Papers, Please

What a unique game. I've never played anything like it in my 44 years of gaming. A little bit Oregon Trail, a whole lot of a mundane desk job that shouldn't be engaging but is, and a rapid fire experience filled with more story and characters than I would have thought possible. But it's dark, and sad, and extremely, extremely difficult. If you manage to worm your way to an ending, it probably won't be a happy one, and I'm not nearly skilled enough to keep track of everything and become the hero. Just a really, really well thought out and designed experience.

**Glory to Arstotzka!** What an absolutely fantastic game. I enjoyed Papers, Please from beginning to end — so much so that I ended up completing every single achievement. At first, the game can feel a little chaotic. You learn the basic procedures, think you finally know what you're doing... and then another document is introduced. And another rule. And another exception. The further you get, the more attention you have to pay to every tiny detail. But simply being careful isn't enough. I quickly learned that if I took too much time making absolutely sure that every document was correct, I wouldn't process enough people during the day to earn enough money. On the other hand, rushing through inspections meant making mistakes and receiving citations, which cost me even more. Before long, I found myself struggling financially simply because I was trying too hard not to make mistakes. So I had to develop my own routine — a specific order in which to check documents, memorize the most important information, recognize common problems quickly, and gradually become both accurate and fast enough to survive. Going from a confused beginner staring at every piece of paper to efficiently processing one person after another was incredibly satisfying. What surprised me the most was how much of a story could be built around something as seemingly simple as checking documents at a border checkpoint. Your decisions actually matter, you meet memorable characters, and there were plenty of moments when I genuinely had to stop and think about whether I wanted to follow the rules or do what I personally felt was right. There is also a more personal reason why the atmosphere of Papers, Please resonated with me. I'm from the Czech Republic and was born in 1988, shortly before the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. I was far too young to actually remember living under it, so I would never pretend that I experienced that era myself. However, I'm very interested in the history of my country, and the legacy of that period is naturally part of it. Because of that, the oppressive bureaucracy, constant suspicion, absurd regulations and authoritarian atmosphere of Arstotzka carry an additional historical weight for me. The game is obviously fictional, but some aspects of its world feel eerily familiar from the history I've grown up learning about. And despite the rather grim setting, the game also made me laugh more times than I expected. Some of the characters and situations are genuinely hilarious. Papers, Please also deserves enormous respect for being one of the pioneers of the entire document-checking and inspection genre. Today we have plenty of games built around inspecting documents, searching vehicles, identifying suspicious people, spotting impostors or determining whether someone is even human. Papers, Please showed just how compelling this kind of gameplay could be. Its influence can still be felt throughout the inspection genre more than a decade later. The visual style is incredibly simple, but it fits the game perfectly. It's charming, distinctive, surprisingly expressive and somehow makes staring at passports, permits and stamps for hours genuinely addictive. I've now finished the game with every achievement, but I definitely don't consider myself done with it forever. I can easily imagine coming back to it after some time just to enjoy another shift at the Grestin border checkpoint. A simple idea executed brilliantly, with great writing, meaningful choices, memorable characters and an incredibly addictive gameplay loop. **Papers, please. Glory to Arstotzka!**

Phenomenal game by creative genius solo developer Lucas Pope, which is more than the sum of its parts and somehow even manages to make bureaucracy compelling. Strong recommendation even if you're not a fan of the genre, this is something you should experience at least once in your life.