Papers, Please

This is one of those games that at first glance, looks about as fun as playing with a shoe. 6 hours later, you long for your homeland of Astroska. This game is addicting, intelligent, driving, and most importantly, insanely fun. And for 10 bucks, you rarely get something with so much replay-ability and character.

It is far more addictive than it has any right to be! Not much in the way of graphics or sound, and the gameplay is relatively simple, but regardless you will have trouble stopping once you get into it! Despite such a simple premise, the game is surprisingly immersive and the underlying 'story' has lots of subtle twists and from the simple Allow or Deny decision you ultimately make for each person will affect how things progress. Very well done and a nice change from the pretty but mindless junk shooters that seems to make up the bulk of games these days!

I've never had a game make me feel tense or nervous for a long time, but Papers, Please achieves this. there are 20 endings and a whole host of stories in amongst legal documentation. Reunite the couple with the dodgy paperworks or get those 5 credits to feed your family? Take part in a revolution or just do your job? It's surprisingly deep. It even have some laugh out loud moments with an old man and his terrible hand forged documents. I can't recommend it enough

This game is less about the gameplay and more about your personal taste, that is to say, if you ever enjoyed history. It references some real world countries sometimes. Overall, the ambience is great, but in no means "accurate" since some people were offended by it. My only problem with this game was it became boring once I've beaten it, I had three sessions of two hours each. I did some experimenting with my decision making in between games to see the outcomes. So the game was generally short, it lacked the incentives for you to explore the many other endings. I would give this game a 3 1/2 stars if it was possible. Too good for three stars, but not enough replayability for four stars.

Don't let the graphics fool you this game is extremely addictive and you have probably never played a similar game. You owe it to yourself to give yourself this experience. ;)