WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.137 ♪(Intro music playing)♪ 00:00:03.267 --> 00:00:06.534 So, a few years ago there was the man who went up to the moon, 00:00:06.750 --> 00:00:08.730 there was a wall that got torn down 00:00:08.797 --> 00:00:10.307 and union that got dissolved 00:00:10.321 --> 00:00:13.111 and now that all that stuff is over and done with 00:00:13.225 --> 00:00:15.605 we have this game called Papers, Please 00:00:15.682 --> 00:00:17.552 and it might be the most conventionally 00:00:17.625 --> 00:00:22.827 "FUN" product of this weird post-pop indie workgame movement 00:00:22.931 --> 00:00:25.828 And by conventionally fun I mean to say 00:00:25.904 --> 00:00:27.494 that Papers, Please is technically 00:00:27.494 --> 00:00:28.827 a polished product 00:00:28.827 --> 00:00:32.215 It feels good, is sounds good, it looks (short pause) good enough 00:00:32.293 --> 00:00:34.122 and it has a sense of reward and punishment 00:00:34.132 --> 00:00:35.890 that hooks you into wanting to win 00:00:36.010 --> 00:00:38.449 But that's all where its conventional qualities end 00:00:38.475 --> 00:00:41.372 Winning in this game isn't necessarily glorious 00:00:41.554 --> 00:00:44.301 and given the setting and subject matter, it shouldn't be 00:00:44.494 --> 00:00:46.935 For those who played the free demo back in February 00:00:47.002 --> 00:00:50.062 the core experience of playing the full version of Papers, Please 00:00:50.072 --> 00:00:51.339 is pretty much the same thing 00:00:51.349 --> 00:00:54.448 You're working the border checkpoint of an impoverished communist nation 00:00:54.448 --> 00:00:58.668 in early 80's that's somewhere east of Berlin and west of Beijing 00:00:58.738 --> 00:01:00.856 Immigrants line-up towards an inspection desk 00:01:00.873 --> 00:01:02.169 and hand you a bunch of paperwork 00:01:02.169 --> 00:01:03.297 you scan it over 00:01:03.313 --> 00:01:04.547 checking for discrepancies 00:01:04.577 --> 00:01:06.088 typos and forgeries 00:01:06.088 --> 00:01:09.979 and after violating few of their rights you either let them pass or send them back home 00:01:09.979 --> 00:01:13.381 And that's the whole core of the game, you're literal paper-pusher 00:01:13.381 --> 00:01:17.452 The most basic and common action in this game is just sliding papers around the desk 00:01:17.452 --> 00:01:20.004 And believe it or not - it feels surprisingly good 00:01:20.004 --> 00:01:23.600 Mostly thanks to some really crisp crinkly paper sound effects 00:01:23.600 --> 00:01:27.129 in the sharp pixel art style that filters out all but the most necessary information 00:01:27.129 --> 00:01:31.566 Plus the printer sound effect you get when you make a mistake is really grading 00:01:31.566 --> 00:01:34.154 For some reason that noise drove me nuts 00:01:34.186 --> 00:01:37.000 and it makes screwing up feel that much worse 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:41.420 As the game goes on the nation's rules, regulations and policies change 00:01:41.420 --> 00:01:44.669 more types of paperwork get out into the pile, so keeping your desk organized 00:01:44.669 --> 00:01:48.348 and free of clutter becomes a secondary objective to processing the immigrants through 00:01:48.379 --> 00:01:51.951 A few twists and turns later, you're suddenly decyphering coded messages 00:01:51.951 --> 00:01:54.391 and actually shooting down trespassers 00:01:54.391 --> 00:01:57.296 But all that is just mechanical, as the demo hinted at 00:01:57.296 --> 00:02:00.630 the full game has a lot of stories to tell on the other side of that counter. 