Journey vs Papers Please
Journey
Journey is literally a quintessential "artsy" adventure game. Why so? Well, the game puts you in the shoes of a mysterious robed figure who you will control throughout your adventure across beautiful, quiet and mostly desert landscapes. Each landscape provides players with a puzzle to solve that will allow them to move on to the next scene, though players can simply roam around the place and drink in the gorgeous visuals.There isn't a lot of buttons in the game and that's fine enough since you really don't need much to solve the puzzles, but personally, I'm incredibly intrigued by the Sing function. Although it is used to solve certain puzzles, most of the time you'll probably be using it idly while your character is travelling. Depending on how long you press the button and how fast you do so, you can actually create amazing little tunes that you'd love to have it recorded down and turned into perhaps a ringtone or something.
That said, Journey is a game that's so much more than composing music and solving puzzles. It is a journey (like its namesake) to help the robed figure discover who he/she is and to help you figure out what's happened in the game world, resulting in the sprawling desert that spans most of the game.
Papers Please
Papers Please is a pretty dark, story-rich, point and click game where you're sole and yet most difficult job as an immigration officer is to approve or deny a throng of people, some of which are good but of course there will be smugglers, spies and terrorists, entering into your country of Arstotzka from the war-devastated neighbor, Kolechia. Thankfully, you'll have some information at hand to help you make your decision. There are lie-detectors, documents, fingerprints, inspections and other primitive methods along with, of course, a series of questions and follow-up questions that you can ask.Your every decision will determine the lives of those who go through your immigration booth and enter Arstotzka as well as for those who were turned back to eke out a living in a war-torn country. Your morality and empathy will be greatly tested in this game.
Papers Please is among one of the most impactful games of, perhaps, all time. The game is simple enough for anyone to get into and yet it challenges your very beliefs, your concepts and your morality as you stamp those immigration papers with the words "Approved" or "Denied". If you are looking for a thought-provoking game, Papers Please is just perfect for you.