I’ll be honest; I don’t usually look at games before they’re released. As a general rule, I actively try to not get too excited about games before they come out as…yeah, that happens. However, every once in a while, a game will cross my radar that grabs my attention, made by an indie developer who deserves recognition that I just HAVE to talk about. In today’s case, I’ve played the Beta twice and passed it on to multiple friends. It’s that good. So, let’s take a look at the upcoming Papers, Please.
Papers, Please hopes to corner a market I didn’t even know existed. The site lists it as a “dystopian document thriller”, and that’s actually the best way to describe it. You play as a man who’s been forced to run the new border patrol gate in the communist state of Arstotzka. Each day, citizens and foreigners alike will attempt to get through, and it’s your job to determine whether they should be allowed into the country. You’ll examine passports and other important documents, conduct fingerprint scanning, and, if necessary, send people away with the police in tow to ensure no damage is done to your wonderful country. Oh, and you better work quickly, because your daily wages are directly based on how many people you successfully process, and if you can’t keep up, your family back home will be the ones to suffer in the cold, dark, and hungry apartment the state so kindly forced you to live in.
Now, one might look at this and immediately be fearful of a strong political undercurrent. After all, immigration in a country that looks and acts like a member of the former Soviet bloc could easily turn into a politically charged soapbox of a game. Luckily, Lucas Pope, the sole designer of the game, is aware of that risk and seeks to avoid it entirely. “My main goal is just to create an interesting and entertaining game with somewhat original mechanics.” said Pope. “Beyond experiencing some empathy for the tough job that immigration inspectors have, there are no deep political aspects.” A focus on the gameplay over preaching a political agenda? Awesome.
So, if it’s not a political game, what is it? Well, it’s a tightly made game with a heavy emphasis on technical gameplay. You’re constantly scanning documents looking for the most minute discrepancies, as the safety of the country–and your wallet–depends on your ever sharp eye ensuring only those who deserve to get in are able to do so. Every time you screw up, the state sends you a warning letting you know what you did wrong. The first two times are purely warnings, but from that point forward, it results in docked pay. Which, in all reality, neither you or your family can afford. 
The result is a frantic, fast-paced game that’s constantly pushing you to move more quickly while also requiring you to look at more and more things. The state will constantly be reacting to the events happening around you, forcing you to be more strict with certain countries or changing the type of pass a foreigner needs to work there. As such, you are constantly having to check your rulebook to see what’s in effect and using it to point out any discrepancies that may exist. But don’t forget to watch that clock, as after 6:00 P.M., any work you do is unpaid. Ouch.
This is the kind of unique idea that keeps the indie market going strong while the AAA industry is poised to crash. So where does an idea like this come from? Pope said, “Although I’m American, I live outside the US now and have done a good amount of international traveling in the last few years. Going through airport immigration enough times, I slowly got the impression that whatever the inspector was doing could be fun. Once that was marinating in my head I started to see elements of current events and popular fiction that could work well within the concept.”As someone who’s currently living in the UK, I can assure you that he’s on the money with that one; if nothing else, the life of an immigration checkpoint worker must be colourful and interesting.
There are two features that I feel need to be discussed before I wrap this preview up. The first is a beautiful use of moral choices that actually feel like choices. There isn’t a tangible benefit to these actions, nor is there commentary presented. The ones presented in the Beta are rather straightforward, but Pope tells me that there will be longer stories later in the game that span multiple days. Despite being simple on the surface, there’s a lot that goes into it. Using an example from the Beta, let’s say an old woman wants to see her son, who she hasn’t seen in over twenty years. That seems reasonable, and the idea of her reuniting with her son has to make you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. But what’s this? Her documents are not in order, and the odds are good that if she doesn’t get in now, she’ll never get the chance. Do you let her in, knowing that you’ll get a warning for it? And what if you’ve already gotten your warnings for the day? Then it will be a dock in pay, and you run the risk of your family going cold and hungry yet again. You need that money. Do you keep her away from her son?
It’s a tough call, but the decision is entirely up to you. As Pope explained, “the moral choices are a natural extension of the ‘threads’ that define the story. Like a real checkpoint, the player meets everyone in passing and each person may have a small story to tell. Including moral choices lets the player experience the tough situations that I imagine a real inspector often finds themselves in. Keeping the dialog brief and the choices commentary-free allows the player to project more of their own feelings onto the interaction and makes the game more interesting for me.” Take note, other game developers: this is how morality should work. Not with outlandish moral choice systems that have me either slaughtering fields of babies or picking flowers to give to the elderly, with tangible gameplay benefits for being all the way good or all the way evil. It should be difficult life choices presented straight-forwardly, leaving the player the freedom to act as he or she genuinely would in that situation. Now that is interesting.
The other factor I loved is one I’ve mentioned a couple times already: the use of family as a sign of progress. When things are going well, the family will be well fed, warm, and generally happy. Well, as happy as one could be in a cramped apartment in a communist state in the 1980s. However, if you start slipping up and getting docked for pay, or simply move too slowly, things will start going poorly. Food won’t make it to the table, the heating bill won’t be paid, and worse, people will start getting sick. As Pope explains, “Once I decided on the basic style of narrative, it was clear the player needed influences outside their job. The nighttime screen is a way to motivate the player and apply pressure to the decisions they make during the day. It also nicely inserts the player into the same world as the immigrants they’re approving and denying. Just like the real world, everyone’s got problems.” A genuinely interesting mechanic that both increases the pressure on the player while also increasing their immersion? Yeah, I’m sold.
I’m not going to pretend the game is perfect. A lot of times, I end up finding myself knowing something is wrong, but having no idea how to prove it. The in game tutorial isn’t great at telling you exactly what you need to use to point out each discrepancy (I didn’t even know there was an audio transcript until I started searching for images for this post), and it’s going to take some trial and error to figure out what you need to do. And then there are bugs. In my playthrough, I experienced an issue where I’d be warned for letting someone through with false fingerprints, even though the game seemed to tell me the names matched who they were supposed to be. Pope is aware of that and is actively working to fix these bugs. But see, these bugs are forgivable because the game is still available as a free Beta. This is what Betas are for, after all.
So, at the end of the day, you have a clever concept with tight gameplay mechanics that are able to provide an interesting storyline with moral choices that don’t feel forced upon you…what more do you need? I’m not a person to hype games before they’ve been released (I keep quiet on my Kickstarter donations for that very reason), but this is a game I truly enjoyed from start to finish. If your interest is piqued, check out the Beta for free here for both Windows and Mac. Pope is aiming for a summer release, though no definite date has been given. Check it out for yourself, and let me know what you think in the comments below!
Chase Wassenar, aka MaristPlayBoy, is the Lead Editor and Founder of the Red Shirt Crew. He sincerely regretted turning the old woman away after her son’s building burned down the next day, but at least his family was fed, right?…Right? You can read his other articles at ToyTMA, follow him on Twitter at @RedShirtCrew or email him at theredshirtcrew@gmail.com.
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