Last updated on January 3rd, 2026 at 07:43 pm
Papers, Please – Simulation Game Review
Papers, Please is a Simulation/Entertainment/Roleplaying game from 3909 LLC, first launched in 12th December 2014.
It’s rated 17+ and currently has 1,159+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Papers, Please Stand Out
A dystopian document thriller.
The award-winning, critically-acclaimed border inspector game.
"Congratulations."
"The October labor lottery is complete. Your name was pulled."
"For immediate placement, report to the Ministry of Admission at Grestin Border Checkpoint."
"An apartment will be provided for you and your family in East Grestin. Expect a Class-8 dwelling."
"Glory to Arstotzka."
Awards
◉ Best Game of 2013 – The New Yorker
◉ Best Game of 2013 – Wired Magazine
◉ Top Indie Game 2013 – Forbes Magazine
◉ Best Strategy & Simulation Game 2014 – BAFTA
◉ Grand Prize Winner 2014 – Independent Games Festival
◉ Excellence in Design Winner – IGF 2014
◉ Excellence in Narrative Winner – IGF 2014
◉ GameCity Prize Winner 2014 – GameCity
◉ Cultural Innovation Award 2013 – SXSW
◉ Best PC Game 2014 – LARA Game Awards
◉ Innovation Award – GDCA 2014
◉ Most Innovative 2014 – Games For Change
◉ Best Gameplay 2014 – Games For Change
◉ Best Game of 2013 – Ars Technica
◉ Best Game of 2013 – PC World
◉ Best PC Game of 2013 – Destructoid
◉ Best Story of 2013 – Destructoid
… and more
Story
The communist state of Arstotzka has just ended a 6-year war with neighboring Kolechia and reclaimed its rightful half of the border town, Grestin.
Your job as immigration inspector is to control the flow of people entering the Arstotzkan side of Grestin from Kolechia. Among the throngs of immigrants and visitors looking for work are hidden smugglers, spies, and terrorists.
Using only the documents provided by travelers and the Ministry of Admission's primitive inspect, search, and fingerprint systems you must decide who can enter Arstotzka and who will be turned away or arrested.
Features
Includes the complete original game with all 31 days and 20 endings. Also adds unlockable multitouch support for faster paperwork, an enhanced inspection mode, Game Center achievements, leaderboards, mid-day resume, and more.
Warning
This game contains mature themes, non-photographic nudity, and brief moments of pixelated violence.
This Simulation game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Papers, Please is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 17th July 2023
Recent improvements include:
Various small fixes
Download & Availability
Papers, Please is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Papers, Please on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
We originally had it on pc a long time ago and got it again on mobile and it is easily the best thing to ever happen to us. We spend hours playing and when we sleep or close our eyes our mind generates a perfect replica of the game. We love papers please.
Papers please is simply just a masterpiece in story-telling, gameplay and is a work of art in general. There are multiple copycats on the App Store, but if you feel like spending a few bucks, then give this game a try. It is worth your money.
The issue a reported turned out to not be a bug we were just very dumb overall 10 out of 10.
We would like new gameplay like new interactions outside the job but it shows how truly bad the Berlin wall was.
This game is extremely well made. From the pixel graphics, to the overall gameplay, this game is amazing. We highly recommend you play this. Even if youre not into inspecting, or Sherlock type of games, you should really look into this. With over 20+ endings, and amazing characters, this game could possibly change your view on society, and how you should either choose empathy, or money (credits). Great game! 10/10.
We wrote a review on this and it didn't save so uhhhh, very good game, buy now. Absolute masterpiece. Also there is a bug where if you highlight a different name discrepancy, even if the fingerprints match it will not clear the discrepancy and you have to deny them or citation go brrr. We would appreciate it if this was fixed. Glory to Arstotzka.
