Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context VideoGame / PapersPlease

Go To

1[[quoteright:335:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/papersplease_2640.png]]
2[[caption-width-right:335:Glory to Arstotzka.]]
3
4->''"Papers, please..."''
5--->''"Here you go. P-please let me in, I've waited for hours."''
6->''"Purpose of trip?"''
7--->''"To read the article."''
8->''"Duration of stay?"''
9--->''"A few minutes."''
10
11''Papers, Please'' is a self-styled "{{Dystopia}}n [[BureaucracySimulator Document Thriller]]" game developed by Creator/LucasPope. You play as an unnamed border inspector whose job is to defend the Authoritarian, Bureaucratic, and Communist nation of Arstotzka from smugglers, spies, terrorists, other criminals, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking anyone else who happens to have improperly filled out paperwork.]] You have a family dependent on your wage to keep them warm, healthy, and alive. You can follow its devlog [[http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=29750.0 here]].
12
13After a shortened version of the game served as a beta for several months, the full game was released worldwide on 8 August 2013. A port for the UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation Vita}} was formally announced in August 2014 and released on December 12, 2017, while an iPad port was released on December 14, 2014. However, a misunderstanding with Apple caused a censored version to be uploaded to the app store; the game was reuploaded uncensored a day later.
14
15It is set in a similar universe to Creator/LucasPope's earlier game [[http://dukope.com/play.php?g=trt The Republia Times]], a simpler game about running a newspaper in a totalitarian state.
16
17The website is [[http://papersplea.se/ here.]]
18
19It has received a short film adaptation (in Russian, though all onscreen text is English and there are subtitles in over 20 languages, including English), which can be streamed from Steam [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/804320/Papers_Please__The_Short_Film/ here]] or watched on Youtube [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFHHGETsxkE here]]. In 2023, to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the game, a demake called [[https://dukope.itch.io/lcd-please ''LCD, Please'']] was released on itch.io.
20
21Compare ''VideoGame/{{Beholder}}'' and ''VideoGame/ThisWarOfMine''. Creator/LucasPope followed this game up with ''VideoGame/ReturnOfTheObraDinn'' in 2018.
22----
23!!Glory to Arstotzka for containing examples of the following tropes:
24[[foldercontrol]]
25
26[[folder:Tropes #-G]]
27* TheEighties: The game is set in late 1982 (or, if you unlock Endless Mode, early 1983) and incorporates elements from UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars of the 1990s (namely the ultranationalism and violent sectarianism among individual Eastern European nations). While the setting is fictional, the nations have an oppressive Soviet Bloc government feel to them.
28* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: If you get a citation immediately after making a mistake, whoever's sending out the citations should be the one manning the checkpoint instead, since they're so sharp. Originally, this mechanic was implemented more realistically, but it was changed to this version not only to provide better feedback for the player, but also to make the Ministry of Admission feel more like an all-seeing Orwellian entity.
29* AchievementsInIgnorance: Sometimes, you'll come across immigrants who have apparently traveled across the continent not only without a passport on hand, but without knowing what a passport even ''is''.
30* AchievementSystem: Seven entrants will give you tokens for completing certain tasks (there is one for each of the countries in the game), which are recorded on the "End of Day" screen. Several of them are for taking the "morally right" action in a situation even though you receive a citation for doing so.
31* AdjustableCensorship: The game allows you to change whether nudity is visible when the x-ray scanner is used. If nudity is turned off, the entrants will be wearing underwear.
32* AffablyEvil: What counts as evil is up for debate in a story so heavily mired in GreyAndGrayMorality, but in the sense that [[spoiler:he's a criminal (and likely would be considered "evil" in any normal story)]], Jorji is definitely this. [[spoiler:Sure, he's a drug dealer, a smuggler, and possibly a black market mastermind]], but he's also the friendliest, most polite, and most cheerful person you'll ever meet. The Inspector can also be this, if you play him correctly.
33* AlliterativeName:
34** The game itself, of course.
35** The '''A'''rstotzka '''A'''rskickers team.
36* AlmightyJanitor: You play as the simple and lowly border inspector of a checkpoint for immigration. You are also expected to analyze all of the complex paperwork with efficiency, detain criminals and other suspicious characters upon detection, ''and'' defend the area from terrorists attacks with your Tranquilizer gun. The Inspector can potentially have much better aim and skill in subduing threats than the guards that were assigned to do so.
37* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Due to the art style (probably), the characters may have blue, orange, purple, or pale green skin.
38* AmbidextrousSprite: If the entrant provides documentation with their pictures, their images will likely be flipped, though there's no discrepancy there.
39* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler:Not counting the various endings where you are killed or jailed for life, there are effectively three possible "final" outcomes in the game: EZIC brings down the wall and rises to power with you becoming an agent of theirs, EZIC is foiled and a deal is reached with Kolechia with you remaining a loyal inspector, or you and some or all of your family escape to Obristan. It's left completely ambiguous whether any of these are good or bad endings, or which are better outcomes than the others.]]
40* AmbiguousGender: Due to [[{{Retraux}} the artistic style]], it can be difficult at times to determine the gender of an individual just by looking. However, if you check for discrepancies, you will be able to determine their gender... usually. Sometimes, the game acknowledges the fact that an individual looks much like the opposite gender and lets you classify it as a discrepancy. This triggers a strip search scan that can either clear the discrepancy or incriminate the entrant enough to merit detainment. It doesn't help that some of them have [[GenderBlenderName names generally associated with the opposite gender]] as well.
41* AnachronismStew: While the game generally sticks faithfully to its 1980's Soviet Bloc setting, there are a few things unique to the game's fictional world:
42** The HPV vaccine, which is sometimes listed on an entrant’s vaccine certificate, wasn’t available in real life until 2006.
43** Full body scanners weren’t invented until 1992, and weren’t used for border security until 2007.
44* AndTheAdventureContinues: If [[spoiler:you did not help EZIC once throughout the course of Story mode]], then the game will end with you passing your audit and continuing your job as a border inspector, represented by the game giving you the code to unlock Endless mode.
45* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
46** It is possible to re-load your game from any day from any playthrough. So, if you get a NonstandardGameOver, it is a simple matter to pick up where you left off and not have to start the whole game over.
47** You're notified with a citation within seconds of making a mistake, since it would be frustrating to not know until later.
48** For those who have trouble with reading numbers, names, or dates quickly, the "Match Data" tool can be used to somewhat quickly compare these things between documents to see if they match or not, though this eats up some time compared to just checking yourself.
49** The game's date format can be changed in the options menu, and every document in the game will use the set format. Apart from just being comfortable for the player, this also removes a source of potential FakeDifficulty since a good chunk of story mode happens between the 1st and 12th of December (i.e., when 11/12, 12/11, 11/11 and 12/12 could mean the difference between cleared for entry and a major discrepancy).
50** Non-scripted entrants will have only one major discrepancy in their documentation[[note]]missing documents and discrepancies in reason/duration of stay aren't considered major discrepancies[[/note]], so if you spot a discrepancy that later checks out, you can approve the entrant immediately without having to waste time looking for further discrepancies.[[note]]During testing before the game's official release, it was found that multiple discrepancies actually made the game easier, since it would allow players to deny/detain entrants faster.[[/note]]
51** If an entrant is missing a document which they then provide upon being questioned, any discrepancies (should they exist) will invariably be found on that particular document, saving you from having to waste time looking at the others.
52** For those with bad aim, missing a shot when using the tranquilizer rifle still nets you a "trigger bonus" of 10 credits to compensate for the missed work.
53** The clock for the day doesn't start counting down until you call in the first entrant. That way, you can review new rules and paperwork or get your desk arranged how you want it with no time pressure.
54** Easy Mode gives you 20 credits per day with no strings attached, which provides a safety cushion (or crutch, [[EasyModeMockery as it's mockingly called]]) to ease the sting on your wallet.
55** The first two citations of each day do not dock any of your pay (however, you do not get paid for those people, either), so you can still screw up a few times and not really feel it. It also allows you to be a little charitable to some of the scripted moral choices, provided you are impeccably perfect with the remaining entrants.
56** Similar to the above, scripted events will never require you to get more than two citations per day, so you are never forced to handicap yourself just for the sake of the story. However, they usually use both of the citations, meaning that while the game gives you the chance to avoid cash penalties, you've got to work your ass off for them.
57** Jorji's first appearance has him try to enter without any passport, though this means that you don't have any place for a Denial stamp. This has been a stumbling block for many a new player because it's not evident that they have to match the rule on valid paperwork with the empty desk. After enough time passes, the game will automatically print a note that instructs the player exactly what to do to allow the game to progress.
58** On Day 27, if you approve the Kordon Kallo impersonator's entry, you will not get a citation even though he is missing all documents besides the passport. This is likely because you already got a citation earlier for illegally seizing Kallo's Kolechian passport; making the player take two citations to complete an EZIC task would be a little unfair.
59** Similarly, even though the Vengeful Father is missing all required documents on Day 30, it is still possible to let him in (assuming you took Simon Wens' passport earlier and then admitted him) without getting a citation, as long as you re-confiscate Simon's passport and instead give him a passport seizure slip. Probably because you got a citation earlier for admitting Simon, who's on the wanted criminals bulletin.
60** In Endless mode, there's no benefit to detaining entrants since there's no end-of-day detain bonus. But if you still do so in the Timed variant, you get an extra 5 seconds to make up for the unskippable detain animation.
61** While you normally have to react fast to unexpected events that can cut a day short, at the end of the story, you have copious (but not unlimited) time to make ''the'' single most important choice for several endings. This not only gives the players time to weigh their options given their past choices in the story, but helps them to not have to replay the hardest day multiple times for accidentally messing up.
62* AntiVillain: You, if you play the game right and take the high moral ground on the occasions you can. You're an employee of a frankly hellish government, but you aren't malevolent at all and just want things to run smoothly and your family to be warm and fed.
63* ApatheticCitizens:
64** Your neighbors will happily [[TheStoolPigeon cough you up]] to the authorities if you accept EZIC's monetary gift; however, no one gives a damn should one of your family members pass away. For that matter, they will apparently not help if your family is any combination of cold, sick, or ill; Calensk's dialogue implies that other government employees' families are barely scraping by themselves.
65** Think you deserve some sort of bereavement leave, or condolences? Neither your neighbors nor the government will care.
66* ArcWords:
67** "Glory to Arstotzka."
68** "For Arstotzka and the Order."[[note]] After helping EZIC.[[/note]]
69** "Cause no trouble."
70* TheArtifact: The switch to open or lower the booth's shutter was intended to be linked to gameplay mechanics which ended up getting cut, but the switch itself was kept for atmospheric purposes.
71* AssholeVictim:
72** While it's possible to detain the escaped serial child killer, it's hard to feel too bad for him if the inspector gets on board with the revenge plot that ends with the father of one of his victims gruesomely murdering him.
73** Dimitri is very rude towards the inspector, insulting him if he's made even one mistake, and later on demanding to let a lover through the checkpoint even though she's missing authorization. Denying Shae entry angers and humiliates him, which is as much revenge as the player can get without triggering a bad ending. [[note]]Shae also ends up suffering for this, granted, but at the same time, she doesn't seem personally offended if she's denied, and this lowers her opinion of Dimitri rather than you, seeing him as not really a powerful figure after all. If approved, she suggests she doesn't even ''want'' to be in Arstotzka for long. If you ''detain'' Shae, which you do get the option for, Dimitri will be absolutely furious and you get arrested, resulting in a bad ending to the game.[[/note]]
74** Arstotzka itself is essentially this; it's a bleak, nasty place, but people ''keep attacking it'', leading to further oppression and xenophobia.
75* AssInAmbassador:
76** Occasionally, you have to arrest an ambassador who is on the most wanted list, an ambassador with phony documents, or a phony posing as an ambassador. He or she might say "[[YouFool You are a fool!]]" or "You have no authority for this!" when you do this.
77** Exploited trope at one point. [[spoiler: On day 17, EZIC will try to sabotage border talks between Kolechia and Arstotzka by asking you to take the actual diplomat's passport and have their agent pass themselves off as the person.]] It's implied by the following day's news that their obnoxious and bizarre behavior ruined the negotiations.
78* AwesomeButImpractical: Upgrading to better apartments will get you reduced heating costs and eventually no heating bill at all. However this is swiftly negated by the fact that upgrades not only have a high one-time cost, but also higher rent; in fact, the very first upgrade, Class-7, [[EmptyLevels has no reduction in heating cost while still charging you more than Class-8]]. Sure, it's great to have Class-5 housing (the best available) that has no heating cost, but Class-5 apartments cost 50 credits a day, as opposed to Class-8 where rent is 25 per day (20 in the first four days) and heat is 10 per day, meaning that it's just cheaper to stick to Class-8. The only practical reason to get to Class-5 is to unlock the "Worker's Best" achievement. It's also not strictly necessary to keep the heat on every day; you can spend on it every other day and your family will be fine, but you can't pay the rent on a Class-5 apartment only every other day.
79* BadassBureaucrat: Your job is to check people's papers... until you're issued a tranquilizer gun and tasked with securing the border [[ChekhovsGun should issues arise]]. This trope comes in handy with all the weird events that go on during this month.
