5/5 ★ – DanteSnowcone's review of Papers, Please.

I am amazed at how immersed I became in the experience of Papers, Please. Everything is so meticulously crafted as to get you to make difficult decisions as if you were actually a border patrol employee. You can be lawful, you can be corrupt, you can be friendly, you can be conniving—and rarely does it feel like any choice is objectively “the best one.” At first, I was inexperienced. I was confused, I was using the wrong tools (playing with a controller—don’t do it!), and I lost my job within four days. Bummer. So I tried again. I got better at scanning the paperwork, even as the rules got more complex. I made my office a little home away from home. I wasn’t great, but I was doing (mostly) honest work. But the bureaucracy got in my way at every turn, and it became clear that my and my family’s wellbeing could only come at the expense of others. By day 20, I had become the worst kind of pencil-pushing desk clerk: litigious, methodical, and unforgiving. I helped my friends and punished those who didn’t show proper reverence to my (lowly) position. You can often choose between rejecting or detaining people who forge documents, and I eventually started favoring detaining because, surprisingly, it was less complicated on my end. I was a monster, and I had to stop. At this point, I’d come across several viable ways to break the wheel and I chose one. The game has 20 endings, and your save file allows you to start from any day and create a new branch of narrative, so you can experience lots of endings without having to start from day 1 each time. I only did two endings, but I plan on going back to try more. I know Lucas Pope already gets plenty of rightful praise, and I’ve already played and loved Return of the Obra Dinn, but I was still surprised by how much I enjoyed this “Dystopian Document Thriller.” It’s certainly not for everyone, but anyone who’s even a little interested in the idea should absolutely play this game because it’s executed so well. Time played: 6 hours 4/7 coins collected