Papers, Please

How does one evaluate a game that accomplishes everything it sets out to do even when those goals include being intentionally uncomfortable and tedious? By gamifying a dead-end job and adding difficulty via penalties, time pressure, awkward controls, and visual clutter, it invests you enough in success that the moral decisions that jeopardize that success have consequence. The bureaucracy isn't just the setting, it's an ingenious misdirection to trick the "player" into honestly empathizing with a historical situation that they've likely kept at a safe emotional distance. Typically, such empathy is the purview of literature, but there might not exist a tolerable book that could get us in this headspace. Gamers are accustomed to occasional difficult monotony. As for those quotes around "player": it's no intolerable book, but it's still not fun and it's barely playing. I'm semi-confident it's not meant to be fun, or at least not any more fun than the curious novelty of a new job before it's just work. The engagement comes from the weight of the story, the artistry of the design, and that empathy. I cared enough that each time the sanction printer's sound cued unexpectedly, I felt genuine dejection. I improved at reviewing documents quickly, at memorizing the exact spelling of fictional cities, at comparing meaningless strings of characters, not because it was gratifying, but because it granted me the freedom to make the decisions I wanted. Which is why I cannot fathom the sort of masochist or incurably bored person who would voluntarily play the included storyless "Endless" mode. But maybe I'm the weirdo, since if children and bar patrons have taught me anything, it's that people love spot-the-difference games. Even though many, maybe even most, people would not strictly-speaking enjoy the game, I think just about everyone could stand to benefit from experiencing it, and might in the process appreciate its sneaky beauty. 7/10 P.S. Papers, Please too-realed so that Exit 8 could surreal.

A beautiful game that will stress you out. Each stamp of approval forces you to hold your breath and hope it's not another citation. New documents, restrictions, and moral choices keep piling onto your desk until the screen becomes a cluttered mess. Everything in the booth from the rulebook to the sound design comes together to paint a cruel, believable world. I only wish the rest of the game had that same level of polish, with cutscenes and an end-of-day screen that feel underdeveloped compared to the checkpoint. Still, the core gameplay is so tuned and cohesive that those complaints feel small. A cold, unforgettable masterpiece. Glory to Arstotzka.

Great game, loads of endings to unlock, the moral dilemmas are very strong as well, overall great buy for $10.