Glory to the great nation of Arstotzka and all those lucky enough to enter therein

I heard about this Indie game in conversation not long before Christmas and then saw it getting quite a few rewards over the Christmas period so my curiosity begun to pique.  I was then fortunate to be gifted it by a friend through Steam (thanks Barney) so I was eager to try it out.

The simplest way of describing this game is a paperwork simulator.  I know that paperwork is one of the most tedious things in the world and after hearing that description, any sane person would think “Why would I want to play that?” but stick with me.  

Ordinarily, paperwork is slow and tedious and remains the same constantly, but in the world of Papers, Please, it is fast paced, closely timed and mixed in with many other over-arching factors that can sometimes leave the actual paperwork as one of your last concerns.  The game begins with you being called to work on the immigration border in the fine nation of Arstotzka (which resides somewhere in the Eastern block from the looks of things) and you must check the paperwork of people coming into the country from neighbouring ones.  You must examine each entrant’s papers and make sure that they are all valid and present.  If they are, you give them an admit stamp and welcome them into your fine country.  If they aren't, you given them a denied stamp and kick them out.  Each work day has quite a short time limit and you are given wages for each person you process correctly.  Processing entrants incorrectly will leave to lost wages and eventually fines.  You must use these wages to support your sizeable family by providing them with heat, food, medicine and such.

Like it says.

This all sounds quite simple and for a time, it is, but things soon start to complicate as paperwork rules and regulations and even the documents themselves change at a rapid pace.  New rules can be introduced barring people from certain regions.  New documents can be introduced that certain entrants must have.  Forgeries start to appear that you must be vigilant for.  Smugglers come into play that you must detect and detain.  Kickbacks and bribes from certain individuals are offered to do things not above board.  Terrorists attack.  Anti-government agencies try to recruit your help.  A vast multitude of events and paths start to unfold resulting in 20 different ways to end the game depending on what you decide to do.

All this means that you have to focus quite intently and try to stay focused on the details of the papers as all this is going on around you and in the end (if you survive to the end), you have to decide if you want to remain loyal to your country, aid in it’s take down or flee to another.

It creates a very immersive mix of both the mundane and surreal happening at the same time and makes you feel like you are struggling to keep your head above water.  It sounds very odd.  And it is.  But it also works surprisingly well.  You want to keep going and process as many people in a day as you can.  And every time you slip up and process someone incorrectly you are cursing yourself thinking “Damn!  Why did I not see that?”

This is definitely not a game for the impatient or those with a short attention span because you have to both stay intently focused on tiny details and aware of the big picture going on around you.  It also provides a great deal of laughs by some of the excellently written regular characters all of which go about their business with typical Soviet attitudes.  Engrossing from start to finish and well recommended to any budding TSA officers out there.