Papers, Please was an instant hit when it first launched back in 2013. It was a refreshing indie game that was as simple to pick up and play as it was to be sucked into. It still remains an extremely popular and enjoyable puzzler that many have tried to emulate, but few have been able to match. Now, four years later, developer Lucas Pope tweeted Papers, Please will make its way to the basically-defunct handheld PS Vita, for better or for worse. Still, the more consoles you can play this gem on, the better.
12/12 pic.twitter.com/BSPWG8r595
— Lucas Pope (@dukope) December 9, 2017
Papers, Please weaves a dark and interesting story without being too heavy-handed. As a worker stationed at the fictional country of Grestin, you work as a border checkpoint agent. You and your family live there in a “class-8 dwelling.” You have to make sacrifices to feed your family and keep them healthy while your job is to decide whether or not you should allow certain individuals into the country of Arstozka. To do this, you’ll have to inspect travel documents, fingerprint databases, and other systems to make the determination on whether or not someone is allowed to come into the country.
As you progress, you’ll see familiar faces return over and over again, either looking to visit others, looking for work, or just safe passage as they are denied and attempt to come back and enter, desperate to see their loved ones. You may even see ne’er-do-wells who want to see the country fall. If they slip through the cracks unscathed, you’re taken away for failing to do your job.
The choices you must make, whether to deny someone because their paperwork is a bit outdated, or to make them submit to invasive searches, lends a dark and suffocating tone, as do the graphics themselves. It may sound fairly simple, but the complex systems and politics involved certainly make for an entertaining few hours as you play through the game.
If you decide you want to take it with you now on PS Vita rather than your iPhone, you’ll be able to do so next week on Dec. 12. You know what they say — Glory to Arstotzka!
