The pace of the game is punctuated by political intrigue and the occasional terrorist attack, but much of the game is - by design - tedious and boring. The player experiences life from their booth, going over yards of paperwork, getting paid next to nothing, and watching an ever increasing tide of human traffic try to force their way into the country as war and disease ravages the region. The life of a border agent in Papers, Please is similar.
In reality, I often sat in a chair in a dank dark office, watching a bank of closed-circuit television monitors and trying to decide who looked like they might try to steal something. On paper, the agent’s job is to prevent material loss to retail locations through the use of approved means. As an agent, my duties were a bizarre mix of detective and security guard. Several years ago I worked as a Loss Prevention Agent for a large, multinational clothing corporation. I have - in some ways - done this all before. Halfway through my play through I began drinking. But the tension mounts as more complicated rules and paperwork are added every day, and the player is reminded through newspapers and sporadic bouts of intense violence how much is at stake. The job seems simple at first: check travelers’ passports to make sure nothing funny is going on and either approve or deny their entry. The game begins when the player is informed they’ve been chosen, at random, to act as a border agent along the country’s western edge. The year is 1982 and war, unrest and civil conflict tear through the neighboring countries. The setting is the bleak and generic fictional Eastern Bloc country of Arstotzka. This is the world of Papers, Please, an indie game developed by Lucas Pope and released in August for the PC and Mac. I swept the papers off my desk and pushed the button to call the next person in line. He refused to leave my booth and the guards entered, clubbing him in the head with the butt of their rifle before dragging him away. I took them and looked them over, hunting for discrepancies.
The man slid his passport, work permit, immunization records and entry permit across my desk. A new game from creator Lucas Pope explores a little known aspect of war - which awakens some unpleasant memories
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