Papers, Please

 PC
User Score
8.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1617 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,350 out of 1617
  2. Mixed: 213 out of 1617
  3. Negative: 54 out of 1617

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  1. Dcruize
    Sep 29, 2013
    0
    Based on the positive reviews and score this game has received on Metacritic, I gave PP a try. I was utterly disappointed. The gameplay is entirely based around being presented with information and then having to verify that the information matches criteria specified at the start of each day. A typical early scenario would involve being handed an ID card and a work permit. You would haveBased on the positive reviews and score this game has received on Metacritic, I gave PP a try. I was utterly disappointed. The gameplay is entirely based around being presented with information and then having to verify that the information matches criteria specified at the start of each day. A typical early scenario would involve being handed an ID card and a work permit. You would have to check the following information; same ID/name on both papers, dates are correct, photo on ID matches the person handing it to you. After that, check the immigration rules for the day make sure people are allowed to enter from that country. And that is it all you do is pattern match. If that sounds like fun, give it a try. If your brain isn't wired to find pattern-matching fun, avoid like the plague.… Expand
  2. Atr0s
    Jun 19, 2015
    3
    Even though the amount of details in this game is quite impressive for an indie developer (you can interact with several tools to play the game), the amazement stops shortly after you play the game for more than a couple of minutes. It's a game on which all you do is pure bureaucratic procedure and it's fun as it sounds, losing the whole point of entertainment in the process. TheEven though the amount of details in this game is quite impressive for an indie developer (you can interact with several tools to play the game), the amazement stops shortly after you play the game for more than a couple of minutes. It's a game on which all you do is pure bureaucratic procedure and it's fun as it sounds, losing the whole point of entertainment in the process. The management portion of the game is minimal, leaving you only with 2 options to balance your expenses.

    3/10 for the effort.    … Expand
  3. bryan_05
    Mar 21, 2014
    3
    If you don't like paperwork in real life I can't imagine you'd like this game. Basically you're comparing some documents to a set of rules which you have been supplied. Find a discrepancy and point it out. Miss a discrepancy and lose some points. I don't understand the hype behind this game.
  4. adhamhany
    Feb 8, 2014
    4
    I don't understand why this game is getting so many high reviews. It does have an interesting concept behind it, forcing you into situations where you make tough moral decisions. The story premise is also fine.

    But a game needs more than that to be called great. A great game, quite simply, needs great gameplay. And this one doesn't. You keep doing the same thing over and over and over.    I don't understand why this game is getting so many high reviews. It does have an interesting concept behind it, forcing you into situations where you make tough moral decisions. The story premise is also fine.

    But a game needs more than that to be called great. A great game, quite simply, needs great gameplay. And this one doesn't. You keep doing the same thing over and over and over.

    This exemplifies what happens when you focus too much on the "artistic" side of a game, rather than create a great gaming experience, or better yet, balance both aspects.    … Expand
  5. credford
    Apr 19, 2014
    2
    I wanted to like this game. However, as a Software Engineer, the core gameplay just feels like doing extra work when I get home with a **** IDE. Even the humanizing story elements weren't enough to keep me playing. It's just not fun.
  6. emanb29
    Dec 7, 2013
    3
    Good game, but gets repetitive very quickly. It's difficulty curve is much too steep, progressing from "I can do this blindfolded" to "crap I lost again" in around 3 levels.
  7. GapeHorn
    Jan 6, 2022
    2
    its a good waste of time. it is not a good game. Very skippable. Skip this game.
  8. CasperRosewater
    Nov 25, 2013
    2
    I'm admittedly hard to please; I purchase four or five games for every one that I truly enjoy and can stay with to get all the way through.I give the developers of 'Papers, Please' credit for trying something unusual and different; that's exactly what gaming needs and precisely what I want and hoped for in this game. I truly wanted to like it. But this game but it is utterly boring. MaybeI'm admittedly hard to please; I purchase four or five games for every one that I truly enjoy and can stay with to get all the way through.I give the developers of 'Papers, Please' credit for trying something unusual and different; that's exactly what gaming needs and precisely what I want and hoped for in this game. I truly wanted to like it. But this game but it is utterly boring. Maybe it gets better further and deeper into the game. I dunno, I couldn't get past 20 minutes and I restarted two or three times and always abandoned at the approximate same place there was nothing happening.Nice try though. Two starts for being unique, otherwise zero.… Expand
  9. Broyax
    Jan 8, 2017
    0
    Moué, un "jeu" vite fait, bricolé dans une cave et codé avec les pieds sur un Amstrad en 16 couleurs EGA, un petit délire gratuit d'un branque qui a trop forcé sur l'apéro... euh attends... gratuit ? ah nan le gars, il le vend, il veut de l'argent en échange ! on marche sur la tête.

