Review: Papers, Please ''Glory to Arstotzka''
It is not new for anyone that the indie genre has moved the industry in recent years, media such as music, film or video games have enjoyed great influence and acceptance of this genre. Indies are fashionable and can not be denied, either because of their fresh, different touch or wanting to separate us from an '' industrial '' that we are accustomed to hear, see and play the same every year ... Who knows ? There are many reasons for the success of the independent genre in general. Today we will not put in numeral the reasons, today I come to bring you a review of a great game... Papers, Please.
Papers, please is an indie video game created by video game developer Lucas Pope, also known for working as a developer in large videogame sagas such as Uncharted by Naughty Dog and for having several indie video games created under his pseudonym 3909. The game was developed in 2012 and It was premiered in the digital market on August 8, 2013 and in 2014 it received the BAFTA award in the category of Best Simulation Game. Papers, Please has a very original and very unusual premise that I will comment on as the post progresses
Have you ever imagined being an immigration officer?
When playing video games we usually seek to be the heroes or villains of a story, adventurers, great warriors, detectives or lawyers; or in cases of simulations athletes, doctors and even absurd things like a loaf of bread or a goat... But the tedious idea of working and being some kind of public official in a game is not the most attractive idea at first sight, but for some reason it works and very well in Papers, please.
Story
Trying to avoid any kind of Spoiler of the story, I will say that in summary in Paper, please embody an ordinary person with a family that lives in the communist country of Arstotzka that by chance of a lottery of jobs you will be an immigration official in the newly reopened border of Grestin, a border that had been closed for 6 years due to being in a situation of conflict with its other borders. Your goal will be to prevent terrorists, spies, mercenaries and undocumented people from crossing that border, that is your only job, and in what way will you do it? receiving documents inspecting them and approving or denying the entry of people who do not comply with the requirements, who have erroneous or false documentation or who try to enter with weapons, drugs or products prohibited by law, if you do not do well you will be punished little a little until you reach monetary sanctions, meanwhile with the money you earn in this job you will use it to support your family consisting of your son, wife, mother-in-law and uncle, so avoiding these sanctions is adequate to avoid passing more needs of the that a communist state can generate, because at the end of the day what should not be missing is a plate of food on the table.
One of the good things about Paper, please is its history, which although it is not the most elaborate and complex, becomes quite crude, real and at times cynical, with several possible plot twists and several decision making that combined with its game mechanics and its art guarantees a safe immersion in the game. It is very difficult to finish this game and you do not have any kind of reflection. It should be noted that the game has just over 20 finals that are unlocked according to the decisions you make in the game.
Game mechanics
The strong point of the game is in its gameplay and innovative mechanics, as mentioned above our work in the game is to inspect documents, approve and deny entry of people according to what the rules send, and if we do not do our work correctly we will be sanctioned monetarily and we will lose it in the game, something that sounds basic and easy but that becomes very difficult and complicated as the days advance.
In the game we will be located in a kind of small booth, we will have on our left a table with which we can receive the documents that the visitors give us and at the same time we can interact and read the conversations that arise, also on the back wall there is a line drawn indicating exactly the height of the people who are entering, this resource is very important in certain points of the game where you have to be aware of whether the height of the person is according to what your documents say , in the bottom part we have several quite useful elements: a radio that keeps the conversations as they happen, which is quite useful when the person says that they are coming to the country to do something but in their documentation says something else, a normative regulation that is almost mandatory to have it because there you can find all the necessary requirements to enter the country, and you must in when it tends to change iar.
There is also a weight which gives you the exact weight of the person who is located and its function is to prevent people from entering trafficking in arms or drugs, the former being much more dangerous since a terrorist attack could occur. And then the clock and the calendar the first only has the function of notifying you when the working day is ending and the second if it is important because you have to be rectifying that the documents you receive are not expired or that their validity has expired.
On the right side however is another roll, there are only two tools that are key in the game but have no major complication, the first are the approved and denied stamps that are used to deny or approve the access of people who want to enter Arstotzka at the beginning of the game is a bit tedious because you are forced to put the stamps manually but as you go forward you can improve it and make the work more fluid and easier, and the second tool is a sign of exclamasion that I will use to point out the discrepancies that you find in the paperwork, that if you have the date wrong, that if the passport is expired, that if the photo of the passport does not match the one of the person you want to enter; and so many cases, the latter will also get wet and make the work much easier.
In addition to everything I mention about the tools and your place of work, there are other things apart, such as a police poster and an arsenal of weapons that I will not talk about much and I will only mention. As you will notice in the images, our writer is not the greatest and it is usually filled because as the story progresses we will be required more papers, licenses, tickets and several things that we will have to be cautiously reviewing, doing the tasks that initially sounded simple end up being a shower of passports and work permits; that is not a bad feeling at all, and in fact it ends up being a very fascinating and well structured challenge because by the time these challenges are crossed we will be very involved in the game and you will end up doing everything by inertia.
Art and soundtrack
The art of Paper, please is not something new or innovative, it has a very minimalist style with a lot of retro influence that personally fits the game perfectly, it perfectly reflects the essence that it tries to show, both dark and raw, as serious and human that it becomes. It's a game that despite being all pixeled will take a lot longer to age than many of the AAA games that are coming to the market as I write this. Music on the other hand is quite decent, just as art reflects a lot what the creator wanted to show and you feel submerged in that world, but it is something that stands out, and sometimes it is repetitive.
Conclusion
In the very personal Paper, please is a jewel of video games today, a game full of originality where you grab it, very entertaining becomes addictive and personally I would recommend playing it in one sitting, it's like 4 hours to finish it the first time , but it is really worth every minute, do not have great expectations of the game and you will see how you will enjoy this great title. I understand that currently is available for phones, do not hesitate to take a look at that version because it must be much bigger experience. Although honestly while I played on the computer I felt super immersed because I visualized myself sitting in that box.
Score: 8/10
I thank you and thank you very much.
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a well designed game! very carmen san diego looks alike, with very awsome level of difficult
GLORTY TO ARTOZHKA