Border control simulator Papers, Please is going cheap

To mark the end of 2016, we launched our annual Game of the Year Awards last week—a daily updated categorised list which celebrates the best of PC gaming over the last 12 months. Launched three years ago, Lucas Pope's Papers, Please was Evan's personal pick of 2013 which, given the fact it's been discounted 60 percent, also seems worth celebrating today.

From right now until 5pm GMT/7am PT tomorrow, Papers, Please is on sale for just £2.80/$4.00 via Steam.

After ending a 6-year conflict with neighbouring state Kolechia, the fictitious communist Arstotzka has opened its borders. As an immigration inspector in border town Grestin, your job is to determine who gets through—by way of checking documents and filtering those with the appropriate credentials and those who do not.

Among the genuine travellers, though, are smugglers, spies and terrorists, among other unsuited border hoppers thus much responsibility rests on your shoulders. To make matters worse, you get paid and punished against your performance which results in some crucial decision making—do you splash out for medicine for your children at the expense of making rent payments? Or do you pay rent, knowing you can't afford to heat a freezing house in turn?

It's a wonderfully cruel game which is not only hugely emotive but has you second guessing your every move. Here's what Evan said in 2013:

"It hands you power and helplessness. As an impoverished checkpoint border officer in a pseudo-Soviet state, if you perform poorly at your miserable, taxing job, you won't be able to keep your family alive. But despite this low position, you're granted enormous influence over the lives of others.

"With one stamp, you can separate spouses, quash a conspiracy, liberate a killer, or save victims. The way the game stacks these moral quandaries atop your own instincts as caretaker is a big part of what make it worth playing."

Again, Papers, Please is £2.80/$4.00 on Steam from now until 5pm GMT/7am PT Tuesday, December 20.