I’d been seeing “Glory to Arstotzka” written all over the internet, and wondered where the hell it came from. Come to find out, it comes from an indie game called “Papers, Please”. I had to find out if it was a good game or not.
I checked Zero Punctuation. Not only did he like it, it was one of his top games of 2013.
This game on countless review sites gets rave reviews… So I said “Alright, fine!” I had to check this game out for myself. Does it live up to the hype?
Oh my… yes, this is a fun game, and I can’t wait to tell you why.
Well, let’s begin with what you actually do in the game. You’re behind a desk at a border patrol station. Your job is to check every person’s credentials and make sure everything checks out. Everything has to match up correctly. Just in a passport alone, you have to make sure the person’s gender matches with what you see in front of you, their picture, their birthdate (relatively… if it says they were born 60 years ago, do they look 60?), and make sure the “issuing city” is one of the actual valid issuing cities from that country based on the list in your rulebook…
Oh, and you have to hurry. The more people you get through, the more money you make, and you need to make a decent amount of money….
And that’s where the actual immersion part of the game comes into play.
It’s late 1982. You are in a fictitious country called “Arstotzka”, a very Slavic nation *coughRussiacough*. It’s a communist nation, so you and your family have been given apartment housing. Based on a job lottery, you’ve been given the job of border patrol. You walk to work every day, checking the morning newspaper to see what’s going on in your country: terrorists, crime, and foreign relations. Based on what’s going on in the news, your job becomes more difficult as you’re forced to check even more papers and make sure they check out. It’s a gradual process. Terrorists and crime lords are trying to sneak into the country. Other times you’re just hit with a moral dilemma… for instance, a man comes through and all his papers check out, but his wife is next and she doesn’t have proper papers… Do you let her through, or let her go back to her own country where she’ll be killed?
What I love best about this game is how they say so much with so little. The interface is very simple, and the events happening around you bring you more and more detail about where you live. Hell, the second day a terrorist climbs the wall and throws a hand grenade, killing a security guard.
You must be fast with processing people… You must understand that your apartment has rent due (which is required), and optional necessities that should also be paid for (they are necessities, but you don’t have to buy them… things like food, heat, and medicine for your family).
The people that enter into your office to present papers all have their own personalities and situations as well. One kind old man really wants to get into the country, but keeps producing the wrong paperwork every day… You really feel bad for him every time you have to turn him away…
Great story, and great presentation. But that’s not what I like best about this game…
Most video games are challenging you in some way. First-person shooters challenge your aim and tactics, platform games challenge your puzzle-solving and coordination, and “Papers, Please” challenges your attention to detail and efficiency. I love that about this game. You have to have a really keen eye on what’s going on in order to make it through this game. Add that to the fact that you’re in a hurry… you really need to create a foolproof system for checking things out.
All in all, a great game. Glory to Arstotzka, and to “Papers, Please”.
Glory to Arstotzka