80* BadBoss: Dimitri. He insults the Inspector to his face if he got just ''one'' citation, demands that he do personal favours without pulling any strings to ensure he gets no citations while doing so, and doles out harsh punishments just for decorating the station. Pissing him off enough will also get you sent to the gulags.
81* BadgeGag: Jorji Costava repeatedly attempts to finesse his way through the checkpoint making no effort to pretend his documents aren't fake, on one occasion presenting a passport from "Cobrastan" (a country that doesn't exist InUniverse) that is crudely drawn with crayon.
82* BavarianFireDrill: Your first interaction with Jorji has him trying to convince the inspector that he is perfectly allowed to waltz into Arstotzka without any papers whatsoever. He then tries it again later with a blatantly forged passport that a 4-year-old could make.
83* {{Beat}}: [[spoiler:You have the option to flee to Obristan.]] For dramatic effect, there are a few blank "Next"s where dialogue would normally be while the Obristan guard is considering, [[spoiler:but you always get a pass into Obristan]].
84* BeingGoodSucks: You can try to let in people with sob stories and improper paperwork, but the citations for not doing your job will catch up with you, get your pay docked, and leave your family in dire straits. You can get two citations per day without having your pay docked, so as long as you don't make any ''actual'' mistakes, you can make it work.
85* BeleagueredBureaucrat: You ''will'' feel the time pressure, especially in the late-game when each entrant needs three or four pieces of complicated paperwork to get in.
86* BenevolentConspiracy: [[spoiler:However you interpret the group, you cannot deny that EZIC tries to take good care of you. When you accept their 1,000 credit gift, the Ministry of Income confiscates your savings and investigates you. When EZIC gets word of it, they send an agent (whom you must approve entry of) to help 'take care' of that for you. You won't get your savings back, but at least you won't get into trouble, and they've learned from this and decided to keep their gifts modest from now on. In the ending where you help them, they stay true to their word all the time and even send a messenger to warn you about an incoming attack from their agents and asks you to hold your fire. If you do that and let them do their thing, which is to bomb a hole in the border wall, they happily accept you among their ranks and even provide you and your family a safer place to live. In endings where you help EZIC but are imprisoned for other reasons, they'll ensure your family will safely escape to Obristan.]]
87* BigBrotherIsEmployingYou: You are a Border Inspector for an oppressive Communist government, so naturally this trope applies.
88* BigBrotherIsWatching: Antegria is spying on its own citizens, and therefore a [[TheStoolPigeon whistleblower]] exposes this.
89* ABirthdayNotABreak:
90** [[spoiler:Elisa arrives to the checkpoint on her 20th birthday, which may not be a coincidence, since the Kolechian authorities would not let her leave the country. If you turn her away or if Sergiu's dead, the trope applies.]]
91** Your son's birthday takes place within the time window of the game. You can either be unable to buy him the expensive crayons he wants (due to insufficient funds), or [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential refuse to do so]]. Or worse, [[DiedOnTheirBirthday he can possibly die on his birthday]], if he's too ill.
92* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:One ending has you flee to Obristan alone, with the rest of your family returning to their home village and left to UncertainDoom. There is a variation of this ending where you escape with only some of your family members, leaving the rest. Escaping along with all of your living family constitutes one of the game's three good endings, averting this trope[[note]]strangely, having a full living family and taking only one of them still invokes this trope, but if all but one of your family is dead and you take that last family member with you, you get the best variant of the escape ending with the good ending music and all[[/note]].]]
93* BlatantLies:
94** Certain discrepancies, such as the weight of the applicant not matching up with the weight given on their papers or their being from an area flagged for special security measures, require the player to strip search said applicant. The reason given is that "You have been selected for a random search." This does not apply when the strip search is triggered due to an apparent sex discrepancy, in which the inspector will instead ask if the entrant is a man or a woman. The same "random" search is applied to Kolechians following a string of terrorist attacks, which backfires spectacularly since it becomes apparent that ''only'' and ''all'' Kolechian entrants are being strip-searched.
95** When you question immigrants on certain discrepancies, they may try to avoid the subject or answer unhelpfully... or just outright lie. One example of an excuse for a passport picture of the entirely wrong person is "[[IWasQuiteALooker The years have been cruel.]]" As of the update introducing fingerprint identification, this may actually prove to be a subversion if it really is them.
96** Sometimes foreigners (who, after day 3, need a document explaining purpose of trip and duration of stay) will give you answers that don't match up with the document. One possible lie is "In transit until I die." They will ''always'' correct themselves if you call them out on it.
97** Jorji's first passport states that it's issued by "Cobrastan." Either you can helpfully point out the lie, or the citation will point it out for you, to you.
98* BodyguardingABadass: After the player gets access to the tranquilizer gun, the guards, particularly Sergiu, will start relying on the inspector to keep them safe, despite their superior armament and Sergiu's promise to protect him. Saving Sergiu in the first attack causes him to admit to being part of a RedshirtArmy afterwards. This trope is also played with if the inspector fails to destroy the motorcycle that a terrorist is [[CarFu trying to crash into the inspector's booth]] on day 28, because one of the guards will shoot and destroy the motorcycle before it can hit the booth.
99* BombDisposal: One of the scripted events sees a bomb delivered to the booth the player character works in, requiring the player to disarm it.
100* BombThrowingAnarchists: The Kolechians who throw bombs at the guards. [[spoiler:On day 31, if you haven't helped EZIC, one of their agents will also throw an explosive into your booth if you don't shoot them in time.]]
101* BoringButPractical: In the first 2/3 of the game, if you spot a discrepancy it's much faster, and therefore better for your salary, to immediately deny entry the moment you spot a discrepancy, rather than to go through the dramatic process of interrogating the entrant. And before Calensk establishes the Detain Bonus deal with you, denying is more efficient than detaining. This goes away on Day 18 when you have to start interrogating discrepancies before you can legally deny someone, as all denials going forward require a Reason for Denial stamp.
102* BornLucky: An entrant comes into your booth with a forgery, somebody else's stolen document, or wanted status. Before you are able to detain them or even interrogate the critical discrepancy, the alarm sounds and you have to deal with the terrorists attacking your post. ''They just got away scot-free since you didn't get to arrest them.''
103* BribeBackfire:
104** When detaining a man who offers a bribe, you say the line: "You cannot bribe an Arstotzkan Officer."
105** The Kolechian spy who is disguised as someone from the Ministry of Information gives the player a bribe that cannot be refused. The player can still give the spy counterfeit documents, which will lead to Kolechia accusing the wrong people of being Arstotzkan spies.
106** EZIC will attempt to buy your cooperation (or pay you for cooperating) by offering you a package of 1,000 credits. You have the option to burn it. [[spoiler:This is actually the best thing to do, even if you do intend to cooperate with them, because the massive cash influx will cause internal affairs to audit you.]]
107** This seems to have happened with Jorji — when he comes to you while he's in the wanted bulletin, he is aghast if you point it out.
108--->'''Inspector:''' Your face is in wanted bulletin.\
109'''Jorji:''' What! I pay police like crazy! They promise no bulletin. All clear they say. I think twice about trusting friendly people.
110** A man called Danic Lorum will show up with incorrect documents and promise to come back at a later date with the correct ones if you're willing to turn a blind eye, and hands over a watch as collateral. When he does return, he will hand you a bribe ''before getting anything back''. You can elect to keep the watch, to which he will become indignant, then arrest him for causing a scene, keeping the watch, the money, and possibly a kickback from Calensk's bonus for detainment.
111** Strangely, "bribes" include a guard agreeing on giving you a cut of his bonus for every immigrant/citizen you detain (and there is almost ''always'' a good reason to do so), and for whatever favors you do for others (such as selling a watch, or receiving money ''after'' you approve an immigrant who gives you money for being so kind).
112* BureaucracySimulator: Quite possibly the TropeCodifier, you play as a petty customs agent who has to check entry papers, getting penalized for overlooking minor details, and sometimes taking bribes to overlook them.
113* ButThouMust:
114** You can't refuse to cooperate with [[spoiler:Corman Drex]]; if you don't give them the piece of paper with their name on it the first time they come through, they'll arrive and demand it later, and you won't be able to just detain them. As would be expected, this unpreventable action will ''not'' get you in any kind of trouble.
115** On day 6 and day 12, scripted suicide bombers pass through the checkpoint and kill the guards. There is no way to avoid this: if you've memorized which entrants they are (both are the ninth on their respective days), the day will continue until they come along, so you can't just hold the line at the eighth entrants. Since they have their paperwork in order, you can't deny them without a citation, and all following entrants also carry explosives, so denying them is pointless. No matter what you do, those bombers will be allowed entry.
116** When the option of [[spoiler:fleeing to Obristan using forged passports]] comes into play, [[spoiler:Jorji forces you to confiscate his passport; you cannot prevent this, nor can you return it to him after the fact]]. Unlike the above example, you ''still'' get a citation for this. This is the only unavoidable citation in the entire game.
117* CantGetAwayWithNuthin:
118** The MOA can only do one thing right, and that's to send ''you'' a citation when you violate protocol.
119** Subverted in the ending. [[spoiler:M. Vonel ''will'' find out about any cooperation with EZIC, but he's only looking for ''treason'' in his audit. He'll let petty corruption by an otherwise-good Inspector slide.]]
120* CarFu:
121** On day 28, [[spoiler:a terrorist on a motorcycle attempts to crash into the inspector's booth.]]
122** On day 31, [[spoiler:EZIC agents arrive to bomb the wall and run over one of the guards in their car.]]
123* ChekhovsGun: Your Arstotzkan passports are this. They get confiscated in an attempt to prevent Arstotzkans from being able to cross borders in response to activity that results in an attempted [[TheCoup coup d'état]].
124* CheckpointCharlie: Working at one of these is the primary gameplay element.
125* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Jorji Costava does not seem to be quite there, as on his first attempt to pass through customs brings no documents at all, declaring instead that "Arstotzka so great, passport not required!", and on his second attempt presents a passport from "Cobrastan" crudely drawn in ''crayon''. No matter how many times you reject or arrest him, he remains upbeat about the whole thing. He happily proclaims that [[spoiler:he's smuggling drugs]] not once, but twice. And he's also [[spoiler:ultimately your saviour if you helped EZIC at any point, as he provides a method of escape from the country]].
126* ColourCodedForYourConvenience:
127** Each country uses different colours for its passports: Arstotzka is green-grey, Kolechia is purple, Obristan is bright red (as is "Cobrastan"), Antegria is green, Republia is brown, Impor is dark red, and the United Federation is royal blue.[[note]]In the real world passports only come in four colours: red, blue, green, and black.[[/note]]
128** There is a brass key for using a tranq gun, [[spoiler:and a silver one for a sniper rifle.]]
129** The outlines of people outside your booth are colour-coded: entrants and civilians are black, guards are blue except for Sergiu, who is green, and the man in red is, well, red.
130* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Early on, Jorji Costava will, as part of a long chain of inept attempts, try to enter Arstotzka with an obviously fake passport. If the player decides to pass him, the citation will ignore the numerous other problems with his papers (like the fact his passport is crudely drawn ''in crayon'') and focus on the fact that "Cobrastan is not a real country". If the player ''doesn't'' pass him, the inspector cites the above as the reason. The player can also choose to interrogate him over his lack of an entry permit.
131* CommieLand: Arstotzka and most of the other countries in the region are oppressive communist autocracies.
132* CommieNazis: Arstotzka is stylistically Communist and bears certain features of a Communist country (such as the labor lottery), but the obsession with supporting large families, zero tolerance for government workers being in debt, and insanely strict border control all are distinctly reminiscent of Fascism as well. Inspector M. Vonel's black uniform with the cap also highly resembles a Nazi officer uniform.
133* CommissarCap: M. Vonel wears one as part of being a Special Investigator.
134* ConsolationPrize: If you try to shoot a terrorist in the process of attack but miss your shots, you'll still get a smaller bonus for trying, assuming that said terrorist doesn't kill you.
135* CorruptBureaucrat: Many entrants will try to bribe you. You can of course accept the money (and then [[BribeBackfire detain them anyway]]).
136* {{Countrystan}}:
137** One of the countries featured is Obristan. [[spoiler:In one of the endings, it's the country you and your family flee to.]]
138** Jorji, a drug dealer who makes repeated attempts to cross the border, at one point tries to enter with a passport for a country called Cobrastan. This country doesn't actually exist in the game's universe, the reason you will be cited if you let him through. (It doesn't help that said passport is drawn in crayon.)
139* CrapsackWorld: Arstotzka is a nasty {{Ruritania}} in and of itself, but there are people immigrating to it to get away from ''worse'' countries. Antegria is a flat-out tyranny that spies on and kills its own citizens on a whim. Kolechia is considered ten times worse than Arstotzka by Sergiu, has a poor health care system, and is full of terrorists and drugs. Republia is a PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny. The United Federation has ThePlague. Arstotzka, with all of its problems, has an excellent health care system, excellent scientists, a stable economy, and apparently a great transit system. The only countries which do not have anything pointing to general problems in this game are Impor and Obristan.
140* CriticalStaffingShortage: On day 16, there is a newspaper article about the ministries' shortage of qualified guards. You're given access to a tranquilizer gun because many of the guards at the checkpoint have been moved away from the checkpoint.
141-->''The Ministry of Justice has appropriated the outer guard detail.''\
142''You are now responsible for controlling trespasser activity.''
