Papers, Please

Papers, Please is a game that should be arbitrarily dismissed as crap: very little story or plot, exceedingly low-res graphics, topped off with point and click gameplay. You play a border guard in an early 1980's communist state tasked with inspecting documentation for people wanting to enter the country. I can unequivocally say, this is a good game.

Every morning you get requirements for entry, often very different from the day before; as the game progresses you get more and better tools for the inspections, but taking the requirement changes into play means more work, then add in the fact that you get paid by the number of people you process, and not very well. When you're done you have to allot your salary for household expenses, usually resulting in what member of your family you let suffer, or die, due to not enough money for basic necessities.

Graphics intensive it is not.

Frustration #1 is your superiors will always know when you screwed up so letting the wrong person in or denying the wrong person often ends up penalizing you, resulting in not enough money taken home. Frustration # 2 is the fact that properly analysing each person takes too long so you don't bring home enough money either way. Throw in a subplot about spies and revolutions that actually matter to you (because, hello, bribes!) and you get an experience you can get immersed in.

I'm giving this one a 9/10, I'd like to give it full marks, but it's a little too frustrating for that. Then again, replace the word "frustration" with "challenge" and you've got what makes a game worth playing.