Papers Please

[Stealhead]

Any one try Papers Please yet? Pretty neat little game I picked it up form GoG the other night.

The basic premise is that you are a customs agent in a communist dystopia(or is it a utopia) and you must check entrants documents and either allow them entry into the country or deny them.You get a rule book which list every nation (pretend ones) and the cities which can issue passports and other documents.Then based on this information and other requirements that can change form day to day you take their passport and stamp it one way or another.

You have a lot of tools to use for example if they have no passport you can ask them why they do not have one sometimes they forget to hand it to you.If the person looks different from the photo you can give the a finger print slip and then compare prints to the ones registered.There is even a note pad that records the Q&A so you can review (after a while you have several things to check). If you make a mistake and bar a person who should be allowed or person who should be deported you get only tow breaks after that is a fine each time and your pay is lousy and based on how many people enter you booth.

you have to be on the ball as you play little things can be off for example a misspelled name or a differing photo and sometimes you get a person where it is hard to tell if they are male or female you can ask but sometimes they are lying and sex is an error meaning a forged document other times they are not.

And the things people say to you when deny them or just in general conversation are quite humorous.Every so often a nice young lady will walk in and along with her papers she gives a hand add for her uh place of business and she'll say "stop by some time I go by Ana there".I had one who was from another country and had work permit on the permit it said she was in "food services" but she gave me the hand add I let her go anyway.

Where the game gets interesting is the choices you make.Do you allow a husband who does not have the proper permission pass because you just saw his wife who asked you to let her husband slide or do you follow the rules.Kind of fun that way the choices you get to make be a Nazi or be a saint even if it costs you money.If you are very OCD you can take the time to align the visa space perfectly with the stamp machine.

At the end of each day you see your budget and the condition of your family you can choose to for go paying for heat or food of course this means that your family might get sick and then you must buy them medicine or allow them to die.You can get away without heat for a day if you pay for it the next day This makes the game more stressful because you must try to get as many people through your booth as you can in a day while still avoiding fines for errors so if you plan on being merciful to someone you can make that the only mistake of the day sometimes they bribe you a few coin but only enough to come out ahead if you have no fines.

Anyway very fun and unique game.It is much more fun as you play it i was a bit intrigued reading about but had my doubts as to how enjoyable it would be turns out that it is very enjoyable.And very good way to keep your brain working attention to detail I hate when I miss an expired date.

http://www.gog.com/game/papers_please