143* CuttingTheKnot:
144** Arstotzka's way of dealing with international affairs can veer into this. All the bombers are Kolechian natives and supporters? Make sure that every single Kolechian entrant is scanned, with no care towards there being any weight discrepancies or not. A polio outbreak from the United Federation? Better to deny every single one of their immigrants entering the border than to take time testing them, regardless of whether or not they show any symptoms. These are eventually amended with further regulation, but only after several innocents have their time wasted or their right to travel violated.
145** Jorji will show up a second time with an obviously fake passport. You don't even need to point out the discrepancies, you can immediately apply the red stamp and send it right back.
146** During the [[spoiler:biker variants of terrorist attacks]], rather than worry about targeting [[spoiler:every individual terrorist, you can just shoot the bikes themselves and take multiple out]].
147* DamnedByFaintPraise: If you get at least one citation, you will be "awarded" a plaque recognizing you for your sufficience. If you get at least 20 citations, you'll be recognized for your ''[[EpicFail presence]]''.
148* DamnYouMuscleMemory:
149** Your first inclination when coming across a scripted immigrant (whether they comment on the décor in your booth or give you something or whatever) is to assume that they always have their papers in order. [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle Not so.]] With remarkably few exceptions (most notably [[spoiler:the brothel workers]]), scripted immigrants can have their papers in order or not, just like everyone else. This will throw you for a loop the ''second'' time you play through.
150** If you are trying to get ending 19 ([[spoiler:the one where you help EZIC overthrow the government]]) after getting good at denying entrants whose paperwork have discrepancies, it's very easy to [[spoiler:skip over the three EZIC agents you're supposed to admit, since they always have obviously faulty paperwork]].
151** If you've grown accustomed to the shortcuts for bringing up the stamps and inspect mode, replaying the first few days where you have neither can take some getting used to.
152** There are a number of rules that last for exactly one day, such an early change from entry tickets to entry permits being required. An inattentive player that lets their brain go on autopilot may find out the hard way that the rule is no longer in place the following day when they automatically stamp Admit/Deny.
153** The last 1/4 of the game requires you to [[spoiler:confiscate passports from Arstotzkans, first starting with just those from the Altan district and later from all Arstotzkans]]. Now, up until this point, detaining an entrant guarantees that there will be no penalties (except for [[spoiler:Shae; detaining her results in a NonStandardGameOver thanks to Dimitri]]), but now, if you want to detain [[spoiler:an Arstotzkan]], you have to [[spoiler:confiscate their passport]] first. It's easy to forget to do so and end up with a citation, since detaining someone clears all of their paperwork off your desk with no more chance to [[spoiler:seize the passport]].
154** [[EndlessGame Endless Mode]]:
155*** The game takes place in the first four days of January 1983. You might still be thinking that any documents with an expiration date in 1983 will be valid...only to get dinged because it's January 3 and you admitted someone whose ID Supplement or passport expired on 1983/01/'''02'''. Also inverted, you might waste time checking the exact dates on documents that expired in 1982 instead of just instantly denying (on the first two difficulty levels) or interrogating (on the latter two).
156*** As unlocking Endless Mode requires completing the game if you choose not to shortcut to it with the unlock code (it is always the same), if you play on the first two difficulty levels, you might interrogate entrants when there's no reason to do so and it just wastes time, since the Reason for Denial stamp only exists on the last two levels.
157* DefrostingIceQueen: You are like this to Jorji. You are a stoic immigration inspector and start out by telling Jorji to never come back (since he keeps returning with faulty/no paperwork), but you eventually soften up to him, enough that you apologize for detaining him.
158* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The setting of the repressive Artsotzkan regime's border control highlights the standards held by an eastern bloc nation from the 80s.
159** Minor discrepancies [[SeriousBusiness may be grounds for denial]] and even [[DisproportionateRetribution arrest and interrogation]], the ability to support an entire family unit is mandated by law and failure to do so is punishable with replacement by a "more able" worker, and everything should be approached while knowing the nature of the SecretPolice, so don't even think about [[spoiler:reporting EZIC's work to Vonel even if you don't intend on assisting them]].
160** A totalitarian order will take great pains to snuff out any issues. Misprints on documents can be enough for the Inspector to call for detainment, as a robbery of government papers has resulted in more accurate forgeries and prompted a desparate crackdown on anything that could be connected to it. Even the most trivial orders are to be followed, including instructions to only keep ''official'' wall hangings, so additional decorations will be treated as [[SeriousBusiness direct violations of those orders that must be punished with citations or arrest]].
161* DemolitionsExpert: Calensk is one. [[spoiler:He tells you how to dispose of the bomb a terrorist left on your desk by cutting the wires in order. The trope is downplayed, however, because (in Calensk's words) the creator of the bomb was an amateur who even left numbers on the wires so the inspector easily knows which to cut, though his remark that it's the shittiest bomb he's ever seen implies that he's dealt with worse. He also knows what parts of the bomb are worth money and who to sell them to, implying at least basic knowledge in their construction.]]
162* DemotedToExtra: Republia and Antegria, the two main countries featured in Lucas Pope's spiritual predecessor game ''The Republia Times'', have the ''smallest'' role of the seven countries appearing in ''Papers, Please''. Impor and the United Fed both feature in prominent subplots (a trade dispute with Arstotzka and a polio outbreak leading to the introduction of the vaccination certificate), Obristan plays an important role in the endgame, and Kolechia is a constant and literally visible presence throughout the game.
163* {{Determinator}}:
164** Jorji is really persistent about getting past that border, no matter how many times he gets turned away or detained.
165** No matter how unhelpful you are to EZIC, they still get in line to try to convince you to do things for them. [[spoiler:Actually completing their tasks after failing on the first two is unwise unless you have the means to escape the country.]]
166* DevelopersForesight:
167** If, for some insane reason, you decide to approve Jorji's Cobrastan passport, you will actually get a citation from the Ministry of Admission saying "Cobrastan is not a real country."
168** If you are so inclined, you can highlight the date on the Ministry of Administration Official Bulletin.
169** Everyone who steps into your booth has their weight appear on the scale, although recurring characters' weights vary.
170** You can shoot innocent bystanders or border guards to see what happens (or incidentally if your aim is bad). You either get sentenced to death or forced labour depending on the offense.
171** After you receive four business cards to hand to any engineers who cross the border, they have different dialogue when you try to give them more than one card.
172** On the day [[spoiler:EZIC asks you to poison a target, it is possible to kill just him without involving any innocent guards or entrants]] by waiting for 6:00 to come so everyone walks away.
173** On day 29, Jorji will come and will suggest moving to Obristan since "things getting little crazy in Arstotzka". He mentions that the forger will need real Obristan passports to make them look authentic. At this point, you would approve his passport and he would give it to you, but you can confiscate it before giving it back to him:
174--->'''Jorji:''' Hey what the hell? You take my passport! You can see it was expensive!\
175'''Inspector:''' You said I need real Obristan passports.\
176'''Jorji:''' Man. Fine. I get another but little unhappy about it.
177** A few of the items you can hang up will get different comments from people depending on what kind of item it is. Even further, if you do hang up things and they get commented upon, denying someone right away will actually be accounted for. For example, if you hang up your son's art he drew for you if you bought him crayons, a lady might comment on it negatively and say he should "[[TerribleArtist stick to sports]]." If you decline her right away saying that, she'll call you out for denying her for her comment.
178** You cannot force {{Scripted Event}}s to be skipped simply by waiting out the clock until 6 PM. If 6 PM comes and there are still scripted events that need to occur (generally, this requires the player to be intentionally slow), the day will continue indefinitely until they're all done. You cannot stop scripted terrorist attacks by entrants either by refusing the terrorist (scripted terrorists who pass through your booth appear at fixed positions in line); the game will just continue to feed you an unending stream of entrants with correct paperwork until you admit one of them, [[SchrodingersGun who will then turn out to be the terrorist]].
179** To unlock ending 18, the player must [[spoiler:confiscate 5 Obristan passports (not counting the one Jorji gives them) for the each member of their family (assuming they are all alive) within 3 days. During the three days, certain entrants are always guaranteed to be from Obristan[[note]]the sixth entrant on Day 29, the first and ninth entrant on Day 30 and the first and seventh entrant on Day 31[[/note]]]] so the player will always be given a chance to unlock this ending instead of having to rely solely on luck.
180** During the bomb defusal sequence, you actually can [[TooDumbToLive stamp the active bomb with Approve or Deny]], which unsurprisingly sets it off. This is only possible on desktop or [=iPad=], as the visa stamp option only appears in appropriate contexts on mobile.
181* DidNotThinkThisThrough: EZIC's plan to have you [[spoiler:assassinate the man in red]] turns out to be poorly thought out, as [[spoiler:the inspector who replaces you will not cooperate]], halting all their plans.
182* DiedOnTheirBirthday: It is possible for the player character's young son to die on his birthday, if he is too ill.
183* DiplomaticImpunity: Occasionally, an ambassador is on the world's most wanted list. You are supposed to arrest the ambassador in this case, averting this trope.
184* DisproportionateRetribution:
185** Later in the game, you can detain people for having inconsistent paperwork whose inconsistencies cannot be overridden or cleared by stronger evidence like fingerprints, identity records, and searches, and are not expired paperwork. However, these inconsistencies in the paperwork could point to something much more sinister. You are not paid to take chances.
186** Your boss sentences you to forced labour for "disobeying a direct order" if you are caught hanging anything but official plaques on the wall for a second time. You will also be sentenced to forced labour if you detain his "friend" Shae, who is attempting to enter the country with an invalid diplomatic authorization.
187** The Arstotzkan government will rely on punishment for association, partly to prove a point, with the main recipient of these punishments being the citizens of other nations. Impor applying trade sanctions on them is given a response in the form of denying ''every'' person from Impor entry into the nation. Due to constant Kolechian-supported terrorist attacks, being a Kolechian entrant is enough to be selected for a random search. The polio outbreak in the United Federation prompts automatic denial, until vaccinations and medical papers are added.
188* DistractedByTheSexy:
189** Some would-be immigrants will try to distract the player character by slipping in flyers for a certain Arstotzkan brothel with their official papers. Surprisingly, [[spoiler:the brothel workers are scripted, and their papers are always in order, so if a girl hands over a card, she can be accepted right away.]]
190** Another scripted entrant will try this with a love letter. The entrant always is missing most of the required paperwork.
191* TheDitz: Several times during a playthrough, entrants will respond to a missing piece of paperwork as asking what that is. One could be forgiven for not knowing what, say, entry permits are a day after they're introduced, but at least a few will ask you, to your face, what a ''passport'' is. At another country's immigration checkpoint.
192* DoWellButNotPerfect: Two of the good endings require you to do things that will result in citations that can otherwise be avoided (the one with Jorji on Day 29 is unavoidable), while still making sure you don't run into any of the bad endings (including GameOver conditions like debt or a dead family). It's still possible to complete the game without monetary penalties since the first two citations of the day don't come with penalties, but because of these tasks, you will have to play the rest of the day ''perfectly'':
193** Ending 18: [[spoiler:You have to steal passports from up to five other Obris, which will get you citations since you are only supposed to confiscate Arstotzkan passports. Note that you can only start stealing passports for this ending on the third-to-last day, meaning that if you're trying to accomodate a full family of six, you'll be stealing two Obristan passports per day (including Jorji's on Day 29), so ''no room for error'' on these last three days if you are trying to avoid penalties.]]
194** Ending 19: [[spoiler:You have to let multiple EZIC agents into the country, even though their papers are not correct. You also have to confiscate Kordon Kallo's Kolechian passport for a citation and then give it to an impersonator.]]
195** It's actually completely impossible to finish the game without any citations. [[spoiler:Jorji will force you to confiscate his passport on Day 29]], which gets you a citation.
196** When M. Vonel comes to question you about EZIC and shows you their symbol, it's right next to the documents you received earlier in the week from them. The immediate inclination, if you're not helping EZIC, is to hand those documents to M. Vonel. This is a bad idea.
197* DoWrongRight: When somebody comes in just to drop a bomb in your booth, Calensk gets incredibly ticked off. Not because of the danger it poses, but because the bomb is so poorly made that an amateur like yourself can defuse it easily.
198* DrugsAreBad: [[spoiler:Jorji Costava, a drug smuggler, says this himself in the following quote when he is first detained: "Drugs are bad. Not good for kids."]]
199* DudeLooksLikeALady: Some men have heads that look like they belong on women. You have to strip search them to find out that the passport's stated biological sex is true. If your strip search discovers that the passport states that the entrant is a man when you find that the entrant is a woman, you can arrest her for having falsified documents.
200* DynamicEntry: [[spoiler:On the final day, EZIC agents enter the scene by running over a guard in a car and come out to shoot the rest.]]
201* {{Dystopia}}: It's ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin in its subtitle in the Steam listing.
202* DystopiaIsHard: Arstotzka's border system is a mess of rules that change on a daily basis, yet the system pays so little and has such minor penalties for failure that corruption (whether for personal gain or moral reasons) is almost guaranteed. [[spoiler:If ending 20 is achieved where the player remains loyal to the state, the government manages to survive multiple dilemmas that could have allowed it to fall.]]