    Pourtant, un simulateur de douanier, de délit de faciès et de contrôle d'immigration, c'est parfois    Moué, un "jeu" vite fait, bricolé dans une cave et codé avec les pieds sur un Amstrad en 16 couleurs EGA, un petit délire gratuit d'un branque qui a trop forcé sur l'apéro... euh attends... gratuit ? ah nan le gars, il le vend, il veut de l'argent en échange ! on marche sur la tête.

    Pourtant, un simulateur de douanier, de délit de faciès et de contrôle d'immigration, c'est parfois marrant. J'aime bien débusquer les **** truqueurs de merde parce que j'suis douanier mais faut pas me prendre pour un con ! j'ai l'oeil et c'est comme ça que je gagne ma vie derrière le rideau de fer.

    Très répétitif, très limité, ce non-jeu ne mérite pas le moindre kopeck mais on peut comprendre l'engouement anarcho-gauchiste qu'il a provoqué : abolissez les frontières, libre circulation des biens et des personnes, vivre ensemble et heal the world !    … Expand
  10. raashnavj
    Sep 13, 2016
    0
    Work... Seriously someone made a game that is worse that work. How this got positive reviews beats me...

    It starts harmless enough, you compare a few numbers and rules and stamp it approved or denied. Then it adds in checking for another document, and then another, and then another. All for almost no pay, your family will get sick. I guess if you play it a few times you will    Work... Seriously someone made a game that is worse that work. How this got positive reviews beats me...

    It starts harmless enough, you compare a few numbers and rules and stamp it approved or denied.
    Then it adds in checking for another document,
    and then another,
    and then another.
    All for almost no pay, your family will get sick.

    I guess if you play it a few times you will memorize the handbook which will make things go faster. But seriously people? Have we come this far that 'entertainment' is pretending to do a job that absolutely sucks and then giving it great reviews? People now-a-days have issues.    … Expand
  11. Garethw87
    Dec 26, 2013
    3
    I'm giving this game a 3, simply because the theme of the game is very interesting. However, despite all the hype and attention, there is nothing here. In a quick overview. You have a screen that resembles a counter and a shutter. Somebody appears (the graphical style is akin to old 8-bit 16-bit) and presents a document. You then have to match up that document with whichever order youI'm giving this game a 3, simply because the theme of the game is very interesting. However, despite all the hype and attention, there is nothing here. In a quick overview. You have a screen that resembles a counter and a shutter. Somebody appears (the graphical style is akin to old 8-bit 16-bit) and presents a document. You then have to match up that document with whichever order you have receieved for that day, i.e. No foreign passports today so every foreign passport you deny entry and they walk off. That is all the game is. Obviously the scenarios change and maybe it will be "foreigners allowed today but only from X,Y region" You are just matching up lines of text from your handbook, daily orders to which ever you are presented with. Once the day finishes you get money. You have a few family members, just text on the screen, and you have to buy food, rent, heating, medicine. They can die and so can you, which results in game over. I picked this game up on Steam Sale for about £3.00 I still regret buying it.… Expand
  12. riley794
    Jan 21, 2016
    0
    I heard it was fun but it looked terrible so I waited till a good Steam sale to pick it up. Still feel like I got ripped off. This game is worth nothing. Please if you think this game is fun I have an even better game for you to play called cleaning my house. Probably the worst game I have ever played! If you are having fun playing this game there is something missing from you lifeI heard it was fun but it looked terrible so I waited till a good Steam sale to pick it up. Still feel like I got ripped off. This game is worth nothing. Please if you think this game is fun I have an even better game for you to play called cleaning my house. Probably the worst game I have ever played! If you are having fun playing this game there is something missing from you life called a job!… Expand
  13. ConorHat
    Apr 12, 2014
    0
    I have a hard time understanding why gamers want stuff like this? I grew up using an IBM 486, and the graphics then were better than this, that was in the 80's. Honestly, pattern recognition and some basic choices of whether to be a traitor or not, and that sums it all up. 85/100 for this? It's time for me to find a new hobby I think.
  14. farmvilleif1
    Dec 13, 2013
    0
    No mundo dos games, também existem aqueles jogos que são uma verdadeira porcaria. Blé, que jogo ruim. Mecanicas repetitivas, jogo previsível, chato e sem graça
  15. MigRib
    Apr 16, 2014
    0
    Could someone (please) remind the hipsters that the 80s are long gone? This is not a Spectrum 48k game, it shouldn't look like one. This kind of thing keeps on showing up with wonderful reviews, written by people who use admire so much "the classics" even though they (probably) weren't even born when the bloody classics were new... It's just rubbish, treat it as such.
  16. mander0
    Mar 1, 2021
    0
    Glory to Arstotzka. Comrade must rate 10/1O for glorious country. NO EZIC allowed
  17. vova22379
    Aug 3, 2022
    2
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
  18. YoBoyYo
    Jun 2, 2022
    1
    Seeing all the positive reviews for this game, I was excited to try it. Little did I know that this would be one of the worst games I have ever played, and the only bad indie game I have ever played... Where to start?

