10 Fantastically Original Video Games That Deserve Your Attention
4. Papers, Please
When a game's main mechanic is simply choosing whether or not to stamp a visa, youd be right to hear alarm bells going off about how deep of an experience such a seemingly mundane title actually is. But Papers, Please is a much more intricate experience than its one basic mechanic would suggest, and the tension and anxiety that comes with either allowing or disallowing people access (and by extension, giving them a chance for survival) to the dystopian future country of Astotzka is virtually unrivalled. The way the game forces you to make assessments on whether or not these people deserve to be allowed access to the country from only a very small snapshot of their lives, all the while balancing how much you're willing to sacrifice in your role as an immigration inspector, can lead to some of the most heart-wrenching and difficult gaming decisions the medium has ever seen. With the ambiguity that surrounds every action you take and the plethora of different endings to the game, Papers, Please makes the very act of choosing to stamp documents or not a thrilling and devastating experience.