203* {{Eagleland}}: The United Federation is implied to be such, with its blue passport, eagle diplomatic seal, and computerized border control. Although given its position on the map and border shape, it might actually be closer to Socialist Yugoslavia, which was a Federation with early access to computers as well (Yugoslav leader Tito was non aligned and thus had access to western goods). It also explains the polio outbreak there, as it draws inspiration from a RealLife ''smallpox'' outbreak which hit Yugoslavia in 1972 (the last in Europe, less than a decade before global eradication).
204* EarnYourHappyEnding: Certain endings in the game, with elements such as the upbeat, cheerful music and optimistic narration, provide a stark contrast to the grim, oppressive nature of the rest of the game.
205* EasyModeMockery: If you turn on easy mode, the 20 credits bonus you receive each day is called "easy mode crutch".
206* EmptyLevels: Upgrading to a Class-7 apartment (from Class-8, the lowest class) has absolutely no benefit whatsoever, keeping the cost of heating the same while charging you an extra 5 credits per day. But you need to upgrade to Class-7 first in order to get to Class-6, which cuts the heating costs in half.
207* EndGameResultsScreen: After each ending, the game shows you the stats on how many people you processed, denied, detained, etc.
208* EndlessGame: Unlocked when you get ending 20, or input a numeric code. There are also different modes and modifiers within this mode, including one where you [[NoDamageRun cannot make a single mistake]].
209* EpicFail:
210** The guy who hands over ''two'' passports (in different names and places of issue) on day 14. You can even detain him immediately, no need for a check.
211** This exchange you can randomly get:
212--->'''You:''' ''[when the current person fails to display their passport]'' Hand over passport.\
213'''Immigrant:''' What is passport?
214** If the player somehow approves Jorji's first counterfeit passport and ''isn't'' just trying to see what happens if you do. It's an obvious fake written in crayon with a fictional country, fictional issuing city, and the expiration date is in the year 2013; the inspector should have noticed at least one of these problems.
215* EscortMission: Weirdly enough for a bureaucracy simulator, the Sergiu subplot plays out like this. If the player cares about keeping him alive and reuniting him with Elisa, they have to ensure that he lives for 7 in-game days, in which time one of several events can kill him. [[BodyguardingABadass Despite being a veteran, his aiming skills are quite bad for a checkpoint guard.]]
216* EvenEvilHasStandards:
217** The player character may be part of a corrupt bureaucracy in a dystopian society, but the player doesn't need to be completely heartless in their work. A smuggler trying to bribe you can be told off as you detain him, and a man accused of sex trafficking can be denied or detained despite his paperwork being in order. The game has many choices like this: one can try to do the right thing, or one can focus on doing their job.
218** When a certain terrorist attack occurs, one of the messengers from [[spoiler:EZIC appears to inform you that they had nothing to do with it, making a point that they ''never'' harm the innocent, and even sends in an agent to investigate for you]].
219** Even the terrorists that attack the checkpoint and kill guards to further their political agenda will not attack the bystanders in the line with them, even when they're caught with weapons and about to arrested (instead of attempting some TakingYouWithMe attack).
220* EveryCarIsAPinto: Terrorist motorcycles explode and [[SplashDamage kill anyone caught in the radius]] when fired upon with a single bullet. Yes, even if that bullet was a tranquilizer dart.
221* EvilIsEasy: In the first part of the game, if someone's papers have a minor discrepancy, you can try to help them get their papers in order...or you can just deny their passport without explanation. The latter pays better. This is partly averted later, when you need to actually talk to the people who come up to your checkpoint before denying them, allowing them a chance to rectify any mistakes they've made.
222* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The game's subtitle, "A Dystopian Document Thriller," as seen in its Steam listing.
223* ExactWords: This is why the inspector can detain people whose papers contain names with typos. Entrants always attribute typos as aliases. However, if the entrant stated that there was a typo, the inspector would have just denied the entrant instead of being given the opportunity to check the claimed alias against the entrant's identity record and then arrest the entrant for identity fraud if the claimed alias is not in the identity record.
224* TheFaceless: All of the EZIC messengers (whom you can tell are different people because their weight varies) have their faces concealed in shadow, save for their nose and the EZIC symbol where their left eye would be.
225* FaceOfAThug: Sometimes you see an entrant whose face looks very much like one of the world's three most wanted criminals, but is not one of them. Usually, the entrant in such cases has some apparent problem with the documents that could be corrected, be overridden, be shown not to be a problem with additional information, result in a denial, or result in some other reason to arrest the entrant. Occasionally, the entrant has perfectly fine papers and looks like a wanted criminal but the inspection mode shows that the entrant and the wanted criminal are two different people.
226* FactionSpecificEndings: The three good endings basically depend on [[spoiler:whether you uphold the Arstotzkan government, join EZIC in tearing it down, or pick neither side and flee the country]]:
227** [[spoiler:Arstotzka (never complete any EZIC tasks): You stop EZIC from destroying the border wall on Day 31, earning you a pass for the Ministry of Information's audit. After roughly a week's break, you return to your duties as the Inspector, thus unlocking Endless mode.]]
228** [[spoiler:EZIC (complete at least four EZIC tasks): You allow the EZIC agents on Day 31 to destroy the border wall, ushering in the era of the "New Arstotzka" and going from merely an accomplice of them to one of their trusted agents.]]
229** [[spoiler:Neutral (get as many Obristan passports as you have living family members, as well as 25 credits for each): You and your family take a train out of the country and are admitted into Obristan, abandoning both the Arstotskan government and EZIC.]]
230* FadeToWhite: There are four ways to die on the job ([[spoiler:by failing to disarm the bomb, touching the powder, letting a terrorist lob a grenade into your booth, and letting an unfriendly EZIC agent lob a grenade into your booth]]), and if those happen, the screen goes white and returns to the main screen without triggering an ending.
231* FailedASpotCheck:
232** It's all too easy to overlook basic details when inspecting passports, especially on the later days when the difficulty and number of rules ramp up.
233** One has to fail several spot checks to accidentally (not intentionally) admit Jorji with his forged passport, as besides being a crude fake it has a fake-sounding country and city name, an ID number of 1234-OKOK, and an expiry date in ''2013''- among other issues.
234** Your boss will get angry if he spies any unauthorized decorations on the wall. You can have items hanging and take them off moments before he enters the booth, [[BehindTheBlack which should be extremely obvious from his perspective]]. Once he's in his citations spiel, you can hang them back up as he's talking and won't get in trouble.
235** If you choose to [[spoiler:escape to Obristan, you pay for the forged passports and entry tickets, noting that they look terrible. The Obristan border inspector approves all of them anyway.]]
236** Crossing over with NoobBridge, many new players get stuck on the third day when Jorji Costava shows up for the first time with no documents whatsoever. The player has to select the rule about needing a passport and compare it with the empty table in order to interrogate and then dismiss him. Directions to do this are found on page 2 in the daily official bulletin for this day that the player is supposed to read before calling the first entrant. The game's creator has been trying to make this more obvious, with limited success.
237** In the Android and iPhone versions, you can hang actual [[WantedPoster "Wanted!" posters]] on the wall to make it easier for you to spot the world's three most wanted criminals of the day since there is usually no room for the criminal bulletin on the screen unless you specifically view it. None of the criminals ever spot their own wanted posters.
238* FailureGambit: One scripted encounter has an immigrant despite having correct paperwork, will attempt to bribe you to red-stamp him and bar him entry. He's being sent to Arstotzka for a job, but has a better-paying one elsewhere and needs a legit reason to come back home.
239* FantasyConflictCounterpart: The action that Grestin's checkpoint faces is very similar to the situation at a [[UsefulNotes/BerlinWall divided Berlin]].
240* FatalFamilyPhoto: Sergiu's locket from his lover, which marks him as vulnerable to dying even more than having MyGirlBackHome (well, soon to cross the border into home). [[spoiler:Though if you have good enough reflexes and aim, you can subvert this trope for him.]]
241* FeaturelessProtagonist:
242** The player character doesn't have a name or even an icon. [[spoiler:The player character's wife finds a picture on the second to last day with the player character in it, though.]]
243** Another inspector appeared on the official website prior to release. He's a nondescript man with brown hair and glasses. Several viewers mistakenly assumed that the man was the main character of the game until Lucas Pope confirmed that he actually wasn't.
244* FictionalCountry: All the countries on the map, which represent various eastern European Communist states. "Cobrastan" is a fictional country InUniverse.
245* FirstNameBasis: After enough visits from Jorji, you address him by first name, something you don't do for anybody else. You also find out the divisional authority of East Grestin's name because Shae Piersovska refers to him as Dimitri.
246* {{Foreshadowing}}:
247** On your first day, a man will tell the player character that "Opening this checkpoint was a mistake." [[spoiler:Terrorists carrying bombs will soon start trying to pass through it.]]
248** Jorji's crudely drawn passport is in crayon. Later, it's revealed that crayons are a luxury[[note]]Crayons cost ''25 credits''; for comparison, 25 credits will feed your family for one day[[/note]], so there's more to Jorji than it seems.
249** A certain [[spoiler:EZIC agent]] will inform you that [[spoiler:the man in red is not as dangerous as they say he is.]] You will know what she means a couple days later...
250** Reading ''The Truth of Arstotzka'' can give you information on things that are about to happen. For instance, when the paper runs an article about spinal surgery being perfected in Arstotzka, there will be an entrant trying to enter the country to get surgery.
251* FriendInTheBlackMarket: Potentially Jorji, who's certainly in the right business to be smuggling drugs and other things. [[spoiler:Such as forged paperwork and smuggling people, if needed, to other countries.]]
252* FriendlyEnemy: Over time, the Inspector becomes a lot more friendly towards [[spoiler:Jorji Costava, to the point where (if you screw up and offend both the government and the rebels) he can save you and your family in one of the endings]].
253* GambitPileup: The Grestin checkpoint is exactly as eventful as one would expect from the only open checkpoint in [[FantasyConflictCounterpart divided Berlin]]. There are several intrigues going on that involve the checkpoint, and you'll be involved in everything from espionage, to smuggling, to treason. For example, one of the biggest subplots is the cold war between Arstotzka and Kolechia, [[spoiler:and the Order of the EZIC Star is actively involved in sabotaging negotiations between the two countries. Yet, EZIC is ''not'' working with the Kolechian extremists who have been suicide-bombing the checkpoint guards - they're a completely separate bunch of loonies.]] Should the player care, keeping an eye on the newspaper and instructions will help them keep track of what's going on.
254* GenderBlenderName: Some travelers, even when they are the gender they claim to be. An entrant having a name usually associated with the opposite gender doesn't count as a discrepancy.
255* GenderReveal: Some travelers' looks will not match their passport's stated biological sex. [[UnsettlingGenderReveal Searching them]] [[DudeLooksLikeALady could lead to]] [[LadyLooksLikeADude definite "Oh..." moments]], or result in the player ordering the arrest of a crook.
256* GirlsWithMoustaches: Related to GenderReveal, it's not unusual for a husky person with facial hair to step into your booth with paperwork identifying them as female... and seeing that they do indeed have a very feminine body underneath it.
257* GodzillaThreshold: The man in red who appears on day 23 reportedly has so much intel on EZIC that the organization outright instructs you to risk execution by outright killing him because they consider him to be just that much of a threat to their cause. [[spoiler:The trope is ultimately subverted. Not only is the man in red not dangerous enough to warrant such extreme measures (which another agent clues you in on a few days prior), but doing what EZIC wants actually backfires on them when an inspector who's not nearly as cooperative replaces you and forces them to halt their plans entirely.]]
258* GoodWithNumbers:
259** You will have to be, or will learn to be, in order to properly carry out your duties. For example, you need to be quick on date math to make sure that a work permit expires at the same time as the duration of stay on an access permit. Likewise, you will have to be able to quickly realize that "eight weeks" and "two months" are (well, reasonably) equivalent.
260** At first, mismatched passport numbers are blatantly obvious. But later on, there will be rare instances where the passport number will be off ''by only one digit'' or even ''missing one digit''.
261* GracefulLoser:
262** Jorji never holds it against the inspector for denying him entrance (or even getting detained), provided the reasons are valid, and even regards him as a friend.
263** Most entrants will have a neutral or negative reaction to being denied entry. However, one scripted Federal entrant, who used to be a border inspector like what you are now, doesn't hold it against you if you find something in their documents that warrants a denial, telling you to just give them the red stamp so they can head back. As you hand them their documents, they quip "[[ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine So this is what it feels like]]" and walk back to Kolechia without incident.
264* GreyAndGrayMorality:
265** There are virtually no "right" or "wrong" choices in this game. Over the course of the game, you'll have to make ethical dilemmas whether or not you should sympathize with the entrant or obey the rules. For example, after an Antegrian man has his credentials and papers passed and allowed entry to the country (which his credentials are always correct), his wife will appear as well, but will always lack an entry permit. Allowing her in will net you a citation, but you will receive a token and a achievement for this.
266** [[spoiler:EZIC and the Arstotzkan government are not very different. The Arstotzkan government is a corrupt totalitarian bureaucracy, but it is willing to cede parts of East Grestin to Kolechia in order to secure peace with Kolechia according to the day 27 EZIC note and is the player character's best chance of keeping a stable job and providing a better life for his family. EZIC wants to topple the current corrupt regime and is willing to grant the inspector's family a much better life than what Arstotzka offers, but it does not want Arstotzka to cede any part of East Grestin to Kolechia according to the day 27 EZIC note. If you help them topple the government, it's not clear from the ending whether that's for the better or if New Arstotzka will just [[FullCircleRevolution turn out the same way as Arstotzka]].]]
