Papers, Please is Free to View on Steam and YouTube Right Now
A film adaption of Lucas Pope’s sombre, smash-hit video game Papers, Please is out now for free on Steam and YouTube. Reviews have been positive across the board, with the page on Steam having the coveted ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ review score.
The movie manages to encapsulate the many different feelings I felt the first few times I played the game. In Papers, Please the players play as an immigration officer who must be the deciding factor in the imaginary totalitarian country of Arstotzka. You verify the appropriate paperwork and documentation for any immigrants entering the country, and make several gut-wrenching decisions along the way. Do you let two lovers enter the country, even though one of their passports is incorrect, and risk getting your wages deducted; or do you put your family first and break up the happy couple?
The short, 10 minute flick conveyed everything the game has to offer, from the warm happiness you get from not breaking up a family, to the gut-wrenching feeling of turning away a person in need. It manages to strike the same tone that the video game is going for, and is full of the same tough moral choices that eventually just break you.
If you’re feeling too happy this morning and want to think about how tragic life can be, check out the video below!
Papers, Please, the game the movie is based on, was published back in 2013 and has since won many awards for its unique look at management simulators, and the unique and soul-crushing way it tells its story. Whilst the game has upwards of twenty possible endings, based on the choices you make throughout the course of the game, the movie only has one outcome for the Arstotzkan inspector, which I won’t spoil for you here. With it being only 10 minutes, I highly recommend it to anyone. Don’t forget to turn on the subtitles!
Have you seen the movie? What did you think of it?