Papers, Please has no right to be as fun as it is. Papers, Please has no right to be as poignant as it is. Papers, Please has no right to be possibly the best PC game of 2013 I've played. Papers, Please is all of these things.

The gameplay of Papers, Please is more or less a tedium simulator. It's Paperwork: The Game. And yet, you know that you need to process as many of these poor people as you can so that your family won't starve. You know that the old lady who you just denied will probably never see her son again; you know the young man you just let through has less than glorious ambitions in your city. Will you support the rebels? Will you let the young lady through, even though her passport is clearly fake, because her fiance was just before her and bribed you to do so? The choice in this game is staggering, and the simplicity of the game itself allows for complete assimilation of your mind into the mind of your character. You feel bad when your child gets sick, but you know that food is sometimes more important than heat.

Papers, Please is a work of video game brilliance