267** Some of the morally gray decisions are helpfully given an answer in the form of a token given for selecting what is usually the "morally right" answer.
268** The appeal and Aesop of the game is that it challenges your morality and teaches you that there is a difference between [[ToBeLawfulOrGood "legally right" and "morally right."]]
269* GuideDangIt:
270** It won't occur to some people to highlight the newspaper article when the murderer from Republia appears.
271** In the event where a woman asks you for help with a man she's afraid will make her a SexSlave, when the player encounters him the first action to come to mind is to deny him entry. This simply leads to the same outcome if the player accepts him, and costs the player a fine. The correct action to do is [[spoiler:inspecting the note the woman gives the player and the man's name on his passport or ID card, and then pressing the "Detain" button]]. Alternatively, [[spoiler:the player can just give the note to the man to enable the "Detain" button.]]
272** An EZIC messenger [[spoiler:informs the player character about an assassin and provides him with some white powder in a card. It instructs him to press down on it. The correct way of applying it is to click the bottom of the powder case while it's over the passport to apply it. [[SchmuckBait Just don't click the powder itself. Probably justified by the fact you're handling Anthrax or some other highly sensitive substance...]]]]
273[[/folder]]
274
275[[folder:Tropes H-R]]
276* HeelRealization: The first time you play the game, you may think to yourself that the first message that you get from EZIC, which says that the government is corrupted by greed and paranoia, along with the hefty bribes they try to give you are just poor attempts to persuade you into becoming a traitor. But later on, [[spoiler:your supervisor orders you to violate protocol for his convenience, Jorji is able to buy his way out of incarceration, and Arstotzkan dissidents attack your post which forces the Ministry of Information to institute a passport confiscation program against all of its citizens (including your own family). When you piece these facts together, you'll suddenly realize that [=EZIC=] really was telling the truth after all.]]
277* HeroicSacrifice: An EZIC messenger will task you with killing a man in red (clearly visible in the queue), promising that your sacrifice ensures that Arstotzka will be saved, and your family will be protected. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, this leads to a DownerEnding, in which while they were able to relocate your family to a safer nation, they're unable to operate in Arstotzka because the new inspector isn't cooperating, dooming them to hibernate. Whether or not you wanted to help them, this makes the sacrifice [[SenselessSacrifice pointless]]...]]
278* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:An EZIC messenger provides you a key to a sniper rifle to assassinate a man (which you have to miss). At the last day, you can use that sniper rifle on the two agents that run an assault on the wall.]]
279* HumanTraffickers: Dari Ludum is one, operating with the Pink Vice Brothel as a cover for his true business. He has no concerns for the safety of his "employees", and if he is not detained, [[spoiler:several women will be found dead in the brothel]]. Denying his entry won't be enough to stop this, and if given the sister's note begging for the Inspector to do something, he only voices his intent to have her killed. [[spoiler:This is a very bad move on his part, because that gives the inspector enough evidence to have him detained.]]
280* {{Hypocrite}}: If you interrogate Shaddy Safadi for the contraband he has on himself and refuse to let him in in exchange for credits, the Inspector declares that "you cannot bribe an officer of Arstotzka." But you can still take bribes from others for the rest of the game.
281* IdenticalStranger: On day 17, EZIC will task you to confiscate a Kolechian diplomat's passport and then give it to one of their agents. Said agent will look very similar to the diplomat, which he uses to his advantage by posing as the diplomat to sabotage the talks over the border dispute.
282* IHaveManyNames: Some travelers state this as an explanation of why they might have a name discrepancy. Sometimes it's legit.
283* ImprobableAimingSkills: The border inspector probably has no formal training at handling a gun, but his aim with both a [[TranquilizerDart tranquilizer gun]] and a SniperRifle is far better than any of the border guards' aim. Having these aiming skills is necessary because hitting one or more terrorists with your guns earns you a sharpshooter bonus that makes up for the pay for the people you could not process due to the terrorist attacks on the days that these attacks occur.
284* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: Jorji Costava, the world's least subtle and most harebrained illegal immigrant [[spoiler:and drug runner]]. Your character starts anticipating his visits over the course of the game.
285* InformedDeformity: One of the excuses people give if their picture looks different from their current appearance is "the years have been cruel." This can happen even if they look better than the picture in their passport.
286* TheInspectorIsComing:
287** Not you, but starting on Day 29, M. Vonel and your bulletin announce that all government workers will be audited, including you.
288** There will also be days when your superior, Dimitri, shows up, marching out of his car and straight to your booth. Because there are strict protocols on how your booth is supposed to look, this is your cue to start taking down all of your unauthorized decorations before he enters.
289* InterfaceScrew: Once entrants start requiring multiple forms of identification, it becomes painfully clear that your tiny desk doesn't have enough room to accommodate all the documents in any sensible manner. Along with possible citations, the daily bulletin, the guidebook and audio transcript you'll need to cross-reference, and the other odds and ends various entrants may leave at your desk, you'll inevitably find yourself shuffling things about in an awkward clutter.
290* InterfaceSpoiler:
291** If the inspector doesn't say "Cause no trouble" or "Glory to Arstotzka" to an entrant passing through the checkpoint, expect something to go down on the other side. Sometimes subverted however, but usually not.
292** [[spoiler:Brothel workers -- the girls who hand you cards from the Pink Vice -- always have their papers in order, so you can just give approval and send them on. This can save you a lot of time.]]
293** [[spoiler:The four engineers who show up after [[http://papersplease.wikia.com/wiki/Messof_Anegovych Messof Anegovych asks you to give out his business cards]] should always be approved, but their papers might have discrepancies that will always be cleared with a thorough investigation. Likewise, Messof himself always has the right paperwork.]]
294** The game only allows one discrepancy per entrant. If you notice one and clear it up, you can wave the person through without examining the rest of their information.
295* InTheHood: All of the EZIC messengers wear hoods that hide their faces, fitting for a conspiracy that aims to topple the government.
296* IronicEcho: "Glory to Arstotzka" is frequently used as a greeting among government officials and when welcoming citizens back to the country. [[spoiler:However, in the bad endings, you're told of why you're losing your job (either for incompetence, insubordination, or associating with EZIC), your punishment, what will happen to your family, and how you're easily replaced. All of this is capped off with "Glory to Arstotzka."]]
297* IWasQuiteALooker: If you find a discrepancy between an entrant's appearance and photographs, they may answer that "the years have been cruel" if interrogated. Whether or not this is played straight or a lie depends on the results of their fingerprint profile.
298* JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife: Even if you have a perfect track record with zero citations and let his lover into the country, Dimitri will still send you to the gulags for the extremely minor crime of decorating the booth.
299* {{Jerkass}}:
300** One Arstotzkan citizen will complain at you for being "slow" and that he has a bus to catch, even if you give him back his passport in less than five seconds. Go ahead and take your time.
301** The "self-righteous" International Press Reporters will never bring in the proper paperwork required for entry. Yet if you deny their entry, they'll accuse you and the government of violating their rights to move freely into any country and trying to keep the truth of what's happening in Arstotzka from being known to the world. Grant their entry, however, and they "[[SarcasmMode thank you]]" and proceed to write a scathing report about you and your government's incompetence which unfortunately makes it to the newspaper front-page.
302** The M.O.A. divisional authority of East Grestin - your boss - criticizes you for making any number above 0 citations and has you arrested if you hang unauthorized decorations twice. If you follow the rules and deny someone he's ordered you to allow entry, he is angry and insults you, and if you (also correctly) detain her, you are arrested on trumped-up charges. He makes no effort to pull any strings for you.
303** Of course, you can play this way. For instance, you can keep Danic Lorum's watch and detain him, or sell it to the highest bidder, who offers 10 more credits for its return than he does. You also don't have to return the Arstotzka Arskickers pennant to Filipe Hasse. Both call you out on your behavior.
304* JustFollowingOrders: If you want to remain completely loyal to your employers or just receive zero citations, you basically have to invoke this attitude. The game will try to sway you away from following orders by testing your morality and loyalty with sob stories and bribes. The justification is also tested by the rules changing on a day-to-day basis, sometimes even undoing previous rules that could have gotten people denied entry or detained.
305* KarmaHoudini:
306** Jorji Costava just keeps coming back no matter how many times you have him detained [[spoiler:for smuggling drugs]] at the border. {{Justified|Trope}} in that the authorities in Arstotzka are utterly corrupt and he just bribes his way out of anything.
307** The terrorist who leaves a bomb in your booth. While it's easily defused and the day carries on as normal, you don't get a chance to arrest the person.
308* KarmicJackpot: On day 26, [[spoiler:if you let Elisa in and manage to keep Sergiu alive, they'll repay your kindness by dropping off 100 credits at your home the next day.]]
309* LadyLooksLikeADude: Some women have heads that look like they belong on men. You have to strip search them to find out that the passport's stated biological sex is true. If your strip search discovers that the passport states that the entrant is a woman when you find that the entrant is a man, you can arrest him for having falsified documents.
310* LampshadeHanging:
311** At a certain point, Arstotzka gets a reputation for being a criminal haven, prompting a rule update that requires you to keep an eye out for the three most internationally wanted criminals of the day trying to cross your border. You are given a WantedPoster with their photos on it. On arriving at work and calling for the first person in line, they are ''always'' on the wanted list that you just started receiving.
312--->'''You:''' How coincidental that you would arrive today.
313** Handing over the two EZIC cards to M. Vonel, the Ministry of Information SecretPolice, seems to be the right thing to do, but the inspector will get arrested and investigated for his connection with rebels, and you will unlock the "Too Honest" achievement.
314** Jorji points out the PowerPerversionPotential of the search scanner.
315--->'''Inspector:''' Face the scanner.\
316'''Jorji:''' Maybe things get too sexy in here.
317* LethallyStupid: After the United Federation suffers from a polio epidemic, you are required to deny entrants who do not have a current polio vaccination. People who have an expired polio vaccination, have a certificate of vaccination that lacks a polio vaccination, or have no certificate of vaccination at all are considered this trope, and the Ministry of Health has required you to deny these people to keep polio out. Some of those who have no certificate state that they do not believe in vaccines.
318* LiteralMetaphor: Obristan's motto is "Obristan Above All". On the map, it's above all of the other countries, being the northernmost.
319* LovableRogue: [[spoiler:Jorji, the inept and comical drug smuggler.]] You grow fond enough of him to address him by name and even apologize when you detain him.
320* LuckBasedMission: It's up to random luck whether the next guy in line has a squeaky clean set of papers or not. Sometimes a string of easy passes will speed past your post, making that next one subtle flaw all the more difficult to notice. Some events are scripted, though, and on multiple playthroughs, you'll welcome them as you can stamp their paperwork and move on quickly. Also, different entrants take more time to process than others, which will affect your score in either the timed or perfection game modes. In the perfection mode, the amount of points per properly-processed entrant awarded decreases by one every minute until you are awarded one point per properly-processed entrant.
321* MadeOfExplodium: If a terrorist's motorcycle is shot (even with something as weak as a TranquilizerDart), it explodes and causes SplashDamage to nearby terrorists and motorcycles.
322* MandatoryMotherhood: Arstotzkan workers are expected to support large, healthy families. If you fail to do just that, you are fired and the game is over.
323* MathematiciansAnswer: Whenever you ask someone what their sex is, you'll either be met with confusion or one of these. Not a single person ever seems to just give you a straight answer.
324-->'''Inspector:''' Are you a man or a woman?\
325'''Immigrant:''' The passport is correct.
326* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: If you approve entry for [[spoiler:Elisa and allow her to reunite with Sergiu, the two of them will run towards each other, embrace, and walk towards Sergiu's post. After another hug, Elisa walks away.]] All that happens while you're still processing more entrants.
327* MedalOfDishonor: If you've received any citations, the plaques you receive read like this. For 1-20 citations, the plaque reads "Recognition for Sufficience," and for more than 20, the plaque reads "Recognition for Presence." An entrant on day 12 mentions that all of the plaques look cheap and will tell you "[[SarcasmMode Way to go]]" if they see that you're recognized for your presence.
328* MementoMacGuffin: Sergiu eventually gives the inspector a locket of his love, Elisa, so that she can be recognized when it's time. It's up to the player whether Elisa is let in or not, as she lacks proper paperwork.
329* MirroringFactions: None of the factions are really that different from each other in terms of immigration policy and treatment of its own citizens. This is highlighted by the similar {{Catch Phrase}}s like "Glory to Arstotzka" and "Obristan Above All."
330* MickeyMousing: The title screen scrolls up and then bobs up-and-down to the tuba in the main theme.
331* MissionControl: The Arstotzka Ministry of Admission. Updates to national immigration policies are received before missions and warnings and penalties, in the form of wage deductions, are sent whenever you make a wrong call.
332* MoneyIsNotPower: Plenty of entrants will try to bribe their way into the border. It's up to you to accept or [[ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules deny]] their offers, but the idea that even a simple border inspector can take down infamous criminals like Shaddy Safadi or dismantle Dari Ludum's trafficking ring remains.
333* MortonsFork: Eventually journalists will start showing up and attempt to use their press passes to gain entry. Deny them for having invalid paperwork, and they'll insult you for trying to silence the media and write an article about it. Accept them, and you'll get a citation for breaking the rules to help them... and they'll insult you for your inefficiency in enforcing the rules and write an article about it.