00:02:00.630 --> 00:02:04.311 You're catching glimpses of these characters' lives, while they're at their most vulnerable 00:02:04.311 --> 00:02:08.950 The robotic and almost anonymous bureaucratic actions on your end 00:02:08.950 --> 00:02:09.887 carry heavy emotional weight 00:02:09.887 --> 00:02:12.839 Depending on how you interpret your country's strict immigration policies 00:02:12.839 --> 00:02:18.107 you might break up families of war refugees or inadvertently traffic prostitutes 00:02:18.107 --> 00:02:21.228 You're given two chances to make mistakes before an invisible supervisor 00:02:21.228 --> 00:02:25.346 starts docking your pay and weighing where, when and how let some of these 00:02:25.346 --> 00:02:28.642 characters slip through the wall creates an intersection of time, ethical 00:02:28.642 --> 00:02:30.694 and monetary pressure 00:02:30.694 --> 00:02:33.750 In other words, this game makes processing paperwork way more 00:02:33.750 --> 00:02:36.142 exciting and stressful than it has any right to be, 00:02:36.142 --> 00:02:40.539 because it gives those actions long term mechanical and contextual consequences. 00:02:40.539 --> 00:02:44.547 There are multiple branching story paths that eventually lead to twenty different endings 00:02:44.547 --> 00:02:47.814 And they all depend on who you let throurgh, how many mistakes you make 00:02:47.814 --> 00:02:50.191 and how fast you can push all those papers 00:02:50.238 --> 00:02:52.791 Before long you make contact with a resistance movement 00:02:52.791 --> 00:02:55.968 and diplomats and spies start trying to make their way through 00:02:55.968 --> 00:02:58.754 and suddenly your decisions carry historical weight 00:02:58.754 --> 00:03:02.024 You're seeing recurring characters show-up enough times to develop arcs 00:03:02.024 --> 00:03:04.492 and bunch bunch of minor little details to this unverse 00:03:04.492 --> 00:03:06.116 suddenly become important 00:03:06.116 --> 00:03:09.865 Even names of these cities are relevant to the international politics going on 00:03:09.865 --> 00:03:12.775 which are also influenced by the country's position on the map 00:03:12.775 --> 00:03:16.352 and whether or not you play to the certain fraction that go to your checkpoint 00:03:16.352 --> 00:03:19.720 at critical moments can determine how the rest of the entire story plays out 00:03:19.720 --> 00:03:23.777 But all things considered, this game tells it's story in such unorthodox 00:03:23.777 --> 00:03:28.633 and clever way that I am ready to recommend it based on it's uniqueness alone 00:03:28.633 --> 00:03:31.797 I mean, what genre would you call this thing? 00:03:31.797 --> 00:03:36.387 Is it a puzzle game? Is it a work simulator? Is it a point&click adventure? 00:03:36.387 --> 00:03:40.475 It tells a darkly humorous political satire on a really small stage 00:03:40.475 --> 00:03:45.046 and essential gameplay mechanic is the most boring kind of work imaginable 00:03:45.046 --> 00:03:48.836 But the places it takes you and the things that has you do without ever leaving 00:03:48.836 --> 00:03:53.629 that desk feel so natural in this setting, that it's also kind of creepy too 00:03:53.629 --> 00:03:58.698 so the game is clever and unique experiment into familiar and realistic territory 00:03:58.698 --> 00:04:02.600 and it works! Lucas Pope pulled this off very well 00:04:02.608 --> 00:04:05.351 But the one slip-up in the process might have been the free demo 00:04:05.351 --> 00:04:07.081 he released one year ago 00:04:07.111 --> 00:04:10.036 Mainly, because there is not substantial amount of new content 00:04:10.036 --> 00:04:11.220 added to the final build 00:04:11.220 --> 00:04:14.540 The game is only 10 dollars, but it's still pretty close to the same experience 00:04:14.540 --> 00:04:15.916 you can get for free 00:04:15.916 --> 00:04:19.938 There's a minor bit of audiovisual polish, there are couple of new types of paperwork 00:04:19.938 --> 00:04:23.533 to manage and also an upgrade system that has keyboard shortcuts to the interface 00:04:23.533 --> 00:04:28.074 but it's a four hour and ten dollar game that has you doing the exact same stuff 00:04:28.074 --> 00:04:30.707 you did for free for one hour in the demo 00:04:30.707 --> 00:04:33.133 