Okay, check
the seal… passport numbers match, expiration is okay on the entry permit,
weight lines up, name is spelled correctly, fingerprints seem right. Okay, you’re
legit. Cause no trouble, comrade. Suddenly, the awful sound of a dot matrix
printer. Citation issued: invalid gender?! Geez! The one thing I didn’t check!
Papers, Please is aptly subtitled as “a
dystopian document thriller”. It is one of the more unusual games I played in
2013. Simple yet evocative visuals, core mechanics that actively attempt to
frustrate the player and a story told entirely through gameplay, sans
exposition. You, the inspector, are tasked with operating an Arstotzkan border
checkpoint. This particular border has just opened after six years of war in a
fictional Eastern-European-style geography.
At the heart
of the game is a terrible conflict. I don’t mean the armed warfare that serves
as a backdrop for the game. I mean a hideous, internal conflict. You are
responsible for the needs of your family. You receive modest pay for each
processed applicant. Failing to work fast enough ensures that your family goes cold,
hungry or worse. Unfortunately, you receive new regulations, forms and
restrictions almost every day. If any single fact isn’t right, you receive a
citation from the Ministry of Admission. Pile up enough citations, and you lose
cash. Work fast, get paid. Work too
fast, your family suffers.
The game
would be difficult, but not compelling, if that was the entirety of the
experience. But there is another layer, insidiously brilliant, that makes Papers, Please one of the best games of
last year. Each one of those applicants is a person. Many of them have stories.
The border has disrupted lives, the war has torn families. What do you do, when
you have to choose between feeding your son and preserving a marriage? Do you
accept bribes to keep your family warm? Are you loyal to the government? There
are difficult moral choices to be made, and not everything turns out as
expected.
Possibly the
greatest triumph of Papers, Please is
the way it made me choose a role. More than any RPG of last year, Papers, Please made me get into who I was. Why was I behaving this
way? Making these choices? Halfway through the game I realized I was playing
the role strictly as myself. I was a father and husband. My responsibility was
to my family above all else. But I also had a responsibility to my fellow man.
I was making decisions based on the benefit of my pretend family, doing the
best I could for my neighbors while protecting my loved ones from the state. I
was making the decisions the real me
would make. And it ate me up. It was real stress. I felt true conscience for my
actions in a way that I haven’t felt… possibly ever when playing a video game.
I didn’t play for the “best ending”, or for achievements or anything but what
I felt compelled to do.
I recommend Papers, Please to everyone. I think you are doing yourself a disservice if you have
passed on this gem. Buy it, play it. On your first run, really insert yourself
into the drama. Become a part of the story. Later, sure, go collect
achievements, see each of the 20 endings, explore your choices. But for the
first play, get into it. It may be one of the most truly emotional games you’ll
play in a long time.
Glory to Arstotzka!
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