Glory to Arstotzka!
Papers, Please is an indie game where you play as a border security guard for a country not dissimilar to communist Russia, a country called Arstotzka. Developer Lucas Pope did a wonderful job designing this game, particularly its story, art, and music. But what lies beneath this game, inside of its core, is drenched in crude humor and design? This is how Papers, Please sacrifices your morality for profit and nationalism.
Any given first playthrough of Papers, Please goes as such: you start your job, you decide to let a couple of guys go across the border, even though you get a warning, because you are such a nice guy, and these people were talking about seeing family, or being sick and needing a hospital. Then, on the 6th day, a terrorist bomber attacks the border. Then the game starts to give you more things to find, more discrepancies. People from Arstotzka need a license to go with their passport; if problems arise, you can’t allow them to go through. People outside of Arstotzka, however, get more and more documents, such as a passport, a list of reasons they are going, and a personal ID. Then, you ask them why they are visiting; you check their chatlog, and if any problem arises, boom, you deny their entry. The game fosters distrust. No longer are you letting through people just because they asked or for any legitimate reason. If they have any issues, you don’t let them through. What if, secretly, this pregnant mother is a terrorist? What if this poor man trying to find his wife is actually a spy from another country? That fear is given to you and fostered by this game, all so you can protect your country. Glory to Arstotzka!
Not only are you led to fear, but you are also led by profit to do your job and to ruin people's lives. A handful of days into the game, a man working at the prison offers you money for each prisoner you capture. Now you begin to find problems with everybody, explicitly finding things so you can send them to jail and get ten more dollars that day. Then, you start getting options to upgrade your booth, a better scanner, and some hotkeys so you don’t have to do as much manually. You get more money, you get through more people, and you get to be better at the game if you buy these upgrades. Suddenly, the heating in your house doesn’t seem so necessary; it’s expensive, and you could spend that money on those booth upgrades. The food and water in your household become unnecessary. Then you get a gun from your supervisors; you get offered money to shoot people who jump the border. You are ruining your family, you are jailing people, and you are bringing people to short death or a tranq shot that will eventually lead them to jail, all for a little bit more money.
Papers, Please leads you to a loss in morality; it is no less than a taxing video game that forces you to be the worst of yourself. And the worst part? The game never truly ends. All endings possible for the game ended in a form of disaster, and then you get replaced. This is not just a singular experience; this is a cycle. In one ending, you may get imprisoned by your supervisors for your immoral activity, and then you start another save, hoping for another ending. The cycle continues. It becomes addictive to be a bad person. When you play a save where you try to be nice, you end up playing very little. It never goes well when you are moral. Morality is not how you get ahead of life. If you don’t believe me, try it for yourself. The game is only $10 on Steam and is absolutely worth every cent. Glory to Arstotzka!
