Quick impressions: Papers, Please

PapersPlease

 

Papers, Please is an indie game by Lucas Pope, currently in beta, in which the player takes on the role of a 1980s border guard in a Communist country. On paper, the game is simple: read the papers of each traveller who approaches your checkpoint. Admit those who meet the official criteria (e.g. they are citizens of the correct country; they have a valid work permit and visa); deny those who don’t; and keep an eye out for discrepancies. In practice, it’s a bit more complicated: there are a fair few variables to keep track of, which requires the player to trade off thoroughness and speed. You are paid based on how many people you process, but make mistakes and your pay will be docked. Earn too little, and your family starves.

 

The real appeal of Papers, Please isn’t so much mechanical as psychological: this is a game that tries to put the player into the shoes of a minor, despised apparatchik upholding a corrupt regime in order to pay the bills. I might even go so far as to say the game turns you into a bureaucratic version of the mooks we normally mow down without a second thought. Not necessarily a “fun” game, but it’s an interesting thought experiment and worth checking out if you have a few minutes to burn.

5 thoughts on “Quick impressions: Papers, Please”

  1. My brother linked me to this game, but I still haven’t played it. I wonder if something like this could be emulated in Twine. Is there some kind of win state or can you get away win letting the wrong people through? Also, I guess this is a memory/reading skills sort of game.. right?

    1. Thanks for commenting!

      “I guess this is a memory/reading skills sort of game.. right?”
      That’s pretty much it! Where the game succeeds is in blending those mechanics with its theme – and adding a moral twist, in the form of the odd sob story…

      “Is there some kind of win state or can you get away win letting the wrong people through?”
      The game ends after a certain number of days – fewer in the beta than the full game. I haven’t finished the beta, though. I assume making it to the finish line with your family in one piece is the win state.

      You can actually make a couple of errors per day before your pay starts to be docked, so there is also a little bit of leeway.

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