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The weary faces of the people who trudge past your booth are far from pretty but at least they are easily distinguishable. The visuals fit the cold, oppressive nature of the job you must do but still manages to have a unique charm. I would have loved to seem more random events introduced as replaying the game multiple times becomes a bit of a grind if you already experienced most of the unique encounters. It is not all doom and gloom however as there are rare moments of humor as well, mostly centered on a particular character that regularly shows up at your booth. You might be able to afford the medicine your sick child needs but you certainly won’t feel proud of your actions. Being the “good” guy might leave you with a starving family while accepting bribes or detaining people who could simply have been denied entry could be very beneficial to you. You’ll encounter plenty of people with a sob story to back up their lack of proper documentation but it is up to your own discretion whether you help them or not. New twists are introduced daily to keep you on your toes and the game has a plot that weaves through the daily grind but I definitely do not want to spoil that for anyone. The story mode takes place over the course of one month which results in about a four to five hour playthrough depending on which one of the twenty odd endings you unlock. After a few hours of playing the game can even start to feel like real work! As the rules change and the paperwork pile up your desk becomes more cluttered making it easier to miss things which of course ramps up the pressure even more. Believe me it is not a good feeling going home at the end of the day and not being able to afford food for your family because you missed tiny mistakes such as a forged stamp, inconsistent date or one of the many other variables that you have to cross reference. Your first two mistakes per day will only get you a warning but anything after that and your salary is docked. Of course there are penalties for rushing the job and missing discrepancies in the documents. You get paid five credits for each person you process so it is in your own interest (and that of your family) to get the job done as quickly as possible. This seemingly mundane task becomes tenser as the game progresses and additional responsibilities are piled on your plate. It all starts off very simple as you only need to check that the person handing you the passport actually look like their photo and that the information on the passport is correct. Your basic purpose is to simply stamp “Approved” or “Denied” on the passports of the people who shuffle into your claustrophobic little post. Playing a lowly immigration inspector is a bit of a shock after all the games that cast you in the role of a hero or savior but it makes for a refreshing change of pace. If the premise behind the game sounds depressing it is because that is what it is meant to be but don’t let that deter you from playing. Do well and you might even be able to afford food and heat but mess up and you’ll soon find how expendable you are. It’s not a very glamorous job but it provides housing for you and your family. The game opens with your character winning the labor lottery, earning him the privilege of manning a border checkpoint between the fictional countries of Kolechia and Arstotzka. It is not every day that you encounter a game billed as a “dystopian document thriller” so my interest was immediately piqued by Papers, Please.