334* TheMostWanted: After the newspaper criticizes Arstotzka for becoming a haven for international fugitives, you are given the photos of the world's most wanted criminals each day and are told to detain them on sight. You can hang [[WantedPoster wanted posters]] of the most wanted criminals in your booth in mobile versions of this game. The criminals [[FailedASpotCheck never notice the wanted posters that you have hung in your booth when they enter it]].
335* MovingTheGoalposts: The rules of Grestin border checkpoint change in the matter of days, as the gameplay becomes a lot more difficult toward the player. Aside from making your life harder, this significantly affects some entrants who do not adapt to sudden changes, rendering their paperwork invalid.
336* MultipleEndings: Depending on how much money you make and how you respond to certain events. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKjBWk5CU1A A list of the endings]] with unmarked spoilers: [[labelnote:Click to expand]]\
337Ending 1: If you end with a negative balance at the end of a day you are arrested for debt and your family is sent back to their village.\
338Ending 2: Your entire family dies of sickness. You are fired for failing to support a family.\
339Ending 3: If you hand over the EZIC Documents to the M.O.I Inspector, you get arrested for your connection to them.\
340Ending 4: If you take the large monetary gift from EZIC and don't fix the problem by approving entry for the EZIC agent that the cipher tells you to, then you are arrested for an anomaly in your finances.\
341Ending 5, 6, 7, 8: Shooting an innocent person or guard with either the rifle or tranquilizer. The only differences are getting the death penalty for shooting a guard with the tranquilizer/rifle or innocent with the rifle, and forced labour if it was an innocent with the tranquilizer.\
342Ending 9 & 10: On Day 23 if you do as EZIC tells you to kill the Man In Red. If you shoot him with the sniper rifle, you are arrested and sentenced to death for 'murder of an innocent'. If you shoot him with the tranquilizer, then you are sentenced to forced labour. EZIC moves your family to Obristan, but the new inspector isn't co-operative and EZIC's plans are ruined.\
343Ending 11: If your supervisor warns you about unauthorized wall hangings such as the family photo and you are caught with it on your wall again, you will be sentenced to forced labour for ignoring a direct order.\
344Ending 12: If you detained Shae instead of letting her through like your supervisor told you to do, he reports you for theft of Arstotzkan property, you are given forced labour and your family is sent back to their village. Denying her entry does not trigger this ending; you're merely chewed out for that.\
345Ending 13: If you haven't done enough EZIC missions by Day 31, EZIC will attack both the wall and your booth. If you stop the attack on your booth by shooting the lower of the attackers, you are arrested for failing to defend the border.\
346Ending 14: If you have done all the EZIC tasks, but then stop the attack on the border even after the EZIC Agent tells you to hold fire, your information audit leads to you being arrested and executed for working with EZIC. Before the execution EZIC manages to slip a note under your door condemning you for the betrayal.\
347Ending 15: If you have done all the EZIC tasks, let them blow up the wall then shoot both the EZIC agents, EZIC still rises to power, but your betrayal sees you have no place in the new revolution and you are killed as an enemy of EZIC.\
348Ending 16: If you flee to Obristan with confiscated passports and forged entry tickets, either alone or with some but not all family members, you will have escaped Arstotzka safely, but the fate of the your family members left behind is unknown.\
349Ending 17: If you didn't help EZIC enough times, the Day 31 attack on the wall will also lead to an attack on your booth. If you kill the agents and don't escape to Obristan at the end of the day, the information audit will see you sentenced to death for betraying the Government. EZIC is destroyed, and the fate of your family is unknown.\
350Ending 18: If you gather enough passports and money, the whole family escapes to Obristan.\
351Ending 19: If you've done enough tasks for EZIC and let the EZIC agents blow up the border wall on Day 31, everyone waiting in line floods across the border. EZIC gains power, moves you and your family to better housing, and makes you one of their agents of the New Arstotzka.\
352Ending 20: If you never co-operate with EZIC and successfully defend the wall from the EZIC agents, the audit is willing to overlook any citations against your record. EZIC is wiped out, and as a reward for saving Arstotzka you are permitted to continue your work at the border.[[/labelnote]]
353* MultipleIdentityIDs: One entrant will accidentally give you two passports with identical photos, but different names, nations and ID numbers. Your detain button pops up immediately. Several other entrants will have one name on their passport and a different name on their supporting documentation; they will claim IHaveManyNames, requiring you to do a fingerprint check against the person's identity record which includes any known aliases. This either explains the alias or builds an airtight case of identity fraud which gives you the option to arrest the entrant.
354* MundaneMadeAwesome: Be honest, do you think actual border control could ever be this engaging?
355* MusicalSpoiler:
356** If you and your entire family [[spoiler:flee to Obristan, you present terribly-forged paperwork to the Obristan border inspector. There's a tense moment before he stamps the final passport, but you already know you've made it past because upbeat music has been playing since the first slide.]]
357** Similarly, if you choose not to [[spoiler:escape to Obristan]] at the end of the game and [[spoiler:you stopped EZIC's final attack]], [[spoiler:the music as you begin the audit dialogue pretty much tells you the results of the audit, before M. Vonel's formally announced the result. If it's the same cheerful music from the "full family escapes to Obristan" ending, you're already in the clear. If you hear GameOver music, see you on death row!]]
358* MutualKill: How the attack on Day 2 ends. The assailant gets shot down by the lone guard after lobbing a bomb which kills said guard in the blast.
359* MyCountryRightOrWrong: You can choose to play your character this way, following protocol to the letter and refusing bribes. After all, they did manage to give you the job to support your family (even if it was by chance).
360* NervesOfSteel: The inspector retains his usual [[TheStoic stoicism]] during [[spoiler:the bomb scare on day 15]], and Calensk is outright flippant.
361* NeverHurtAnInnocent: EZIC makes it very clear that they abide by this rule. Following a Kolechian terrorist attack, they send a messenger to tell you that their organization was not involved in it at all due to their unwillingness to hurt innocent people, and they even send another agent to look into the matter.
362* NewWeaponTargetRange: Each time you get introduced to a new rule, document, or type of discrepancy, it's almost guaranteed the first or second entrant that day will show an example of the new document or let you exercise the new rule. The game's habits about this are {{Lampshaded}} in day 14, where the criminal bulletin is first introduced; the very first visitor to your booth has their mug on the criminals page.
363-->'''Inspector:''' ''[as he detains the visitor]'' Funny to see you here. Just when starting to look for criminals.
364* NiceGuy:
365** Jorji. No matter how many times you deny or detain him, he remains nice to you. On one day, he even gets in line to see you. [[spoiler:He'll also provide you a way to leave Arstotzka if you need to.]]
366** Sergiu is pleasant and polite to you from the start, and he visits the booth a few times during his stay to chat with you. [[spoiler:If you allow his long-lost love through the checkpoint, she thanks you with a 100-credit gift at the end of the next day. If you deny her, explaining to Sergiu that she should come back with proper paperwork, he simply says, "You know this is impossible."]]
367* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: Arstotzka and the other fictional in-game countries. Several countries have (city) names that allude to America (The United Federation, or Republia's Bostan, for instance) and others that sound more European while the country of Impor alludes to Asian countries, especially Japan. The result is that despite the Soviet overtones, it feels like it could be set anywhere in Europe, or even in North America or Asia. In addition, Lucas Pope [[http://paperspleaseloc.github.io/ has written]] that he didn't want Arstotzka to be USSR or Russia and thus for example the word "comrade" or any of its equivalents shouldn't be used when translating the game into another language.
368** The game seems to be set in a fictional version of the Communist era Balkans if [[http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/papersplease/images/c/c2/Pp-region.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/600?cb=20130908215239 this in game map is to be believed]]. Compare it to a [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/EasternBloc_BasicMembersOnly.svg/2000px-EasternBloc_BasicMembersOnly.svg.png map of the Balkans during the Cold War]].
369*** If the above is true, then the United Federation is hands down this universe's version of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Not only are both countries Federations, but both are to the furthest left of the Balkan Eastern Bloc, the borders for both seem to be similarly shaped, and Yugoslavia's leader Tito was the leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, meaning Yugoslavia got more access to western consumer goods as the United Federation is mentioned to have access to computers.
370* NoDamageRun: One of the Endless Mode games, Perfection, requires you process entrants without any citations. Note that it is technically impossible to complete the main story due to a story-mandatory citation [[spoiler:as there is no way out of getting a citation for confiscating Jorji's passport]], but you can still attempt a no-damage run outside of those instances.
371* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished:
372** Letting someone in when their papers aren't in order gets you a citation, even if it saves their life.
373** [[spoiler:From the perspective of a loyal Arstotzkan, promptly handing EZIC-related evidence over to the M.O.I. investigator may be the right thing to do, but you'll be arrested ''on suspicion'' if you do so.]]
374** If you haven't [[spoiler:allowed the two EZIC agents in (the first two EZIC tasks), a messenger give you a note that asks you help them. At this point, even if you do everything EZIC asks you to do, their agents will still try to kill you on the final day, since you need to have completed at least four tasks.]]
375* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Dimitri, Sergiu, Calensk, and M. Vonel's looks are unique. Additionally, Vonel stands out because his complexion is grey and he wears a black uniform, a color combination which no other character has. It helps make him look more ominous. EZIC agents wear dark hoods that completely hide their faces, with a single glowing eye within shaped like the EZIC Star.
376* NonstandardGameOver: Any ending that results in your death (such as [[spoiler:touching the poison you're meant to give to an EZIC target]]) abruptly returns you to the main menu without the EndGameResultsScreen and is not counted among the game's actual endings.
377* NoobBridge: New players who don't bother to read the bulletins may get stuck when Jorji enters with no paperwork at all. The player is supposed to go into inspection mode and highlight the passport rule and the empty counter.
378* NoOneLeftBehind: Getting the "Snowier Pastures" Steam achievement requires you to escape to Obristan with all of your (living) family members. Going there alone results in an ending with the "bad" music.
379* NoPointsForNeutrality: If you [[spoiler:decide to help EZIC, you better do enough of their tasks because completing at least one makes you a traitor to Arstotzka, but not completing the required four won't get you on EZIC's side. If you take this route, you better have a way to escape the country]].
380* NotCompletelyUseless: Normally upgrading to a higher-class apartment is pointless at best but detrimental at worst, as the cheaper heating is more than negated by more expensive rent and a high one-time movement cost. The ''one'' benefit of it is to be able to keep some of EZIC's bribe, which will eventually be confiscated (along with ''all'' your legitimately earned savings) if you keep it: moving to a higher-class apartment, losing your cash, and then moving back to the good old Class 8 will get you back some of the money.
381* NotEvenBotheringWithAnExcuse:
382** When confronted with a discrepancy, many entrants will try to argue to correct the issue, which have the chance to fall under ImplausibleDeniability. Some will just drop all pretenses and simply beg, "Please let me through."
383** Jorji, when he's caught attempting to smuggle contraband.
384--->'''Inspector:''' What is this?\
385'''Jorji:''' Is drugs!
386* ObstructiveBureaucrat: People can wait in line for hours to see you before being told that their entrance were denied because of missing required documents, missing polio vaccines, or expired documents.
387* ObviouslyFakeSignature: Your first encounter with Jorji Costava has him present his infamously bad fake passport. Even in the low resolution style of the game, it looks like it was made with crayons. It's also for "Cobrastan", a country that doesn't exist[[note]]Jorji is from ''Obristan'', which is probably what he meant and [[EpicFail somehow failed to write]][[/note]]. Jorji tries to claim that the equally bad "pre-approved" stamp means that [[BlatantLies you don't have to bother examining it]], even though no such "pre-approval" exists within Arstotskan border security.
388* OhCrap: The man who gives you two passports (see EpicFail) instantly realises his mistake and starts begging you to give them back.
389* TheOmniscient: The Ministry of Admission's citation printer. You may not have spotted the mistake in someone's documentation, but it did! According to the devlog, Lucas Pope went this way instead of having a more fallible system so it would be obvious when you slip up.
390* OneHitPolykill:
391** If you shoot at the queue (even with a tranquilizer gun), you will kill the person you aimed at and anyone standing close enough.
392** [[spoiler:On the day three terrorists attack the checkpoint, shooting either motorcycle [[MadeOfExplodium causes it to explode]], and doing so will kill the other rider via SplashDamage. You can even wait until the person on foot joins one of the motorcyclists to kill all three in one shot.]]
393* OppressiveImmigrationEnforcement: The player assumes the role of a border patrol agent inspecting the paperwork of people trying to enter the country, a grim repressive totalitarian state. The player must decide whether to follow government protocol, often harsh and arbitrary (and regularly changing), or make their own judgment about the immigrants.
394* TheOrder: The Order of the EZIC Star. [[spoiler:They claim to be an ancient order dedicated to restoring Arstotzka through clandestine dealings. Whether you believe them or not is up to you.]]
395* OrderVersusChaos: You can side with the government (order) or [[spoiler:with the revolutionary group, EZIC (chaos). You can also decide to flee from both of them]].
396* PapaWolf:
397** If you buy crayons for your son's birthday, he will draw a picture for you, which you can hang on the wall. If you do this, then one entrant will ridicule it, to which you can respond by denying them entrance regardless of whether or not their paperwork is in order.
