Contraband Police asks: What if Papers, Please gave you a gun?

polygon.com:

I am a stalwart border agent in Contraband Police, and I serve as the last line of defense between the great nation of Acaristan and nefarious smugglers and weapon dealers. I am given a few simple tools, like a folder full of regulations, a flashlight, a clipboard, and perhaps most handy of all, a gun. It’s a lot like indie darling Papers, Please, except I occasionally have to leave my post to lay down the law and shoot some criminals.

Contraband Police is a little janky but deeply compelling, and the game is a surprise hit on Steam. It’s the 1980s, and I’m starting my new job as the border agent in a Soviet-style totalitarian state. My corrupt predecessor was thrown out of his job, and my new co-workers kind of suck. I have to open up a car’s trunk and hood, search for cigarettes in the front grille, and discover ceramic chickens stuffed full of drugs. Meanwhile, my coworkers are enjoying a nice smoke break.

It’s the kind of game where it’s easy to fall into a fugue state. I wake up in my teeny tiny camper to find a line of cars waiting to enter the border. I call them in, one by one, and check the driver’s papers to make sure they meet regulations. The game likes to throw me curveballs when I’m most at ease — a guy might speed past the border post and into Acaristan, and I have to sprint to my official work truck and chase them down. Or a band of rebels might ambush my post, and my colleagues finally come in handy as the border crossing becomes a battlefield.

This is why I have the most powerful administrative tool of all: a gun. I start with a humble service pistol, but I can upgrade over the course of the campaign to shotguns, submachine guns, and sniper rifles. This ends up being somewhat moot, as I discover the