Papers, Please

slightly uncomfortable about how good i am at this. those years working in fraud prevention really paid off.

I just want to feed my family. Glory to Arstotzka.

This dystopian document-simulator is as stressful as a real government job, but with slightly better pixel art. 70/100 – brilliant in concept, exhausting in execution

political borders, one of its kind. (2019)

As a video game, Papers, Please has a ton of issues and some of the ideas presented were a little lost on me but the moments of clarity that shine through during certain moments in this game are among the most profound I've ever experienced. I might never live in a totalitarian state but boy do I suddenly have an idea of what that means.

Very compelling gameplay, despite it just being to compare different documents against each other. The choices you have to make are great too, they really feel important. Replayability is hampered however by the game no't telling you where to pick up each quest, you just have to know and the gameplay does get a bit tedious, so its annoying to have to wade through the gameplay just to get to the next story bit you want to see.

Fun for a bit.

This is a great game. I normally don't like pixel graphics but in this case it serves the overall experience. Unique, bizarre and ultimately satisfying.

interesting gameplay loop but horrible politics for such a politically-minded game. all sympathy goes to the border staff, almost none for the immigrants, who seem to be awfully prone to terrorism, those pesky foreigners. and imagine doing the whole soviet aesthetic thing for a game about border control in friggin 2013? glory to arstotzka, hardy har har. whatever.

HA! Good fun!