Papers, Please

So, a friend of mine just informed me of a game called "Papers, Please", made by Lucas Pope. Watched the trailer of it, and it looks different in the sense of game concept. Anyone ever played it? Any thoughts of it?


Here's the trailer of it I pulled from youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QP5X6fcukM

 

Looks like an interesting mini-game that evolves; or maybe just food for thought :


The commentary from this LP made it even more enjoyable though...

 

Considering I don't have axcess to a computer at this time(using my 3DS so can't see the video), can someone explain what the gameplay is like? I get the impression that, judging by the title, it sounds something like PaperBoy.

 

On the most basic level it's a simulation about the job of someone who works a border checkpoint, he who decides to either REJECT or ADMIT each person who enters your booth, in line.

That might sound pretty boring, but the game executes it well.

It starts simple. You use the interface to call a person in line, and they are supposed to put their passport, papers or whatnot on your desk. You have to follow the rules, and decide if they should be admitted or not.

...You are paid for each person you process; and you have to provide for an extended family... So, you must try to work quickly, but mistakes can be costly D:

Each person is an invidiual, each with possible dialogue, and story. They might say they are running away from someone and need your help... and you have to decide if you will follow the rules, or risk losing your job. They might have a passport that says Female, and they look like a guy... and you have to deal with awkward situations. There are amusing people who don't even have passports, who just start chatting with you and waste your time or offer fake passports xD etc etc...
And there are also occasional radicals, and terrorists that might come before you... So you've got your work cut out, to make the "right" choices.

On a grander scale, the story of your socialist? country unfolds in the background through newspapers, and little events so there's potential for the game to unfold into something quite interesting as well as being challenging.

In any case, pretty unique game; aimed at mature audiences probably... [and there is limited cartoon nudity from full body scans at one point]

I'll probably give it a chance when it comes out on Steam! The LP does a much better job at showing you what to expect, if you can check out the video sometime.

Haven't played Paper Boy, but I don't think there is any action events like that xD

 

That might sound pretty boring, but the game executes it well.

This is the reason that perhaps made me inclined towards it to begin with. The whole concept sounded as if it were just going to be a repetative simulator, that grows old within a few hours, perhaps even with just a few minutes. The game redeems itself from this conception, as day by day the rules and regulations for your job are changed. On top of this, as X-Calibar already stated, there is quite a bit of dynamicism to it.

One point to the game is that there is dynamicism to the people you deal with. There'll be people with different dialogue, people who have different reasons for being at your checkpoint, and people who are just complete oddjobs. It changes your whole job when you have different scenarios thrown at you that aren't packed in the (handy-dandy) rule book of yours, yet are still feasible and possible.

The only point of the game that struck me as odd was the full-body scan, which is explicit as you can imagine. In my personal hopes, I would rather they'd sensor it or do as they did in the tutorial, in which they are wearing at least some clothing.


Edit:
Rather comical video I found of the game.

Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdnWUX-zqao

 

This game in practice in Central Europe, true story :

You are returning from skiing in Slovakia. Your bus is waiting at the Slovak-Hungarian border for like 3 hours. You will wait more since your tour guide has spent the money (damn him!) he planned to bribe the border guard with. Since the guard did not receive what he was asking for, he will make you wait 4.5 hours. He'll do nothing the first 4:15 hours (he has a a rope hanging from the roof of his office, occasionally he plays with that like a cat), and will look through the passports in the last 15 minutes. There are sick inside your bus with high fever (40*C) btw.

 

It's out~ About 10$
http://papersplea.se/