Rarely are games capable of being as deliberately uncomfortable as Lucas Pope’s Papers, Please. By casting you as an immigrations officer manning the border of the fictional nation of Arstotzka, it first presents your position as a glorious gift from the country’s fabled Labor Lottery program. However it quickly becomes clear that this “prestigious” position isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.
The idea of video games making you work to accomplish something is not a new one by any stretch. From RPGs forcing you to level grind, to platform or racing games making you replay an entire level due to one mistake, games have always put us to work to at least some extent. Lately though, …
“A Steam sale!” you gasp. Or perhaps you just opened your email to discover that one of the items on your Wishlist is currently on special. Maybe you heard about a new Humble Bundle, one that contains a few gems that you have yet to play. In any of these situations, the standard emotion is, of course, joy. However that excitement can be quickly tempered by the absence of three important words: “full controller support”.