    GRAPHICS: The graphics are TERRIBLE. They were inexcusable even when they came out 10 years ago. This is very relevant as the game's core gameplay relies on the player    Seeing all the positive reviews for this game, I was excited to try it. Little did I know that this would be one of the worst games I have ever played, and the only bad indie game I have ever played... Where to start?

    GRAPHICS: The graphics are TERRIBLE. They were inexcusable even when they came out 10 years ago. This is very relevant as the game's core gameplay relies on the player being able to distinguish if a character is female or male, if their low-quality image matches the even more low-quality image on the passport, or if their finger prints matches the one on file. If the player cannot tell, they will get reprimanded or penalized. This is made worst by the fact that the player is always on a time limit...

    GAMEPLAY: The gameplay is quite simply not fun. The concept had potential, but the developper clearly failed in making checking documents for errors fun. The whole process is very boring, lacks variety, and has time constraints that are too tight for its gameplay. The player is also never rewarded for getting anything right, while getting harshly penalized for any slight mistake. Maybe some minigames or more frequent rewards could have helped? The ironic thing is that I've worked this kind of job before in real life and it was way more fun than this. You know its bad when a real job is more fun than a video game lol.

    CHARACTERS: Its impossible to remember any of the characters. The player has a family and is supposed to care about them, but we never see them or get know to know anything about them. Heck, they don't even have names! As such, the player is not compelled to care about them, and instead feels encouraged to kill them off so they use up less money. When it comes to characters seen at the border crossing, the graphics are so bad that it can be easy to mix up the procedurally-generated characters with the plot-relevant or secondary characters. None of them are memorable dialogue-wise as there is very little dialogue at all and all of them speak the same way. As such, what always happens is that a character show up, says a few sentences, and then a few minutes later after they've left, you've already forgotten about them or what they wanted. Because its so easy to forget, the player often misses opportunities, which is frustrating. The only exception I've found is one character that keeps returning to your station every odd day or so, submitting obviously false documents, and who is present from the start. Although, I still don't remember his name. The antagonists of this story -representatives of the Arstostka government - suffer from these same problems. They do not stand out visually or personnality-wise, and you rarely see them or learn about them. They should have gotten at least a theme song. The player should have learned about the atrocities they commit in general or on other characters throughout the story to build tension.

    PLOT: The plot is very difficult to follow and not engaging. This is partly on purpose, as you are supposed to be a border guard with no real insight into the secret EZIC organisation. But, the game is just not clear enough about what is going on. There was one day, for example, that a member from this organisation told me to kill someone in red in the line, but a random terrorist attack interrupted the workday before this red person got to me. The next day they were gone and I never heard from EZIC again. What happened?? Another day, I was asked to let someone specific through, but they never came! Furthermore, there is nothing original about this plot. You guess everything from the start: you have your evil government, and a secret rebel organisation that wants to topple it. There is nothing more to it than that unfortunately.

    LORE: This game features fictional countries but never goes into the history or culture of any of them. There is no lore. Is Arstostka at war right now? Does Obristan actually have better living standards? What are even Arstoska's relationships with these other countries like? We will never know, and the absence of any lore is the biggest missed opportunity of this entire game.

    MUSIC: This OST has only 3 songs: the main theme, the death theme, and the victory theme. I hope you like the main theme, because that's all you'll hear the entire game playing over and over again for 5 hours.

    IN SHORT, this is a bad game. The positive reviews are truly baffling to me. It seems most of them believe this game is being innovative by purposefully giving you a **** experience - to mirror the experience of working a bad job, or in a soviet country. Unfortunately, they are simply pretending the game's flaws were intended or good somehow. This setting could have been "oppressive" and still fun, but it was just not executed well. It was never necessary to have bad graphics, no music, boring gameplay, unmemorable characters or a predictable plot in order to have an authentic soviet experience either.    … Expand
  19. nastyjes
    Jan 10, 2023
    3
    Extremely overrated .
  20. Asparz
    Mar 12, 2023
    0
    the most boring game that has ever existed in the world, either you accept the roles or you simply reject them.

Awards & Rankings

29
#29 Best PC Game of 2013
28
#28 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
56
#56 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
85

Generally favorable reviews - based on 40 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 39 out of 40
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 40
  3. Negative: 0 out of 40
  1. Gamer.nl
    Jan 2, 2014
    85
    Papers, Please gives you a simple task that doesn't ask a lot of you. The game outgrows its mechanics though, by appealing to your moral compass and emotions. This indie game will get under your skin, will have you feeling uncomfortable and have you think about yourself, as a person.
    Read full review
  2. GameFront
    Oct 14, 2013
    90
    An incredibly impressive little game, from its understated old-school art style to its ability to make you feel uncomfortable with how much you enjoy catching criminals trying to trick their way into your country.
    Read full review
  3. Pelit (Finland)
    Oct 5, 2013
    89
    Papers, Please is not only original but fun, too. More papers, please! [Sept 2013]
See all critic reviews »