Papers Please is a cult classic, and it's easy to understand why. It has very simple gameplay mechanics and is relatively easy, but it brilliantly tackles themes that aren't simple or easy, that being an authoritarian regime. Corruption, xenophobic laws, heartbreaking separations between family members are all featured in the game. The extraordinary feat this game pulls off though is that the game still comes off as light-hearted. Thanks to the great humour it can produce. Weither it be the guy that comes every two days, never has the right papers, and eventually comes with contraband and is 100% honest about it because he feels like your his friend, or all the times I just accepted a bribe and then refused to let the person enter because they were a real douchebag, situations can be very funny, and aren't necessarily as heavy as when you need to choose if you're going to be able to afford eating and heating the place that evening.
The gameplay is simple though, perhaps a bit too much so. It isn't easy, but it isn't hard either. It's just that at some point, it becomes very monotone. They add new mechanics every day (new documents you need to check, a new procedure) but they don't make the game ahrder once you've gotten the jist of the game. At that point, no matter how many documents there are, you'll just zoom past them. And yes, I know, the difficulty of the game isn't to make you commit mistakes, it's to slow you down so that you can't win as much money as before and therefore, struggle keeping your family alive more. The difficulty is to force you to get better at your jib. Thing is, the difficulty curve isn't steep enough I feel like. I was always able to win more money than what I lost once I had gotten the hang of the game. This led to me putting the game down, as its very charming presentation, characters and interedting themes just weren't enough, in my eyes, to justify playing through the gameplay for another 30 in game months or something like that.
Does this game deserve its praise ? Sure. Is it overhyped ? Probably. Will you enjoy it a lot if you don't get bored as quickly as I do buy gameplay loops ? That's for certain.
The gameplay is simple though, perhaps a bit too much so. It isn't easy, but it isn't hard either. It's just that at some point, it becomes very monotone. They add new mechanics every day (new documents you need to check, a new procedure) but they don't make the game ahrder once you've gotten the jist of the game. At that point, no matter how many documents there are, you'll just zoom past them. And yes, I know, the difficulty of the game isn't to make you commit mistakes, it's to slow you down so that you can't win as much money as before and therefore, struggle keeping your family alive more. The difficulty is to force you to get better at your jib. Thing is, the difficulty curve isn't steep enough I feel like. I was always able to win more money than what I lost once I had gotten the hang of the game. This led to me putting the game down, as its very charming presentation, characters and interedting themes just weren't enough, in my eyes, to justify playing through the gameplay for another 30 in game months or something like that.
Does this game deserve its praise ? Sure. Is it overhyped ? Probably. Will you enjoy it a lot if you don't get bored as quickly as I do buy gameplay loops ? That's for certain.