other PC platforms. This game is about you as one of the immigrant officials that work at the border and your main job is to determine if an individual shall pass or not. So it’s your job to judge people and determine if they are able to get through the border.

 

The game is based on an imaginary and all of your actions will have different effects that you will never know. This is also why the game can be so fun because you do not know what will happen next. Also, what makes the game so great is the fact that you get to see different personalities of people that it makes you feel like you are actually working at a border customs although you are just simply playing a game. There are also weird individuals that will be covered by masks and have some special sentences that will sound different to different players based on personal experience and cumulative knowledge. The game on mobile devices will cost 5 dollars which is well worth it for what you get.

 

If you are looking for some significant action or the best quality graphics in this game, then this game will not satisfy you in any shape or form. The game is about interpersonal interaction and choices. One thing I think that will make players enjoy is the fact that there are random events occurring in the game that you never knew what’s happening until the custom, for instance, shut down because of terrorism. The game was published on steam at the beginning but I am glad a masterpiece is also published in the smartphone industry. It’s a fun game that will make you fall in love with those characters although they don’t even exist. Adding up, the storytelling skill in this game is quite terrific since you will find yourself immersed in the stories without even realizing it. The mechanism and the control system could be a little different from the PC end but the developers are sweet enough to provide the PC set-up on mobile phone devices to correspond to those who used to play this game on PC but now switching to the smartphone.

 

You probably heard about this game before for how many awards were given to this game but the game is different to different people, so I highly recommend those who haven’t tried this game to try it out for itself. Either if you want to get an experience of how the customs officials work or you are curious about the story, this game will convey to you through multiple perspectives. There are no ads that jump around in the game if that’s something you are genuinely worried about. Also, the game has a great audio system and you can feel the emotions that the game wants to tell you all about.

 

Different kinds of passports and people will make your ordinary life a bit shinier since you will get to know every one of them. I promise, you won’t regret every second of this game and you will find yourself spending hours and hours in this game without paying attention. The only downside in this game has to be the fact that some people’s phones are not quite supportive of this newly published masterpiece. But besides that, there are no flaws that I can think about at the moment.