What can we say about this that hasnt already been said? Its a game that takes full advantage of its interactive medium to deliver a cohesive narrative and gameplay package unlike anything else. Its rich in themes of 80s era late-stage communism, corruption and the roles people play to survive in nightmarish conditions. Its truly special, and feels like its true art from the heart. AAA studios spend millions trying to replicate a fraction of the feeling that this 5-dollar indie game does effortlessly. No amount of cinematic gameplay, lore-dumping, cutscenes or gimmicky mechanics ever come close to creating a comparable experience as this.
Matt and ryan made us download. Love u ryan <3.
Our first review and this one is worth it! Im very skeptical of mobile games and this is a charm. You really grow with the game and feel like youre progressing with your checkpoint each day. 20 different endings and an endless mode. This game makes you think, few compassion and rebelliousness all in the same breath. Story mode is great and Im working on our 6th ending now! Highly recommend for anyone willing to get lost for hours into something so simplistic, yet elegant. 10/10. Good job with this one.
But we love it. So happy we can play on our iPad.
Its definitely a game that will make you think. Check, and double check. Also pro gamer tip. Make sure your device is off silent. Tired of seeing reviews whining about no sound.
Really solid game. Love to play it in our free time. NO problems at all.
We wish we could play in landscape mode, and we wish if it had an iphone version with some interface rework to fit it better with cloud syncing, other than that its a very fun game EDIT: LETS GOOOOOO ITS ON IPHONE NOW.
We loved this game on PC so much that we had to buy it on mobile as well. It makes us laugh all the time.
Every time someone is missing an ID supplement we click the counter then the rules and it says it matches up. So we pass them through and it says we get a penalty for missing ID supplement. The game is otherwise fun but it is really irritating having that component not working.
Look elsewhere if you just want to unwind a little after a tiring day at work and you have half an hour to make it count, this will just do the opposite for your mood. The 3 stars is for the terrible User Interface by the way.
This game is an original masterpiece. But only on the computer. The mobile controls need to be redone.
It was a pretty thoughtful and fun game until it started telling us we needed to check each persons sex by taking an xray of them. Just felt wrong and transphobic. We wont support that.
Fix audio issue. We cant hear any background noise unless we are using some sort of speakers or powerful headphones. No issues with our phone, and problems direct to this game. What a shame, and so much for the soundtrack. We guess we will be playing audio from another device to make the game seem relevant. Iphone 13.
We can't hear sound, we've tried to turn everything up & restart our phone. We just can't hear it on this game.
Whenever we made a new save, we started the game but when the date screen would drop, it only showed black and not the actual desk screen. Please fix this.
We payed money for this name to not let us get past day two because we cant do anything about this dude not having any papers it just wont let us do anything its dumb.
Played this game in someones phone (android) and we loved it. Came to find out that when we bought it on our phone (iOS), it didnt have the device configuration. Let us know if an update adding the option is coming up. Had to do a refun, but we really want to play it.
The game mechanics feel bumpy at times on the iPad. We can get over that, but we cant for the life of us figure out how to use the gun. We swear its a bug. The gun highlights when we select it and freezes. It just doesnt work. Ive replayed a level a few times, and we cannot get it to work. It shows you how crappy the game mechanics is on the iPad. Clicking and using items shouldnt be difficult on any game.
Cobrastan is not a real country.
Hands down, one of the best games Ive ever had the luck of stumbling upon in the App Store. Clever, harsh, challenging, nerve wracking, and EXCELLENT.
We searched the Apple Store for a long time but couldn't find this game. Recently, it was a pleasant surprise that he suddenly appeared. It was as fun as on the computer and the price was also good.The fly in the ointment is his Chinese translation, which is different from the computer version, which makes it difficult for us to judge the issuing city of passport.
Best non mobile mobile game ever.
Yknow we were hesitant at first but the mobile format for this game works smoothly and effortlessly. We dont know how you manage to make literal paperwork interest but they did it and Im hooked.