The problem is that after few of those hours 00:04:33.133 --> 00:04:35.902 the repetition of processing people's papers over and over again 00:04:35.902 --> 00:04:39.962 starts to feel less quirky and ironic and more like actual wrok 00:04:39.962 --> 00:04:43.723 If anything, it doesn't really change or add to the experience of the demo 00:04:43.723 --> 00:04:46.518 it just intensifies it 00:04:46.518 --> 00:04:47.904 Ok, hear me out 00:04:47.904 --> 00:04:50.873 This process gets really hard sometimes for no reason 00:04:50.873 --> 00:04:54.919 On some days I swear every last person in this line is trying to hide something 00:04:54.919 --> 00:04:58.536 So every damn time you don't probe over every little detail 00:04:58.536 --> 00:05:00.239 your supervisor yells at you 00:05:00.239 --> 00:05:01.718 and I get it. 00:05:01.718 --> 00:05:05.797 I f**d up, I admit. But, do you wanna do this job? 00:05:05.797 --> 00:05:08.153 I'm just one guy here, gimme a break! 00:05:08.153 --> 00:05:09.967 This place is a God damn mess! 00:05:09.967 --> 00:05:13.646 It's clear that this broke-ass government has me understaffed and insecured. 00:05:13.646 --> 00:05:16.578 People are blowing each other off right outside my office 00:05:16.578 --> 00:05:19.318 and the criminals are giving me more money than my employers. 00:05:19.318 --> 00:05:23.846 And it's no wonder I take those bribes. It's the only way to keep my kid from getting sick 00:05:23.846 --> 00:05:26.448 every time I wake up and say hi to him in the morning. 00:05:26.448 --> 00:05:28.854 And maybe I wouldn't take them if this bankrupt administration 00:05:28.854 --> 00:05:32.736 just pay these people just to give a damn, but when corruption is the only way to 00:05:32.736 --> 00:05:35.793 take care of my own people, then what do you expect from me. 00:05:35.793 --> 00:05:39.409 So no, I am sorry, I cannot do this job as fast as you think I can. 00:05:39.409 --> 00:05:43.405 Your demands are unreasonable and I am incapable, I am trying as hard as I can 00:05:43.405 --> 00:05:47.940 and I am still losing, so fk you, fk this country an f**k this job. 00:05:47.940 --> 00:05:52.202 So I think that if you go into this game with the kind of precautionary mindset 00:05:52.202 --> 00:05:54.152 then it will still feel worth the purchase. 00:05:54.152 --> 00:05:58.728 Things get pretty frustrating, but not in an inappropriate way. 00:05:58.728 --> 00:06:00.693 There might not be enough there mechanically to justify 00:06:00.693 --> 00:06:02.255 the time and money it takes to play 00:06:02.255 --> 00:06:04.252 But this thing successfully makes a game system 00:06:04.252 --> 00:06:07.702 out of the desperation, frustration and never ending poverty 00:06:07.702 --> 00:06:10.001 that characterized an entire era 00:06:10.001 --> 00:06:12.006 It also makes a historical fictional allegory out of it 00:06:12.006 --> 00:06:14.446 that makes this world seem a whole lot like their own. 00:06:14.446 --> 00:06:17.473 It's funny, it's scary, it's insightful and it's relevant. 00:06:17.473 --> 00:06:20.948 And for that it's a pretty damn cool game. 00:06:20.948 --> 00:06:24.352 And throughout the frustrating repetitive grind that is playing it, 00:06:24.352 --> 00:06:27.292 it earned a hell of a lot of my respect. 00:06:27.292 --> 00:06:30.236 I highly encourage that everyone at least check out the demo, 00:06:30.236 --> 00:06:32.565 but if you are to purchase the full version 00:06:32.565 --> 00:06:34.458 then keep in mind that the kind of gameplay in demo 00:06:34.458 --> 00:06:36.833 might lose it's novelty after the first few hours. 00:06:36.833 --> 00:06:39.294 But after thinking about it for a while 00:06:39.294 --> 00:06:41.440 you might realize that it's kind of the point 00:06:41.440 --> 00:06:47.254 and that it also never really stopped being fun, for whatever fun is supposed to mean 00:06:47.254 --> 00:06:49.147 in this kind of case