Pain Instead of Entertainment: The Most Painful, Heartbreaking Games

Table of Contents

• Pain Instead of Entertainment: The Most Painful, Heartbreaking Games
• Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
• This War of Mine
• Pathologic 2
• That Dragon, Cancer
• Spec Ops: The Line
• The Walking Dead – Season One
• Dark Souls
• Silent Hill 2
• Shadow of the Colossus
• Papers, Please
• Valiant Hearts: The Great War
• Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Papers, Please

As a kind of satire on the communist regime, Papers, Please brings few reasons for laughter. Instead, it tests our morality using some very difficult examples. This little, independent game puts us in the role of a border guard. Our job is to examine documents and an ever increasing set of additional permits and bureaucratic rules to determine who can be let into the country, and who doesn't. We're always under pressure of time and money – punishments for mistakes are severe, and if we're not achieving optimal performance, we won't be able to support our family.

We have to make some extremely difficult choices. We will decide whether to let a desperate mother with a baby and an incomplete set of papers in, or a shabby guy who has the paperwork in order, but is unlikely to be honest. Is it worth risking the welfare of your entire household by giving a favor to people in need, who want to cross the border at all costs? Papers, Please doesn't serve up simple entertainment; it's job is to give us moral dillemas and reasons for some serious reflections on systems of power.

1. Papers, Please in our encyclopedia