We remember playing this in middle-school on PC when it first came out and later once they ported it to iPad. This (along with FTL) were two of the best indie games of that era to get ported to iPad, but neither had iPhone versions until now!! We thought it was a bug when we were browsing through the App Store and saw a cloud download button next to Papers, Please. So, we clicked on it, and much to our surprise, after all these years, Lucas Pope went out of his way to redesign the gameplay to fit on these tall phone screens we have now, much like he did for multitouch on the iPad years ago. Thank you!! Not only that, but at least in our experience, this redesign has made the game much easier by virtue of greater efficiency in accepting and returning documents, making it easier to earn money and progress. Ive gotten further in the story Im the past couple days than we ever did all the other times we played it. If you havent taken a look at this modern indie classic, give a spin and enjoy doing your part for your country! Glory to Arstotska.
Papers belongs on mobile platforms. Playing vertically is very welcome. We do wish we could close and open the reference docs, and in the game mode, Endless > Perfection, paused on your error longer before exiting.
Can only process a fraction of papers in the time allotted, meaning less income and family dies faster. They need to rebalance this for mobile.
Its really fun until you get about 10 days in and then its just the same ol that ver and over again. For $5 its an easy purchase but we cant see much in the way of replaying for the different endings when its so slow to progress.
We started playing with our earbuds connected to our phone via Bluetooth. Heard the game audio just fine. Then took them off and disconnected them from our phone and couldnt hear the game. Have restarted phone and the app since then and we still cant hear anything.
Great game, wish apple made it easier to see achievements. Gotta hand it to the developer for responding.
We bought this game on our iPad. Its fun. Last week the developers added iPhone support but youll need to buy the game all over again. Wow.
This is the most uplifting game Ive ever played. Glory to Arstotzka, the best country! We could only strive to be a fraction as good as Arstotzka. Overall a fun utopian fiction game.
We love Arzstotzka its all powerful and beneficial all generous.
Honestly the mobile app is even better than the desktop version! We love the app! The swiping to each document is way better than trying to fit them all into the workspace on the desktop game.
Theres basically 3 endings. The other 17 are very minor, so here are the 3 endings 1: F this Im out ending Escape with your family to Obristan, even though you probably starved half of them 2: Terrorism ending Join the rebellion against Arstotzka 3: COMMUNIST ENDING COMRADE Protect the border from terrorists and never associate with them only for them to be like get back to work 10/10 experience.
We were playing game at the airport, when the worker asked for our passport so we showed them our in game passport, they were not amused, we are now facing up to 70 years in federal prison, so please pray that we dont drop the soap.
One of the top games we ever player very fun.
This game is lots of fun and has lots of different endings. It can get really hard but not to where you want to give up. Theres so much content! We love it.
On day 29 theres a glitch were you talk with Jorji it glitch the pass port he give you and we dont no how to by pass it so Im just stuck on it we really love the game cant stop playing but now we dont know what to do please help.
We really love this game, no complaints. However, we have no clue if sync is a thing in this game. We play on both our iPad and phone and we dont want to have to restart on our iPad.
We love papers please, but we were hesitant to see how the layout of this game would look on iphone. It isnt nearly as jarring as we thought it would be and we quickly got used to it. The game itself is addicting.
We love the game and we love how they put it out on Mobile, but there are very few features that may not be able to work, like poisoning Khalid Istom.
Ive seen it a thousand times in the AppStore but wasnt at all interested. Finally we purchased it last week thinking Id probably just wasted $4.99. Was we ever wrong. We freaking love this game!! We should not have waited 11 years but we are having a grand time now.
This game is a masterpiece, we never get bored playing it, the ending are kinda the same but we still love it, the multitasking is hard but as you play more it gets easier, 10/10 game.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.4.12
- Size: 61.63 MB
- iOS: 11.0 or later
- Languages: EU, CS, EN, FR, DE, ID, IT, JA, KO, PL, PT, RU, ZH, ES, TR, UK
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity, Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor, Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence, Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes, Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
- Developer: 3909 LLC
Last updated: 17th July 2023 | Genre: Simulation, Entertainment | Developer: 3909 LLC