About mid-way through the game, I chose to buy my son the crayon kit for his birthday. I didn't expect much from it, considering the way the game handles the family life aspects, so I was pleasantly surprised when I received a cute drawing from him to hang up on the wall I face for 99% of the game. I hung it up the second I could, but just as I did, an inspector came in and chastised me for putting up such a thing, and I instantly received a fine. This moment, in my eyes, embodies Papers, Please working at its best, where the gameplay, characters, and individual storylines come together to build a somber world filled with bad actors, hard decisions, and a general sense of hopelessness. Given the depressing vibe permeating throughout the entire game, I only could handle playing the game for ~1 hour sessions at a time, considering the gameplay wasn't necessarily invigorating either. While the monotony of checking passport after passport for inconsistencies adds to the overall tone of the experience, it makes replaying the game to get the rest of the endings a much less appealing prospect than it should be. Most of the compelling moments sit in the last 10-15 days, and to ensure you get certain endings you'll need to start from scratch on day 1, which I do not have the energy for as of right now. The family/expense paying phase at the end of each day also could have been more compelling in my eyes. Throughout my playthrough I felt utterly detached from my family outside of the aforementioned drawing I received from my son, and I thought even being able to see the faces of the family members I was feeding, housing, and caring for would have gone a long way in both breaking up the monotony and making decisions that much harder. Overall, while Papers, Please isn't exactly a jolly ol' time, it is undoubtedly a cleverly crafted misery simulator with a lot of character that I will be revisiting, in time.

I was so set on giving this game around a 4-star rating and then the ending I got hit and I was so taken aback I can't even provide a rating for this game anymore. After watching the other endings I could have gotten I can say the ending that I got wasn't much more satisfying than the others, though that is kind of the point. I am walking away from the game with more questions than answers and that is ok but to be completely honest I feel like they should have just stuck to one of the endings. I think games with multiple endings just aren't my cup of tea, I would rather have the most satisfying experience the first go-around, but asinine actions like inspecting a knife or bumping into Maria too many times shouldn't affect the conclusion of a story-driven game. I also could never recommend playing this game on original hardware. Sometimes James looked so damn ugly I could hardly recognize his face as human, and the camera is so bad, especially in tight corridors. Stoked for the remake so the more intricate details of the game can get the graphical fidelity it deserves.

For the first two hours of playing this, I liked progressing and moving from place to place but couldn't identify a deep narrative or engaging gameplay. Long-ass fetch quests are the bane of my existence so seeing one within the first hour and a half into the game got me a little scared it would become a recurring theme, but it didn't, thank god. Toward the back half of the game, I really started enjoying myself as I explored Midtown, a much larger, more detailed area. They also introduced stealth segments I felt should have been in the game from the beginning, considering sneaking around as a cat is so fun. The story also stuck the landing as B-12, the companion robot, started leaking deets about his past life as a human, a welcome twist that gave the narrative the edge it so desperately needed. Overall, well worth $30, and that best indie debut award it found at the VGAs this year.