Glory to Arstotzka! The long-awaited Vita port of the document-checking simulator is as brilliant now as it first was four years ago.
| Developer | 3909 LLC |
| Publisher |
3909 LLC; Limited Run Games
|
| Franchise | N/A |
| Genre | |
| PSTV | No |
| Physical English |
Yes – NA only (LRG)
|
World-building & Story
Papers, Please casts you as a nameless citizen of Arstotzka who is selected by random lottery to staff a border checkpoint at Gretin and check the documentation of immigrants and travellers to ensure they have the correct paperwork to enter the nation. From there, various political and personal events unfold and the player has free reign to decide how to respond to these.
From the opening screens, depicting a weary grey-tinted state with startling Soviet-red propaganda scattered around, you’ll be sucked in by the game’s world building. Arstotzka is depicted as a oppressive Eastern-Bloc state led by dictatorship rule where expression is discouraged and hard work is rewarded with pitiful pay but the chance to work towards the greater good. It’s a setting we’ve seen before in videogames, but never quite as well realised as here.
There’s no traditional storytelling here – instead, the plot is progressed by a variety of alternative methods. You’ll read newspaper headlines between each chapter; discover the plight of your family as you return home each day and check updates to your rule book based on what’s happening in the world. Yet mostly it’ll simply be through interaction with other citizens who pass through your border checkpoint – who offer fleeting comments about the state of the world or thoughts on Arstotzka – that you’ll discover what’s truly going on and from there make your own decisions about how to deal with the situation you find yourself in.
Character interaction is therefore kept to a minimum – the people you talk to are often seen once then disappear, while your family are merely one-line sentences at the end of each day. There is a recurring cast that you’ll get to know though – whether it be your iron-fisted boss; a goofy immigrant who keeps returning with the wrong paperwork or a friendly border security guard who grew up in the same city as you.
The game then uses these characters and relationships you’ll build to pose interesting moral questions – you may be asked by someone you’ve made friends with to let in his girlfriend who he’s not seen in years even though she lacks the correct paperwork. Do you uphold your duty to the glorious nation of Arstotzka and disappoint the only person who has shown any empathy towards you? Or do you let her in knowing your wages will be docked so you may not be able to feed your family that day? Papers, Please handles its characters with skill, each playing an important part in evoking a certain reaction in the player.
Therefore despite the lack of a traditional story, Papers, Please manages to tell one of the most engrossing and unique tales on the Vita. Despite being a bleak, oppressive state Arstotzka is one of the most enjoyable worlds I’ve been immersed in; while the cast help create a sympathetic edge that will have you thinking about what happened long after the game’s conclusion.
Presentation & Sound
While it aesthetically matches the dreary atmosphere of the setting, Papers, Please‘s presentation does feel slightly dull at times. I feel it does the best it can given the circumstances, but I wouldn’t call it a particularly pretty game to look at.
The majority of your time will be spent staring at paperwork – passports; entry visas; vaccination certificates etc. and there’s a limit to how interesting it’s possible to make these look. Menus are equally function but nothing pretty, keeping the Soviet 80’s feel through their choice of font and colour scheme.
During gameplay, the top half of the screen is where the more interesting stuff happens – you’ll see the immigrants trying to gain entry to Arstotzka, as well as an overview of the border checkpoint you’re working in. While the majority of this shows non-descript black pixel people (oddly fitting in a communist ‘everyone is equal’ kind of way), once a person steps up to your booth you’ll get a view of their face. They’re crudely drawn portraits without much in the way of animation, but like everything else in Papers, Please they fit in surprisingly well with the game’s themes.
The soundtrack is a mix of communist-noises – sharp brass instruments and a general feel of oppression, which works well. This is only during the menus as there’s no music during gameplay and in fact very little in the way of noise – instead, only the odd noisy grunt from the characters. Amusingly, each only has one word they repeat when talking and I found it quite funny hearing the main character bark “Papers!” no matter what was being discussed.
Gameplay & Content
While on paper it sounds like a fairly boring idea, Papers, Please somehow manages to transform the tedious task of checking passports into an addictive, smart videogame. While it can get a little tedious at times, the impressive narrative and constant tweaks to the formula will mean you’ll definitely want to see it through to the end.
So upon arrival on your first day at your state-decided job of document inspector, you’re introduced to the rule book that forms the basis of everything you do. In this, you can find out information about neighbouring nations including what stamps their passports need to be valid; as well as what the glorious nation of Arstotzka are looking for before someone can immigrate into their land. It’s your role to check all this paperwork for discrepancies and deny access to anyone with forged or incomplete documents.
How you do this is simple – people come up to your booth’s window and hand you their documentation and you need to compare this against the rule book for discrepancies. If you spot something wrong, pressing triangle followed by highlighting missing information and the relevant rule will allow you to interrogate them and depending on the answers they give, you can either stamp their passport to approve entry or deny it (and in later stages, you can even detain them depending how serious the rules they’re breaking are).
From here, a complex web of rules emerges that changes at the start of every day. For example, you might be told that immigrants from a certain area must have a valid vaccination certificate or other piece of additional documentation; or that native residents from a certain district need to have their passports confiscated. It turns Papers, Please not only into a unique version of spot-the-difference, but also a race between your memory and the game as it constantly challenges you to keep up with the current state of affairs. And it works so well.
A couple of other ideas are introduced – the most significant of which is a small resource management game at the end of the day where you have to choose how to spend your money based on your family’s needs. You’re also given a tranquilizer gun in order to help neutralize terrorists and at one point asked to diffuse a bomb, which provide minor distractions to the usual gameplay flow but fit in well with the developing themes.
The narrative also weaves into some of your actions as inspector. You’ll be encouraged by the border security to detain people for discrepancies as they’re paid extra for it while immigrants with incorrect documentation will attempt to bribe you to let them through. These factor in to the aforementioned meta-game involving keeping your family looked after – do you accept these bribes to get extra funds or do your job properly and swerve the risks of being caught?
This leads into the biggest gameplay draw which has to be the way you’re encouraged to shape the narrative. You’re introduced to a number of choices throughout a playthrough and have to decide how you want to play – for example, do you follow the instructions of a shadowy organisation who seem hell-bent on using any means necessary to take down the Arstotzka government; or do you act like a good citizen and report them at risk of repercussions? There are a great number of endings available and a branching web at the level select allows you easy access to alternative paths; meaning multiple playthroughs are encouraged.
It can get frustrating at times when you fail to spot a mis-spelling of an obscure region of a neighbouring nation or can’t tell the gender of an androgynous immigrant and get penalized for not challenging it; and it does become slightly tedious by endgame. Still, if you haven’t had enough an endless mode can be unlocked that challenges you with set criteria such as keeping your family alive for x number of days or not making any mistakes, which is a nice addition to the package.
Conclusion
Taking what seems like a dull idea on paper and turning it into a fantastically addictive game, Papers, Please makes a brilliant addition to Vita’s library. The dystopian theme makes a perfect backdrop for the narrative adventure to take place on and a number of surprisingly emotional touches make this a story you won’t forget any time soon – no matter how it plays out.
9.0/10
kresnik258gaming 