Do you want to feel depressed? Do you want to feel really good that you don’t live in a Soviet-Russia-Communist-like world? Do you want to become strangely attached to family members that never appear as anything other than a line of text? If the answer to any of these questions was, “Yes,” you should play Papers Please on Steam.

The basic plot is that you are any average citizen of this imaginary communist nation and you have a new job at one of the border crossings. Your job is to make sure all of the people crossing the border have information that is up to date and appropriate. For instance you must make sure their photo, birthday, name, stamps on passport, weight, sex, starting city, and much more is correct. You have several ways to cross check information, and if you have a question, you have to call them on it.

Every person you allow through the border gets you five dollars.If you allow someone to cross the border that had incorrect information, you are fined. At the end of the day, you have to choose what you will spend your money on. Whether or not you want to heat your apartment is a constant dilemma due to the lack of funds.

When a person comes into your booth, they will always speak to you. Sometimes they say nothing other than where they are going, for how long, and why. Sometimes though, they know you know that they don’t have the correct information and they beg for your help. I tried to help people, but sometimes I had to turn away people because I had to have money for my rent. The game is an empathetic nightmare.

Your family starts with four family members, but can grow. You will also be confronted with day to day situations. For example, your son’s birthday is coming up; should you buy him a present? Should you move your wife’s sister’s children into your apartment?

Overall, the game is an exercise in futility. No matter how efficient you get or how much money you can earn in a day, something will happen that will bring back to stage one. You will always just be scraping by and having an extremely difficult time.

Nonetheless, I still enjoyed my time with the game. I enjoyed the noticeable improvements in my efficiency and kept on telling myself that if I just worked for a few more days I would be fine. Also the multiple endings for the game make me want to return and go down all of the avenues I closed.

Finally, if you see the game for sale on Steam you should pick it up. Right now it cost ten dollars, but you should still wait for the Summer/Winter sale on Steam. I liked the way the game goes and how much it made me think about fictional characters who become more and more real to you.