JOHNNY KUZMANOVSKI

Papers, Please Narrative:

The inspector (the player) has a job to do for Arstotzka as their new immigration officer at the border. PP introduces a range of decisions and choices for the player to choose; these consist of following Arstotzka rules, involvement in the EZIC rebellion, moral dilemmas, special events and story elements & characters. These multitude of decisions and factors adds to the engagement and breaks up the repetitiveness of the general gameplay in PP. There is a wide variety of choices and 20 possible endings that the player can choose from which helps prevent PP from becoming a single linear story. The story unfolds in a particular way but the way it's designed allows the player to make these tough decisions and choices; truly creating an experience for every player. The player has the power; will they take advantage of it or will they be a good worker for Arstotzka?

 

Papers, Please Mechanics:

PP introduces its mechanics at a very comfortable pace for the player, this allows the player to become familiar with the process of document checking mechanics. PP doesn’t bombard the player with loads of information and tasks. Each day introduces new mechanics and adds to the difficulty of PP. Mechanics are spread throughout the game, keeping the player on their toes while learning new mechanics but also remember that older mechanics can still be used. The organisation of the information structure in PP allows the player to feel in control; it's designed in a way that allows the player to understand and apply new information as the player learns it. The player isn’t overloaded and flooded with all kinds of information, its delegated and separated into learnable chunks.The randomisation of information and the identity of entrants added to the story experience. While there were many good design mechanics in PP, there were some mechanics in PP that could have been improved on, such as; the EZIC ciphers and deciphers - the instructions and the use for these weren’t as clear as what they could have been.

 

Papers, Please Aesthetics:

PP aesthetics are very simple and easy for the eyes as the aesthetics allow players to identify and detect discrepancies in the entrant’s papers.  Each section is cohesively designed and doesn’t impact the most important mechanic of spotting differences between documents. The segregation of information and the overall location of information adds to the uniformly designed gameplay that makes it easy for the player to identify and solve the document related discrepancies and puzzles. There were particular passport photos and characters that didn’t seem to match visually but did match in game. This added to the difficulty and confused the player which helped break up the repetitiveness of the game.
 

Final Outcome:

Papers, Please is a game that provides a range of options and allows the player to control the story based on their decisions. PP teaches the mechanics of the game at a manageable pace as it organises and divides information with excellence. The aesthetics are very simple to understand and provide for easy identification of differences between passports & documents to the information provided to the player. PP provides power to the player in a fictional dystopian country, will you take advantage of the power or will you be a good citizen?

 

Glory to Arstotzka!