398** At one point, a father asks you to help him avenge his murdered daughter. This guy apparently tracked her killer across four countries.
399* PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny: Republia is implied to be one and is definitely one in Lucas Pope's earlier game, ''The Republia Times''.
400* ThePerfectCrime: You can use the poison on day 20 to kill any entrant after the EZIC messenger who gives it to you, even innocent civilians. Whoever you use it on, provided it's not Khaled Istom, the kill will not get traced back to you, not even by [[spoiler:M. Vonel during your December 24 audit]]. As far as everyone else is concerned, it's a mysterious "security incident."
401* PerfectPoison: The poison that [[spoiler:you receive from an EZIC messenger can be applied to a passport without leaving a trace on whatever it was stuck to. Upon contact, it kills within seconds, and unless you killed Khaled Istom with it, apparently, no one has any idea you had anything to do with the poison.]]
402* PerpetualPoverty: From beginning to end, you're going to struggle to make ends meet for you and your family (unless you're really good at the game). [[spoiler:Even if you accept a 1000-credit bribe, your superiors will catch on and yank it, along with the rest of your savings, from you.]]
403* PerspectiveFlip: In the "Escape to Obristan" endings, ''you'' are an immigrant handing forged documents to a border inspector. [[spoiler:Fortunately, he's worse at his job than you ever were.]]
404* PetTheDog: If you let his friend into the country, then your BadBoss, Dimitri, will say that coming to the checkpoint doesn't seem so bad anymore.
405* PistolWhipping: Should an entrant that you're detaining refuse to step out of the booth as ordered, one of the guards will smack them with their rifle before hauling them off.
406* PointAndClick: Gameplay mostly consists of inspecting paperwork for inconsistencies against your rulebook and each other. Find two things that don't pass muster and you can either confront the prospective immigrant about it or just bust out the denial stamp, no questions asked. For all the simplicity, however, gameplay is surprisingly complex, with multiple plots and a number of things to keep track of.
407* PoliceBrutality: If someone doesn't leave your booth voluntarily, the guards will deal with them by bashing them unconscious with the butt of a rifle and carrying them away.
408* PopTheTires: You can actually [[CuttingTheKnot cut the knot]] this way when [[spoiler: terrorists on motorcycles attack the checkpoint by shooting the tires out instead of sniping each person individually.]]
409* PowerPerversionPotential: The scanner allows you to see under people's clothes. The options menu allows you to turn nudity on and off. Jorji lampshades this trope when you use the scanner on him.
410-->'''Inspector:''' Face the scanner.\
411'''Jorji:''' Maybe things get too sexy in here.
412* PressXToDie: [[spoiler:When you get the poison powder from the EZIC agent, there is nothing stopping you from touching the powder, even with the warning on the packet itself telling you not to.]]
413* PrettyBoy: Related to GenderReveal, you might encounter some people whose paperwork labels them as male despite looking very feminine...until you do a search and see they have a masculine body underneath that pretty face.
414* PrisonEscapeArtist: Jorji Costava escapes jail three times.
415* {{Profiling}}: Arstotzka assigns an entrant's nation of origin as enough criteria for certain actions at a few points. For one day, Kolechians must always be scanned, and during another, those from the United Federations are immediately denied until vaccination papers are introduced.
416* PropagandaMachine: It's implied that ''The Truth of Arstotzka'' (the paper that we can read) is one of these. [[spoiler:Ultimately, it's remarkably closer to a free press in practice, with opinion pieces and headlines that are openly critical of the government policies.]]
417* ProtectionMission: Sergiu is a guard who is stationed at the border for a few weeks of the story mode. He is very vulnerable, and his subplot will end if he is killed. If the player wants that [[spoiler:nice 100-credit reward for keeping him alive and letting his girlfriend through]], he needs to be kept safe from the various terrorists.
418* PunchClockHero: The player. Day in and day out you man your post at the border in order to support your wife, son, uncle, and mother-in-law who will all starve and die without support from your wage. In other words, he is a very literal punch clock hero. 6 to 6 each day, 7 days a week.
419* PunchClockVillain: The player again, if you're feeling like a dick. The game is impressively good at [[HumansAreBastards wearing you down to this point]] - there are several videos of Letsplayers who at first apologize to every person they send away. Fast forward a few episodes and see them almost salivate at the thought of finding a discrepancy, simply because it lets them instantly deny the entrant rather than going down the rest of the [[BeleagueredBureaucrat long, long checklist.]] Theoretically, you may question entrants so they can explain discrepancies and gain entry if their explanation seems reasonable, but you're never punished for turning people away as soon as a discrepancy shows up, while questioning them takes precious seconds...
420* PunnyName: One of the names for a female entrant is "Anne Nahnumus." Another female entrant goes by the name of "[[JekyllAndHyde Jaqueline Hyde]]."
421* RageWithinTheMachine: Potentially you, depending on how much you come to hate your own government.
422* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The player can choose to act as one, requiring a mix of following protocol and doing the right thing in the name of the greater good.
423* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: The title screen is all over this.
424* RedshirtArmy: The Arstotzkan guards. Almost all of the time, they have terrible aim, and the week cannot go by without at least one of them dying. Once you have access to a rifle, you can potentially save two of them when an attack happens (though saving Sergiu is the only one that matters to the in-game story). Somehow, an Arstotzkan border inspector has better aim than the men who are trained to shoot on sight. Sergiu will even lampshade his bad aim if you save him once. Consequently, [[spoiler:if you used the poison EZIC provided, you can get one guard killed. If you've been supportive of EZIC 100%, those guards killed at the end are necessary targets.]]
425* RefugeInAudacity: Jorji challenges the player with his rather outlandish plots to get through, first by ''not even bringing a passport'' to then using a crude fake later. Even after he has the rules down, he not only fails to deny he has contraband, but in addition, ''openly admits'' to [[spoiler:smuggling drugs into Arstotzka, bribing police to suppress information, bribing police to escape prison, and paying for forged documents when his are taken away.]] It's quite possible that you'd rather just let him through than try to make sense of it all.
426* RepressiveButEfficient: Your bosses have a fairly close eye on ''you'', at least. Your bosses will discover your errors and cite you for them. Furthermore, if you've done anything for EZIC, Vonel ''will'' find out in the end. With that said, they don't really care about petty corruption so long as you keep it "petty" and otherwise do a good job.
427* {{Retirony}}: Averted in the case of [[spoiler:Sergiu. If you save his life and let his lover through, he informs you that the next day he is getting a different post. Luckily for him, there's no terrorist attack on his last day.]]
428* {{Retraux}}: The game's graphical style resembles an EGA game from the early '90s, though the animation is a little too smooth for it.
429* {{Revenge}}:
430** On the sixth day, a woman gives you a note saying she fears Dari Ludum will force her and her sister to work at his brothel. If you show the note to Ludum when he appears, he becomes enraged and says he will "break her in two." If you deny/allow him entry without exposing him, he evidently finds out about it anyway because the next day's news says some dancers at a club were found dead.
431** After news that a serial child killer named Simon Wens is returning to Arstotzka, a vengeful father asks you to let Simon in and confiscate his passport, so he can find and murder him. He even gives you a photo of his daughter, who Simon killed, to convince you further. He will be thankful to you if you grant him his chance. [[spoiler:Indeed, the next day Simon is found dead in a "confusing mess."]]
432** On Day 19, Impor imposes trade sanctions on Arstotzkan imported goods, so Arstotzka responds by rejecting all Impor immigrants. This act quickly ends the trade sanctions from Impor.
433* RevengeByProxy:
434** Kolechians begin to attack Arstotzkans at the border, killing innocent civilians and guards, in the name of avenging their nation, which had lost the Six-Year War against Arstotzka not long prior to the events of the game.
435** A non-lethal variant later occurs. At one point, Impor imposes strict trade sanctions on Arstotzka, damaging their economy. Arstotzka's response is to issue the denial of any and all immigrants from Impor. This tactic proves effective enough to lift the sanctions.
436* RightOnQueue: Each day a massive line forms outside your post and it's your job to see as many of them as possible. The line ''never'' gets shorter, but subtly thins out on days following terrorist attacks, and is noticeably at its sparsest following the attack on day 26.
437* RippedFromTheHeadlines:
438** Vince Lestrade, a Republian track star accused of killing his girlfriend, is based on Oscar Pistorius.
439** The daily newspaper writes about a domestic spying scandal in Antegria, and the whistleblower seeking asylum (and ultimately being granted it) in Arstotzka. This is based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden the Edward Snowden whistleblowing scandal]].
440** The polio outbreak in the United Federation is based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Yugoslav_smallpox_outbreak the 1972 smallpox outbreak in Yugoslavia]].
441* RunForTheBorder: Some people entering Arstotzka are here to escape their country, and their reasons vary from getting a surgery only Arstotzkan doctors can perform to trying to reunite with family across the border before the checkpoint closes.
442* RunningGag: Jorji Costava, a man who comes in repeatedly and almost always has something wrong. For example, his first appearance has him come in with no passport. The second time, he has a made-up passport from "Cobrastan" that you can reject outright. He'll also cheerfully admit that all his papers are forged (when he finally gets his paperwork in order, he tells you it's because he paid for ''really good'' forgeries), that he's a drug smuggler, and that he'll just bribe his way out of prison if you detain him again. You actually get friendly dialogue with him as he keeps appearing, including a "Sorry, Jorji" when he has to be detained again. [[spoiler:Funnily enough, knowing a criminal can come in handy — he can ultimately help you escape the country if needed.]]
443* {{Ruritania}}: Arstotzka, with all of the "lovely features" of a 1980s Soviet Bloc country — job lottery, daily rule changes, smugglers, terrorists, etc.
444** Ironically, this falls into [[ArtisticLicensePolitics Artistic License - Bureaucracy]]: ''especially'' in an eastern bloc state, where seemingly menial bureaucratic positions can take years of formalized training (or cynically, nepotism), both the opposite of a "job lottery", but it fits with the western imagination of how such countries work.
445[[/folder]]
446
447[[folder:Tropes S-Z]]
448* SadisticChoice:
449** There are a lot of these found throughout the game. You'll often have to decide between your paycheck and your conscience.
450** For EZIC supporters, the day that you're tasked to kill the man in red will be this. Doing what they ask will result in your death, but not doing so will jeopardize the entire EZIC movement in Arstotzka. [[spoiler:EZIC will simply adjust their plans if the man in red flees, conveniently making survival beneficial to you ''and'' EZIC.]]
451** If you're low on money and family members are getting sick, you'll sometimes have to decide who gets medicine and who will have to be sacrificed.
452** One happens on day 12, though the player might not realize it the first time they play. The Ministry of Information will leave some papers with the inspector to be picked up later, as well as a fake set of papers to give to an imposter claiming to be an agent of the ministry in the line behind the person who dropped off the papers. [[spoiler:If the player gives the fake papers to the imposter, the Kolechian government will kill several of its own citizens, falsely believing them to be Arstotzkan spies. If the player gives the real papers to the imposter, the Kolechians will locate and kill the ''actual'' Arstotzkan spies in their country.]]
453* SaveScumming:
454** The very first day, being a tutorial, has the most lenient rules regarding who can pass through -- Arstotzkans versus non-Arstotzkans. As such, you can replay the day over and over for the most amount of processes in order to build up a buffer in your savings, with numbers greater than 20 possible with enough practice.
455** If you get an unsatisfactory income or a bad ending on a given day, all you need to do is replay that day from the continue screen. This is intentional, as part of the AntiFrustrationFeatures.
456* SchmuckBait:
457** An EZIC messenger gives you poison to apply to an assassin's passport. The paper says, "DO NOT TOUCH POWDER." [[TooDumbToLive If you touch the powder, it's an instant game over.]]
458** That expensive gift you can take or burn? [[spoiler:Taking it will eventually cost you '''all''' of your savings to be confiscated and for you to be investigated. Letting an EZIC agent in the country can help clear things up, though, but you'll never get your money back. Or, if you refuse the first gift but accept the second, more expensive gift, you'll soon get yourself a NonstandardGameOver. Accepting the first is ok if you're low on money to begin with; you can keep the money for a day, and move up to a better apartment which you can downgrade later and keep that money. Just be sure to help the EZIC agent clear your name.]]
459** At one point you gain access to a tranquilizer gun to non-lethally subdue attackers. [[spoiler:You later gain access to a quite lethal sniper rifle. Actually using it as the messenger suggested will unsurprisingly get you jailed for killing what appears to be an innocent in the eyes of your government. However, at least the messenger makes it pretty clear that using the gun that way is meant to be a sacrifice for their greater good.]]
460** That scary secret police officer? [[spoiler:Yeah, maybe it's not the best idea to give evidence to him that could implicate you in even the slightest way.]]
461** The [[spoiler:scripted bomber that sends the explosive through the booth]] shouldn't actually be much of a threat, given that they [[spoiler:numbered which wire needs to be cut to defuse it]]. Fail to listen to Calensk's ''very'' simple instructions though, and [[spoiler:you'll find yourself booted to the title screen.]]
462** If you point out to Shae that her diplomatic authorization doesn't include Arstotzka, the Detain button will appear and [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall she warns you that you shouldn't press it]]. [[spoiler:If you don't heed her advice, the next day Dimitri has you arrested on false charges. That said, merely denying her only gets you a scolding from Dimitri with no actual consequence.]]
