10 Most Harrowing Decisions We Made To Progress In Video Games

3. Weighing The Needs Of The Few - Papers Please

Don't let its vintage graphics fool you, Paper's Please will get inside your mind in the most relatable and affecting of ways, and stay there. Placing you in the shoes of a border-agent deciding who can come in to the 'glorious nation' of Arztotska, gameplay consists of (mostly) innocent people coming into your booth and presenting their case for asylum, only for your anonymous rubber stamp to determine their ultimate fate. The genius of the game comes in the constant balancing act of trying to appease your governmental oppressors by way of processing as many people as possible so that you get paid enough to afford medicine and food for your family, as well as keeping your personal morals in check. The morals in question are not put upon you by dialogue or narrative exposition, instead your character is essentially mute, responding in textual statements to those in front of you after you pick a response, therefore you find yourself answering to the citizens in real life. The real kicker is after a few in-game shifts start to actually get you used to how things work - as you may do should you be tasked with such a thing in real life - a middle-aged couple arrives whereby one has their papers in order, and the other does not. Do you take the financial hit, and potential third strike of the day just to let a wife pass through illegally with her begging husband, or do you separate them, 'safe' in the knowledge that you were just doing your job? Papers Please is one of the many landmark titles from last year that proves games can offer experiences available in no other medium.