Recent reviews by William P. Ennis

Interesting premise but started getting stale after the first couple missions.

Decent with friends, but I don't think I would play this solo. A little grindy but the gameplay is fun and probably has the best atmosphere in any game I've played. Kind of lost interest around the end-game but the campaign is ~20 hours, which I think is fair if you pick it up on sale.

Greatest game of all time.

The reviews saying it's "too random" are just straight up wrong. If you know basic meta you can win consistently with most ships on Normal. The fact there are people with 100+ win-streaks on Hard completely kills the RNG argument.

Wanted to like it, the premise is very cool and a nice change from the usual FPS or RTS format you see with WW2 games. However the main gameplay just feels too shallow, navigation and combat is abstracted away so there isn't really much to do besides micromanaging your crew. Death feels random and it just overall feels like there isn't many interesting decisions to be made.

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Just finished the game. You definitely get what you pay for; 40 hours for a solo campaign is pretty decent. You can tell a lot of work went into the game whether it's the art, mechanics, voice acting, level design, etc. There's not a ton of variety once you unlock all the characters, but the level design is unique enough that each level poses a good challenge.

Most co-op fun I've had with my friends in a long time. Do note that it only supports three players though. Some portions can get a little repetitive, but the game as a whole is unique enough to hold my interest.

My only real complaint is it's poorly optimized. In certain worlds I'll experience frequent fps drops on high settings even with the recommended specs.

Overall experience is enjoyable, however the endings you get can feel a bit random, which ends up preventing a truly satisfying narrative in some cases. Spoilers ahead.

I figured I'd try doing a "government loyalist" playthrough. I ignored most of the EZIC agents requests, save for maybe one or two which I thought were in the interest of the country (ex. stopping terrorists). The audit comes up at the end of the game and I'm executed for conspiring against the state? Obviously Arstotzka's government is supposed to mirror the tyranny and corruption of cold war states, people being wrongly and mercilessly persecuted, but I personally don't think the game gives you enough foreshadowing or warnings towards your ultimate fate when faced with narrative choices.

Of course you can just reload saves to avert bad endings; I just redid the day and escaped with the family to Obristan. Good enough for a game of this scale, but it does still feel a bit unsatisfying from a narrative point of view.

That's just my nitpicking of the game though. The actual gameplay and experience of Paper's Please is something everyone needs to experience at least once.

Interesting story and great atmosphere. Both the plot and characters are very well written, which is fitting considering writing plays a heavy role in the game. Game is definitely more of a thriller than a horror game; I only jumped maybe once or twice while playing.

The actual gameplay holds up well for a 7 year old game. It won't blow you away, but it's good enough for a game of its type and length (took me 7 hours to beat the main story). There's some collectable trinkets if you're a completionist, but for most people it's not worth your time to be honest.

All in all, I recommend the game if you want a great narrative with a healthy balance of combat and action. While you'll get your money's worth at full price, it does go on sale every now and then if you can wait.

If you're considering which game to play first, I would start with Shadow of Chernobyl.

While Call of Pripyat is the better game (in terms of mechanics and content), I feel like Shadow of Chernobyl does a better job as an introduction to the series. SoC really nailed the atmosphere and tone of the setting. The world is presented in a way that's comfortable and exciting for people new to the series.

Clear Sky is basically an enhanced version of SoC; Clear Sky uses the same map from SoC with several nice additions. There are also a few new mechanics and content. Clear Sky's main issue is its notoriously bad ending (gameplay and narratively); the other two games don't have particularly satisfying endings either, so just keep that in mind.

Call of Pripyat has is the most mechanically sound game of the three, with the best gunplay, most content and fewest bugs. It really shines as an open world game and once you're done there's a ton of mods to keep you busy.

In short, start with Shadow of Chernobyl. Then depending how you feel after that, play Clear Sky first if you want more of what SoC offered, or skip straight to Call of Pripyat if you want a polished open world experience.

TLDR: Play Shadow of Chernobyl if you want a decent narrative and excellent atmospheric experience. Clear Sky if you liked Shadow of Chernobyl. Call of Pripyat if you want the best gameplay and an open world.

Notes:
Call of Pripyat has some notable framerate issues in the opening marsh area, just try and push through it.

Most people recommend you play with the Zone/Sky Reclamation Project for your first SoC and CS run respectively, fixes a lot of the bugs!