In 2014, it won the fourth annual GameCity prize. Within the gaming community, Papers, Please has been received with high regard, and drawn enough attention to inspire a film version due out later this year. Ultimately, my decision to follow the rules became troubling when I was faced with moral dilemmas, such as separating the old married couple. However, as the citations began to impact my cyber-family’s well-being, I quickly became unforgiving for the smallest inconsistency – regardless of the migrants’ circumstances. As I played the game, my initial, and rather liberal, inclination was to let most people pass without much question.
Indeed, I found the restrictive options of Papers, Please extremely effective in drawing me emotionally into the complexity of the game’s subject matter. Salter identifies this element as an effective means to evoke empathy from the player, stating, “Close play of games made with this system demonstrates that what is essential for emotional representation is not player agency: instead, it is the lack of choice that is most strongly resonant” (47). In “Playing at Empathy: Representing and Experiencing Emotional Growth through Twine Games,” Anastasia Salter notes this characteristic of controlled gameplay through “limitation on choice” in Twine games. The player is forced to choose which family member will receive medicine at the expense of everyone else. Most days end with little money for food and medicine, and often the entire family is sick and hungry. The options to disperse the player’s salary are also limited. Unfortunately, he has the appropriate paperwork, and there are no options to arrest or detain him – only to deny or approve entry. Another example involves a woman who states her new boss is in line behind her and will force her into prostitution if he is allowed entry. The player can either allow the wife into the country and receive a citation or deny entry and split up the pair.
There are no options to help without suffering consequences. For example, one instance involves an older couple: The husband has the necessary paperwork, but the wife does not. While there are a variety of difficult circumstances presented to the player, the choices to act are few – often limited to approving or denying entry. Additionally, gameplay of Papers, Please is extremely controlled. Notably, unlike action-based video games, the premise of Papers, Please is document analysis, and most of the game is confined to the player’s small virtual desk. These complications build tension, as player performance impacts the demise of the player’s virtual family. As the game progresses, ever-changing policies and visa requirements grow in complexity and the job becomes increasingly difficult. The object of the game is simple: Review documents against current regulations and stamp “approved” or “denied” on the passport. The audio of the game begins with a somber, dark anthem, and dialogue is voiced in an incoherent foreign language, translated and transcribed in English across the screen. Visually, Papers, Please has nostalgic, 1980’s graphic style, which aligns well with the narrative’s time period. Players are placed in the role of an immigration officer assigned to a border checkpoint. Papers, Please is set in the year 1982 within a fictional totalitarian government reminiscent of the Soviet Union. Endless mode provides a traditional gaming experience with a scoreboard, minus most of the narrative elements. Indie game developer Lucas Pope coins his game, Papers, Please, as “a dystopian document thriller.” Designed to emulate the challenges of immigration regulation and border control, Papers, Please has also been labelled a “serious game” or “puzzle video game.” Pope split the game into two sections: “story mode” and “endless mode.” Story mode has 20 alternate endings based on the players’ choices.
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