“Papers, please” is a phrase associated with oppressive regimes randomly checking identification — the perfect subject for a video game. Papers, Please, the 2013 game created by Lucas Pope, used that as inspiration to put the player behind the desk at a checkpoint in the fictional communist country of Arstotzka. Your job is to review travelers’ papers and either let them through or send them packing. Of course, things get more complicated every day. Sometimes, a bomb goes off and shuts the checkpoint down, which means you make less money; that means you end up choosing between getting your son medicine or getting food for the rest of the family.
It also gets harder every day to decide if someone should pass the checkpoint, as the game adds more and more things you need to be on the lookout for. This slows you down, so you make less money — but if you get careless and start letting in people you shouldn’t your pay gets docked as well. It’s not a “fun” game at all, but it’s definitely satisfying to get through a day without making any mistakes (though you probably still won’t have nearly enough money).
There’s a surprising amount of complexity in Papers, Please, as making the “right” decisions becomes ever more challenging. Oh yeah, you also have to deal with bribes, a cult recruiting members, weirdos with fake documents and much more. In fact, the game has 20 different endings depending on how you play. I haven’t seen them all yet, but I’m guessing that none of them qualify as a happy ending. — N.I.