Full disclosure: I’m a sucker for games which have some sort of social commentary behind them. It doesn’t hurt for a game to be clever and to make a deeper political point, as long as the mechanics that make it a “game” (rather than the “interactive experience” nonsense I can’t quite get my head around with games such as Journey) are solid. After all, games are a means through which we can explore different aspects of society and our perceptions of them, just as film and TV can also test how we see the world around us.
I’m also a bit of a history and politics nerd, so understanding how totalitarian systems may thrive on a regime of fear seems like the firm basis of an interesting game to me, as long as it’s carried out sensitively. The difficult questions that average people face in extreme societies – whether to conform and survive, or to stand against injustice and risk their lives – are luckily something that those of us living in some semblance of a democracy can largely escape. However, putting ourselves in the shoes who have suffered at the hands of such regimes allows us to test our own moralities and to learn something about those less fortunate than ourselves.
As a result, the premise of Papers, Please, an indie title developed for Steam by Lucas Pope, is something I can really get behind. You play a nameless border patrol officer in the state of Arstotzka (parallels with the USSR are unavoidable), who has the unenviable job of checking passports, work permits and visas of those trying to pass through.
Credit to IGN Germany: http://de.ign.com/papers-please-mac/88563/news/papers-please-passkontroll-simulation-bald-fur-die
Although Arstotzka is quite a popular state with immigrants, it is not without its own troubles. As the game progresses, civil and political unrest, as well as harsh conditions, place the protagonist under greater pressure to feed his family, heat his home and keep everyone in his household in good health. The protagonist has his work supervised by a silent yet merciless supervisor, who will dock pay after a certain amount of “mistakes” have been made. One too many mistakes and it’s Game Over.
Game Mechanics
So, Papers Please is at a basic level testing the player’s ability to quickly recall a complex list of rules, or in the very least be able to quickly look up these rules. As the levels progress, Arstotzka’s diplomatic relations and economic situation will change, meaning that the list of criteria that have to be checked with each visitor/worker/resident becomes steadily longer. The game is therefore largely a memory and adaptation test. Those who love puzzle and strategy games will enjoy poring over passports and height charts to spot miniscule errors, such as an implausible birthdate.
However, to say that the game is purely about applying rules in order to win is to overlook an entire aspect of the game. Your border inspector faces moral decisions: many of the people trying to cross (at all costs) may have family, just like the protagonist himself; letting certain people through or opting for particular choices may help precipitate the downfall of the corrupt regime you are working for. The flip-side to this is the aforementioned consequences of not doing your job properly, and the effect on your family. There are also other consequences for “doing the right thing” above simply “doing your job”, which I shall not reveal to avoid massive spoilers.
Style
For a game which is not particularly tasking on the average CPU (I could get my battered, £250 laptop with a faulty fan unit to run it without too much strain), it is an effortlessly stylish one. The soundtrack is droning and stern, which fits in with the stark and bleak atmosphere of a totalitarian state in crisis. The voices are reduced to mechanical-sounding muffles, which helps add to the impression that the world surrounding the player character is cold and threatening.
Credit to Unabhaengige Tester: http://www.unabhaengige-tester.de/game-review/papers-please/
The visuals are reduced to a palette of black, grey, green and red, which adds to the sense that your character is simply trudging through his working day and that all of the life has been drained out of his surroundings. The art style adds to this effect by being pixellated, but in a polished way. This is counterbalanced with the sense of humour running through the entire game. While there are certainly dark plot points, a handful of genuinely funny moments break the tension in quite a nice way, for example the appearance of a slightly too audacious and slightly too relaxed drug smuggler.
Replayability Factor
As already discussed, the story in Papers, Please is one of survival against morals, and also one of questioning what is even a fundamental moral choice. Is it immoral to save a family member above a complete stranger, or the reverse? As a result, even though the plot is quite basic in places and also quite unoriginal (totalitarian state involved in diplomatic difficulties, who knew), the story is by no means linear.
Because there are many opportunities to branch off on different moral paths, there are multiple endings which are unlockable. The stages map shows all of these branching paths, allowing a player to easily start back from a particular crossroads in order to see the consequences of alternative choices. You’ll most certainly want to go back and see all of the different endings, which could be quite a time sink, but the ability to do this without having to start from the beginning or know where to save is quite nifty.
Furthermore, after one playthrough, infinite modes are unlocked. These allow the player to see how long they can survive without running out of money or to see how many “customers” they can process before their shift is over. There is even a “perfection” mode, resulting in a Game Over if even a single mistake is made (being a moralist is therefore impossible in this mode, unless you want the game to end).
This is quite fun for those of us who play for the puzzling as well as for the story, though clearly it is something to dip in and out of, rather than something that will suddenly absorb an entire afternoon. Even though at least some of the migrants being processed are randomly generated, there are only so many times you can do full body scans on a rather portly bloke from a neighbouring state before you go bozz-eyed or your mind starts to wander.
Nevertheless, Papers, Please has some interesting gameplay balanced against a fascinating snapshot of the life of someone in a morally tasking job. For those of us who have our feet firmly planted in the 1st world and turn up day-in-day-out for an average desk job, this game might lead to questions as to what you would do if your boss (the only boss you can have) asks you to enforce morally questionable rules. Would you use the regime to your benefit? Or would you fight against the system? I think all of us would like to think we’d fall into the latter category; what we would actually do if it happened to us is perhaps an entirely different matter.
magicianarcana 
Great read on a cool game that makes you stop and think.
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