The Written Podcast: Papers, Please – A Game That Makes You Nervous

Papers, Please has been out for some time now. Talking about it may seem a little redundant, as many people have already. Videos have been made of the game and discussions have been had about the morals within the game, the decisions you have to make, and the tensions it creates as the game progresses.

If I were to wrap up the game in one vague synopsis, I’d describe it being a game where you file paperwork and determine if someone is allowed to enter a country or not. That doesn’t sound very fun. You spend our days at work pushing paperwork around, not when playing a game that’s meant to immerse yourself in a different world for a couple of hours. The thing is, it’s so much more than that. You don’t just file paperwork, you must do it under a time limit, and because you’re timed, you’re also under pressure, and because you’re under pressure, you can make mistakes, and if you make one mistake, it can cause some serious consequences to you, your family, or to other citizens around you.

At the beginning of the game, paperwork is minimal, but as the game progresses, the amount of paperwork that needs to be combed over increases – and you really do have to look at each piece of information presented in front of you, because the game is smart – it may have the slightest error, which if you let slide, you’ll be punished for it.

However, as well as the main game itself, you also get a chance to play the Endless mode, where you don’t have any time limits, and you can choose what level of difficulty you wish to tackle, and it’ll remain at that level until you fail and the game is over. Even though you have unlimited time to scan through each individual piece of paper the citizens give you, there is still a high possibility of getting something wrong. A small curve ball which you completely missed – whether it’s a slight difference in the spelling of their name, or their height is off, or their weight isn’t the same, or you forget to forged seal at the top of the document – even when you are confident all their information is correct, you are nervous of that small ticket being printed from the bottom, detailing exactly what you got wrong. If you have gained enough points, you can survive losing 5 points on the first discrepancy, but the more you let slide through the net, those punishments goes up by a multiple of five.

There’s nothing worse when you’ve gained enough points, all you need is one more successful stamping to beat your record and so the pressure is on. You’re excited to finally beat your much earned record, and therefore your head is not in the same space it had been up to that point, and therefore you miss one vital piece of mismatching information, and your points sink faster than a brick in water, subsequently your shoulders slump and you sigh hard before vocally and confusingly shouting at the game, asking what the heck you got wrong as the ticket prints, detailing they had a different surname.

On the reverse of that, if you are able to remain in a level-headed realm just before crossing over into new point territory, and you slam that stamp down – you don’t want to sound too cocky, though, because as you are handing back their documents, suddenly the air becomes still and you wait for those stretched out seconds, watching the citizen leave the booth either to the right or left depending on if you’ve allowed them into the country – and you were correct. You can breathe once more, your shoulder slump but not with demotivation but in relief. You’ve beaten your record… and then you remember that the game continues until the points plummet into negative.

Willingly playing the hardest endless mode and managing to achieve a high sore, they must be insane with noticing details in other areas – probably a detective. I’d love to become an expert in the hardest endless mode of Papers, Please – process one citizen at incredible speed and with unflinching confidence, almost giving off the appearance as if I’m guessing and miraculously getting them right every time, but what I’m actually doing instead is scanning the documents at insane speed, noticing even the smallest incorrect details between any one document, raking in the highest score I’ve ever achieved in the game, and instantly make anyone who hears me say that score disbelieve it because in their eyes that score is impossible without making at least one mistake… but to get anywhere close would mean sinking hours I don’t have into the game.

Or maybe I don’t have to prove anything… after all, I did beat the last mission of Level 7 of The Simpsons Hit and Run twice; something some people haven’t even been able to do once – a crowning achievement in my gaming history.

Paper, Please is a game you can’t just load up and play – you almost have to be in a specific head space to mentally process the tension and the nerves which come with it – it’s not just a game, but an experience.