So, I've just started playing Papers, Please.

I like the concept and it's an unusual game. Many reviewers said that playing the game caused them to get emotional but I just didn't feel that.

I think part of the problem is that my family died pretty quickly. No matter what I did, starting on the 2nd day, I wasn't making enough money. So, since they never had a chance anyway, I never really cared or got emotionally attached.

I don't know if I'm just playing it in some kind of extreme deficient way or if the game was designed to be really difficult, but either way, that aspect of the game didn't really work for me. For one thing if your entire family is dying of illness in a matter of days why in character would you dissect the motivations or whatever of the people going through the checkpoint? Also, I felt that in-character my character wouldn't feel personally guilty about it because at the end of the day the problem was that the state wasn't paying him enough, and wouldn't the family equally be starving and dying if he hadn't won the work lottery? It didn't seem like something my character really had control over. So, my entire interest was in being meticulous and checking all the details of the travel documents.

The controls were frustrating as in order to interrogate or detain someone you had to click through a book in the game and cite the portions of the text that were out of compliance. I felt this was a slow mechanic and the desk tended to get clogged with irrelevant papers, so the game was also kind of punishing you with an intentionally crappy GUI. For a game that is based on speed of processing, why not simply have hotkeys for the categories of compliance items?

Some reviewers expressed frustration that it's impossible to tell gender from the graphics, yet this is something they ding you on, and I agree. I got dinged on that most frequently and pretty much wasn't sure how to approach that better as a player.

I think the game was worth 5 bucks and that I enjoy playing it, but if anything the gameplay would be better if it were a little easier as this would actually facilitate the exploration of mortality.