This publisher's games (PlayWay S.A) feel like they are cheaply made. But, very fun nonetheless. This game has you playing as a border police in late 1980s inspired soviet union. The base gameplay is very similar to Papers, Please where you have to check drivers papers and check for any discrepancies, with circumstances and laws changing every single day. As a border officer, your duties also extend to defending your checkpoint, chasing and arresting criminals. There is also a story, with multiple choices, but it only affects the ending. Shooting is horrible and floaty, so is the driving. Overall, a good game to relax in.

Okay okay, so imagine... papers please right? But it is 3D?!!? 🤯 Craziest concept.

There are also so many more features than a pure 3d papers please and pretty good depth.

Only encountered a few bugs, and minor annoying game design choices but some can be altered in the setting tab, and others are soon to be fixed I'm sure.

I will say, I'm not a huge fan of the amount of driving that is required though, especially since it's not very exciting, at all, except ofcourse for the Crossy Road nature of the AI when they drive full speed into a rock.. but maybe that's just russia ionknow.

yapacağınız oyunu götünden sikiyim. orospunun çocukları! ya
daha önce teoride bu kadar güzel, pratikte bu kadar yarraktan, boktan, sikten, kusmuktan, sidikten bir oyun görmedim. bak yemin ederim oynadığım en iyi oyunlar arasına girebilecek bir oyundu bu ama o kadar kötü yapmışlar ki inanamıyorum ya... benim oyunlarda sabrım pek yoktur. oyun sike bağlarsa kapatırım, silerim. bu oyun herhalde bir noktadan sonra iyi olacak diye son göreve kadar geldim esneye esneye, sıkıla sıkıla, söve söve ve oyun bitti. işin sinir bozucu yanı insanların bu oyunu beğenmesi, şişirmesi. yahu bu kadar çöp sevici olmayın amına koyayım oyun farklı bir şey denemiş diye ki farklı bir şeyden kasıt da papers please'in 3d hali amk. diyecek bir şey bulamıyorum bu oyunun ben anasını sikeyim

A fun Papers Please rip-off that does it's job.
There are enough mechanics to keep you engage through the campaign, and the contraband/vehicle inspection is a good angle.

Unfortunately the rest is janky and gets boring pretty quickly. Gunfights and car rides are way too long and repetitive, and are present way too often.
Also funny how it looks like this had less budget than Papers Please that was made by a single person, because the latter had the intelligence to create a unique artstyle that made its imperfections a strength, whereas Contraband Police just looks like an ugly realistic 3D simulator.
The game is also poorly optimised and the bad (in my case, French) translation sometimes makes the objectives confusing.

I bought this game after seeing a streamer playing it in a non-efficient way and I thought it looked fun and I could play better. Despite its flaws, its core-gameplay is indeed still pretty fun, but even in sales at 20€ it's a bit expensive for what it is.

Mismatch found - Papers, Please:

Contraband Police, in its structure and most of its execution, is a clone of Papers, Please. If you liked the former, you will almost certainly have no qualms playing through the entirety of the campaign here.

Not surprisingly, the aspects of the game clearly inspired by PP are where the game shines. The basic puzzle gameplay loop of searching for inconsistencies in prospective entrants is similarly fun in this game, with some expansions that work great, primarily relating to the namesake; contraband. Cutting up car interiors and busting open fake bumpers is a ton of fun, and this alone mixed with PP's gameplay makes at least the core gameplay loop enjoyable. I'm not entirely convinced the devs really understood what made Papers, Please a masterpiece however.

The inclusion of base building, side missions, driving and actual gun combat seem nice in concept, but none are done well enough to really justify anywhere close to the amount of praise of its predecessor. PP's charm comes from the entire atmosphere built around the core loop: The music, the artstyle, the aesthetic, the moral quandaries— all things together that make PP's whole greater than the sum of its parts. Contraband Police, despite being a painfully bland Unity asset homologation, technically does contain a lot of what made PP fantastic. There is 'branching' storyline giving you the option to side with your soviet overlords, or to engage in rebellious sabotage, but it just doesn't have the same gravity to it. I'm honestly not even sure what's wrong with it, but it just feels like something is missing. Maybe its because the lightning in the bottle has diminished, or maybe I just missed it entirely. Either way, my experience in Contraband Police just left me disappointed in what could have been an actually full-fledged spiritual successor to Papers, Please.

Reading this blurb over, I considered scrapping it entirely because of how much I reference Papers, Please (as has everyone else), but I've decided to leave it as is based on the not so subtle fact that the devs are far too closely trying to replicate its effect, and to varying degrees of success. It's not by any means bad (despite being pretty jank) and is absolutely still worth playing, but nothing here is going to surprise or inspire you if you've already experienced its far more accomplished big brother before.

Story and narrative: 14 out of 20
Gameplay and mechanics: 16 out of 20
Graphics and visuals: 16 out of 20
Technical performance: 14 out of 20
Sound and music: 6 out of 10
Artistic aspects: 6 out of 10

Total Score: 72 out of 100