Papers, Please

sarumite

I have been watching quite a few 'lets play' vids of this by now. I think I would atcually prefer watching others play it. I like the concept, I just don't have the mental capacity after a days work to focus as much as seems required.

C14N

Reviewed in this week's Zero Punctuation and it was a very positive review.

Link

johnny_ultimate

I hope this game facilitates more of a discussion about whether games need to be purely 'fun' in the traditional sense. Now, I'm not denying there's a certain satisfaction to the old stamping mechanics, and the game is enlivened with a sense of humour at times. But this, more than any high-profile game I can think of, is a far grimmer, more repetitive and less instantly gratifying experience than we're used to. It achieves such a unity between its presentation, writing and mechanics that it's almost in a league of its own. I think successful games like this have the potential to kickstart somewhat of a revolution, quietly but thrillingly. In its way, it might just be the most "important" game I've had the pleasure of playing in a while.

C14N

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I hope this game facilitates more of a discussion about whether games need to be purely 'fun' in the traditional sense. Now, I'm not denying there's a certain satisfaction to the old stamping mechanics, and the game is enlivened with a sense of humour at times. But this, more than any high-profile game I can think of, is a far grimmer, more repetitive and less instantly gratifying experience than we're used to. It achieves such a unity between its presentation, writing and mechanics that it's almost in a league of its own. I think successful games like this have the potential to kickstart somewhat of a revolution, quietly but thrillingly. In its way, it might just be the most "important" game I've had the pleasure of playing in a while.

I think that discussion has been coming up a good bit in the last year or so. I think both Spec Ops: The Line and The Last of Us were games that many considered to be very good and engaging but which weren't exactly "fun". There's also the old horror game genre too (which we don't see very much of anymore) which is almost never fun as you tend to spend most of the games running for your life away from things. It's a good discussion to have though because it is important for gaming to break away from the idea that a game needs to be fun. How many of the best films or books each year could you really describe as being fun?

Silverfish

Got this today, god it's depressing. Such an excellent game though.

Vojera

C14N wrote: »

Reviewed in this week's Zero Punctuation and it was a very positive review.

"Bureaucracy-'em-up" - ha!

C14N

Okay, I bought it, even though I almost never buy games at full price. Hopefully it'll give me something to do when I'm travelling without my desktop.

meoklmrk91

I finished the game the day after I got it, it's not very long. It's well worth ten price as there are 20 different endings, I've gone back and started a whole new game, playing it in a different style to how I played it in the first game to see what endings I get this time.

johnny_ultimate

My favourite immigrant yet was the one who

drops two passports by accident and then goes "oh, wait..no... I've made a mistake!"

Shed a tear of joy when I was finally allowed let Jorji pass.

C14N

I'm about 6 days into this now and I still don't make nearly enough money to pay bills. I generally pass around 7 people each day, which doesn't leave enough money for food. Am I just terrible at the game or does this start to turn around a bit in the near future because I think my family is going to die?:(

Edit:
Okay it turns out I was just terrible at it. I played through again and started getting 10+ each time so that I have loads of money to spare. Also, money can be saved by only feeding and warming family members every second turn. My best advice for playing is to do this:

faultytool

Fantastic little game, just "wasted" my whole Sunday engrossed in it. Great example of how you don't need cutting edge graphics to create an immersive experience.

I found myself getting really grumpy with housemates for interrupting, breaking my concentration...the safety of Arstotzka is at stake here people! It's the kind of game that if you pause in the middle it can completely throw your train of thought and make you slip up.

My first game resulted in

being investigated for irregular finances and being thrown into a prison cell along with the rest of my family

...a bit harsh I thought! Playing through now going strictly by the book, showing no empathy for anybody...

Jet Black

This is the layout I have.

1. Keep rulebook on counter with countries shown.
2. Take passport only first and check city matches and not on wanted list.
3. Check rest of docs.
4. Approve/deny, call next, put rulebook back on county page.

Psychedelic

I started playing this yesterday. It's quite addictive, spent 3-4 hours playing it. Frustrating when you think you've verified all documents, approve entry and then get a penalty for a rule you completely forgot to check. It was only €7 on Steam so well worth the price.

faultytool

The only small criticism I have is that it's not always clear how to link discrepancies. I only just realised how to highlight a non-existent alias after a fingerprint scan, it's not exactly intuitive.

C14N

faultytool wrote: »

The only small criticism I have is that it's not always clear how to link discrepancies. I only just realised how to highlight a non-existent alias after a fingerprint scan, it's not exactly intuitive.

I agree, it kind of throws you in at the deep end. On the other hand, this does kind of help you relate to the character who was clearly not given any proper training in the story.

Also, they let you start over from any day you want while maintaining previous saves which give you a good chance to get used to it.

Angron

C14N wrote: »

Reviewed in this week's Zero Punctuation and it was a very positive review.

Link

Following up on that, the folks at LoadingReadyRun made a Papers, Please video too: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/loadingreadyrun/8009-Papers-Please

johnny_ultimate

On sale for just over a fiver on Steam right now. Go on, sure, Jorji is waiting for you!

Doge

^^^

Thanks to you Mr. Ultimate and the O.P.!

This game has tickled my fancy and i've just purchased it!

Shall keep me going until I replace my PC which has developed a faulty mobo.

Burning Eclipse

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

On sale for just over a fiver on Steam right now. Go on, sure, Jorji is waiting for you!

Niiiiiiiiiiiice. I was going to buy this over the weekend, but held off. Needless to say, it's purchased now!

Julez

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

Niiiiiiiiiiiice. I was going to buy this over the weekend, but held off. Needless to say, it's purchased now!

Same, only I did by it last weekend! Dang!

Holsten

Fun game although I am terrible at it.

Those freakin' issuing cities!

Doge

Man, this game is tough!

I can only manage 4 paid entries each time.

Easy mode is turned off.

At day 8 my family are cold, hungry and sick!

Anyone have any tips to speed things up?

The spacebar upgrade for inspect mode doesn't seem to speed up anything!

johnny_ultimate

Write yourself out a list of countries and cities to have nearby, really handy to have.

It's just a matter of getting used to the mechanics and pacing. Replay levels too, it's easy to do so for a reason

Doge

Thanks for the advice.

I'm actually making more than 4 entries per day.

I got mixed up by looking at the 4 x passports icon in upgrades, instead of number next to salary!

Anyone know what the 4 x passport icon is? I've marked it below:




Thanks!

johnny_ultimate

Local Arstotzkan passports per day, it looks like.

Doge

Cheers for that, makes sense!

Man playing this after a hectic day at work would have your brain burnt out!

I found a nice page here with loads of tips to play the game:

http://papersplease.wikia.com/wiki/General_tips

Going to print out this "cheat sheet" immediately!

http://images.wikia.com/papersplease/images/5/5b/Papers%2C_Please_Cheat_sheet.png

Edit: Link fixed

Doge

This is probably the best tip speed wise so far:

The game's first few days do not make this quite clear, but you do not have to inspect/interrogate every error; in some cases you can simply stamp denied and hand the documents back. This can speed up your processing a great deal. Once the blue reason for denial stamp enters play you must inspect/interrogate in order for the reason stamp to be properly prepared.