The game is the creation of a single man, Lucas Pope. The game has many possible endings, depending on your choices. You will deal with government corruption. You will be recruited by terrorists looking to liberate the country.

Doing your job perfectly may result in you breaking up families or detaining a person trying to smuggle in medicine.

The relentless complications of the ever-shifting paperwork demands affect the travelers as well as yourself. Interwoven through this process-oriented gameplay are brief little stories surrounding the people with whom you interact. Eventually, every approval or denial is followed by seconds of tension while the player waits in dread for the sound of that printer. Every mistake you make is revealed by a citation from a dot matrix printer in your station that tells you what you missed. And itГўв‚¬в„ўs all timed, so the more papers youГўв‚¬в„ўre given, the less time you have to review. If his weight doesnГўв‚¬в„ўt match whatГўв‚¬в„ўs listed or his gender doesnГўв‚¬в„ўt match, then you have to subject him to a humiliating (for both of you) strip search to make sure heГўв‚¬в„ўs not smuggling in contraband. If an immigrantГўв‚¬в„ўs face doesnГўв‚¬в„ўt match his or her document picture, then you have to check fingerprints. Diplomats have their own papers, as do those who seek asylum (yes, apparently some of the other nearby countries are even more oppressive). Additional documents like work visas, entry permits, and immunization records are tossed at you to examine. Fail to bring home enough pay and they can die off.ДЄs the game progresses, the paperwork game grows more and more complicated. At the end of each day, the player returns home to ration the pittance heГўв‚¬в„ўs earned on food, rent, heat and sometimes medicine for his family. The player is pushed to do the best he can because heГўв‚¬в„ўs paid according to how successful he is at properly sorting who is and isnГўв‚¬в„ўt allowed into Arstotzka. If the paperwork is accurate, theyГўв‚¬в„ўre good to go. The player must analyze the paperwork of each person attempting to get through the checkpoint into your homeland, the fictional country of Arstotzka. The game puts the player in the role of a customs official at the border of an oppressive Eastern European country during the cold war of the early Гўв‚¬Лњ80s. Г‚в‚¬Е“A video game where players check the legitimacy of peopleГўв‚¬в„ўs immigration paperworkГўв‚¬Вќ sounds like some horrid concept a Department of Homeland Security employee might come up with as a way to funnel some of the agencyГўв‚¬в„ўs public relations budget to a crony in the gaming industry.Д«ut in August, a little indie game called Papers, Please charmed the pants off reviewers and players with exactly that pitch.

Papers please game icon