463* SchrodingersGun: If you try to delay a [[ScriptedEvent scripted]] terrorist attack from an entrant by denying them entry (scripted terrorist entrants at your booth always have correct papers, so this will lead to a citation), [[DevelopersForesight all of the subsequent entrants will inexplicably have correct papers and the next one you approve will be the terrorist]], ensuring that continuing to delay the attack will just get you an unending stream of citations. Once you admit a terrorist in, the rest of the entrants are back to being non-terrorists who may or may not have correct papers, or at least what few you can process before the shutters close in response to the assault.
464* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Two drug smugglers try to bribe the player with 10 credits, which is more than the credits that the player will get for correctly processing them by detaining them. Players can choose to detain them anyways.
465* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: If the player detains his boss' lover at the checkpoint, [[spoiler:he'll be sentenced to forced labour on trumped-up charges]]. In addition, the player may decide to do favors for people whom he likes.
466* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: The player can, and in many cases probably should, take bribes to let people through the checkpoint. A few citations a day aren't exactly a danger to his position.
467* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Players can decide to violate protocol and let people in anyway despite papers that don't add up or exist. Doesn't stop the player from getting infractions from the state, but oddly enough their good deeds themselves aren't overturned. [[spoiler:These actions usually get you Tokens, which are connected to Achievements.]] If you get Ending 20, [[spoiler:the ending where you prove loyal to Arstotzka, M. Vonel states that he's willing to overlook these errors and allows you to continue your job, since the important part is that you refused to help out the anti-government resistance group EZIC.]]
468* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Starting on Day 29, you can escape to Obristan alone, leaving your family behind with their fate unknown.
469* ScriptedEvent:
470** The bulk of applicants have randomly chosen names, appearances, nationalities, and validity of documents, but some applicants are scripted in some way or another, like having a fixed name and nationality but a random appearance (such as the EZIC agents), a fixed nationality and paperwork validity but random everything else (like the engineers that you can give Messof's business cards to), or completely fixed qualities (like Elisa, Jorji, and Simon). If you stall the game until 6 PM, the game will continue until all of these scripted entrants have been processed.
471** Some, ''but not all'', terrorist attacks are scripted. Like with scripted entrants, if the clock reaches 6 PM before a scripted attack happens, the game will keep going until it takes place.
472* SecretPolice: The Ministry of Information Special Investigation Division. Pro-tip: when you sit down in your booth and Special Investigator M. Vonel [[spoiler:''is already there waiting for you'']], be very, very careful about what you say to him.
473* SenselessSacrifice: [[spoiler:An EZIC messenger asks you to kill the man in red, since they consider him dangerous, and they promise that your sacrifice ensures that Arstotzka will be saved. Shooting the man in red immediately ends the game, since you are punished for harming what appears to be an innocent person. It's then revealed that since the replacement inspector isn't cooperative, EZIC cannot continue their activities and must hibernate. If you do intend to get EZIC's best ending, [[ViolationOfCommonSense you have to ignore the man in red]]; all it does is make EZIC adjust their plans a bit.]]
474* SerialEscalation:
475** The standards for approval and denial start out simple; let anybody that is an Arstotzkan native in while keeping those that aren't out. This is then amended with the inclusion of entry tickets for non-Arstotzkans. Eventually, other aspects of immigrants will be taken into consideration, such as their intentions for traveling, their jobs, if they've been vaccinated or not, and if they match their registered information. As events in the game unravel, more paperwork will be required and analyzed, and more functions get introduced, making the complexified job a far cry from the simple red and green stamps you were taught to use at the beginning.
476** Additional layers of deception soon enter with the introduction of potential forgeries, only cued in with subtle details being amiss. These flaws only become harder to discern later into the month.
477* SerialKiller: Simon Wens is a [[WouldHurtAChild serial child killer]].
478* SeriousBusiness:
479** Gain a few kilograms since that ID card was created? Did you get married and have a new name? Was that just a bad picture day for you and the photo doesn't quite match up? Does your face look like it belongs to someone of a different biological sex than what is on the passport? All of this is grounds enough for the Arstotzkan Ministry of Admission Inspector (the player character) to throw you out. If he's feeling merciful or malicious enough, he might just ask for your fingerprints or strip search you in order to either clear the discrepancy to allow you in, or to find enough evidence to call the guards to arrest you.
480** A second offense of having non-approved decorations on the wall of your booth is enough to get you sentenced to forced labor. Although once you realize that the game portrays the frequently absurd internal logic systems of totalitarian governments [[ShownTheirWork quite authentically]] [[labelnote:note]]if you are old enough to have spent at least a few conscious years, say the late childhood, in the Eastern Bloc, for instance, preferably before the Perestroika, or if you happen to have older relatives who did[[/labelnote]] and if you try to follow that logic, it makes sense: the serious offense is not so much the trivial matter of non-approved decoration (unless it were subversive, that'd be serious by itself), but the fact that you defied a direct order, ''any'' order - totalitarian governments are big on absolutes. If you defy a trivial order like this, chances are you'll defy another order in a more serious situation, and that is a quality intolerable in a state employee and thus a part of the system.
481* SexSlave: Dari Ludum is trafficking women to force them to work in his brothel. The inspector can detain him to save the women, or let him through or deny him without detaining, only to find out later that Dari Ludum has murdered them.
482* ShellShockedVeteran: Implied of Sergiu and possibly the other border guards, who served in a previous war in Kolechia. Sergiu even lampshades how his aim is not what it used to be and how he wishes to be done with the whole soldier business.
483* ShellShockSilence: If you don't shoot a certain terrorist [[spoiler:or EZIC agent]] before they lob an explosive into your booth, you will hear a brief "BOOM" and then ringing as the screen goes white.
484* ShoutOut:
485** The countries of Republia and Antegria come from Lucas Pope's previous game, ''The Republia Times''.
486** Because of the pre-release name submission campaign, there are/were several unintentional cameos. Every name belonging to another property is immediately removed from the game when it's discovered.
487--->'''@dukope:''' "You wouldn't believe how many people submitted [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic pony]]/[[Franchise/TouhouProject touhou]]/licensed-property names for Papers Please immigrants. At least, I was surprised."
488** "Dari Ludum," the sinister master of the Pink Vice brothel, is a shoutout to the Ludum Dare game jam that Lucas Pope regularly participates in.
489** Shae Piersovska is named after the game developer Shay Pierce.
490** Shaddi Safadi is named after Shaddy Safadi, who worked at Naughty Dog alongside Lucas Pope.
491** The ISBN for the rulebook is the same as the one for ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''.
492** One of the random entrant names is "[[VideoGame/TheStanleyParable Stanislav Parabol]]".
493** Another random entrant name is "[[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde Jaqueline Hyde]]."
494** And another random entrant name is "[[VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram Jebediah Kerman]]."
495** Yet another random entrant name is "[[WebVideo/GameGrumps Arin Hansonov]]."
496** An entrant may also show up with the last name "[[Creator/TomSka Thomska]]."
497** One of the randomly generated entrant names is Czeslaw Milosz. This is a reference to Czesław Miłosz, who was a famous Polish poet and a Nobel Prize winner.
498** And then there's [[Creator/JasonAlexander Jorji Costava]]...
499** Not to mention "[[Manga/DiamondIsUnbreakable Jo Suke]]."
500** Simon Wens has a suspicious resemblance to fellow serial child killer [[Franchise/{{Halloween}} Michael Myers]].
501* ShownTheirWork: Boy howdy. This game ''will'' trigger an emotional response if you are old enough to have experienced life in an Eastern Bloc state, preferably before Perestroika, or if you have relatives who did. It is, for all its abstraction and the fictional setting, an eerily accurate portrayal of both the actual mechanisms of a totalitarian state as well as quite an authentic immersion in the mood of a typical inhabitant.
502* SimulationGame: Basically a paperwork simulator with some major subplots.
503* SinisterSurveillance: Think you can get away with an easy-to-slip mistake? The citation machine would beg to differ.
504* SmallNameBigEgo: You will eventually encounter entrants that feel much more entitled to how they should be treated when being reviewed for entry.
505** Some are criminals that try to bribe you or think that their backgrounds and connections can get them out of punishment, others are [[NotDistractedByTheSexy overly self-confident in their charms]], and some are just [[ItsAllAboutMe plain narcissists]].
506** More notable instances are the journalists that enter with nothing but their press passes. They refuse to follow the guidelines set for other entrants and believe their passes are enough. Regardless of whether your let them in or not, they'll leave with scathing remarks. The only differences are how they'll deliver them.
507** One entrant refuses to leave the booth upon denial, holding up the line while threatening to "explode like [a] wild tiger" until they're let through. They get a rifle's butt to the head for their troubles.
508* SmallRoleBigImpact: That would be you. You're just an overworked and underpaid border inspector. You determine who gets into the country based on paperwork. Which means your decisions can change people's lives, for good or ill. [[spoiler:How you deal with the EZIC organization will determine if the current regime is toppled or stays in power.]]
509* SniperRifle: One eventually gets issued to the player for those times when terrorists are about to make things a whole lot worse for Arstotzka and "budget reassignments" force some of the guards away from your checkpoint. It's only a tranquilizer rifle, though, [[spoiler:until EZIC gives you the key to a sniper rifle...]].
510* SomebodySetUpUsTheBomb: A terrorist delivers a bomb to your booth and runs away before you can detain the terrorist. Fortunately, it is easy to disarm.
511* SoreLoser: As expected, a lot of the entrants you deny or detain are not pleased about it, but one scripted entrant on Day 10 will refuse to leave of their own accord if you deny them, causing the Detain button to appear. Even after you press it, they demand to be let through, threatening to "explode like wild tiger", and it takes a guard [[PistolWhipping smacking them with the butt of their rifle]] and hauling them out to remove them so that you can call the next entrant.
512* SpannerInTheWorks: Given that you're good at identifying weight discrepancies, the introduction of the body scanner can foil subsequent suicide-bombing attempts.
513* SpeakingSimlish: The spoken words in the game are filtered samples of nonsense words typed into the Mac "say" command.
514** The phrase the Inspector says when an immigrant enters the booth ("ehua?") sounds a lot like a request for [[TitleDrop "Papers."]]
515** The sound byte often heard from immigrants ("ihe") sounds like "I have them," which makes sense with the above, even though sometimes the immigrant in question ''doesn't'' have their papers.
516** The sound that the guard makes after an immigrant is detained ("gish-tot") sounds an awful lot like "Get out," demanding that they surrender and leave the booth.
517** The remaining two phrases have accompanying dialogue, but don't really match the words. So "haouaeay" can mean "Next," "Arstotzka welcomes you," "Have your papers ready," "Entry is not guaranteed," and "Come back at 6AM tomorrow," while "lekrafezuh!" means "For Kolechia!" and is said by the Kolechian suicide bomber before detonating the bomb.
518* SplashDamage: A motorcycle that explodes due to being shot (even with a TranquilizerDart) will kill or destroy other nearby motorcycles or terrorists that are close enough.
519* StampOfRejection: The entire game is about stamping approvals or rejections on passports.
520* StarCrossedLovers: Sergiu and Elisa, if Sergiu dies or you deny Elisa entry.
521* StaticRoleExchangeableCharacter: If he survived and was denied previously, the Man in Red will be Khaled Istom, but if Khaled was poisoned or let through the border, the Man in Red will be an unknown person.
522* TheStoolPigeon: An Antegrian whistleblower exposes an [[BigBrotherIsWatching Antegrian domestic espionage scandal]].
523* StealthPun: The newspaper doesn't cost anything, so Arstotzka can claim to have a "free press". [[spoiler:It actually is close to a free press in practice, with articles that are openly critical of the government policies.]]
524* StupidCrooks: You have to often deal with them.
525** One scripted event involves the immigrant dropping ''two'' passports with the same photo but with different names, ID numbers and home countries (one is Arstotzkan, the other is Kolechian), indicating obvious forgery. You don't even have to look at them before the "Detain" button pops up.
526** An entrant fails to present a document. If the inspector interrogates the entrant, the entrant will then present the document. The document sometimes contains incriminating evidence or a discrepancy that requires further interrogation that reveals incriminating evidence. The entrant should have stated that he or she does not have the document. Declaring that one does not have a document merits only a denial. Presenting a document with incriminating evidence or a discrepancy that when questioned reveals incriminating evidence merits detainment.
527** Other criminals don't leave the line even when someone is arrested in front of them, nor do they try to flee or do much of anything when they are found out and two armed guards slowly walk toward them to arrest them.
528** The world's three most wanted criminals are always in line the day the wanted bulletin is introduced. On subsequent days, typically, at least one criminal will try to enter the country. If you perform well enough in the endless modes, they will eventually show up, giving you one chance to arrest them when they do.
529** Vince Lestrade shows up in the news then immediately shows up at the checkpoint with perfectly correct documents (with his full name on them), and somehow is surprised that you recognize who he is.
530* StylisticSuck:
531** The game almost has a grim, bleak DOS-quality graphic style that looks hideous by today's standards. The benefits of this though are that it is easier to find discrepancies and also reflects the dystopian nature of the game. Conversely, the art style is so stylized that sometimes it can be difficult if a character is meant to be male or female.
532** Jorji's "Cobrastan" passport appears to be drawn in crayon, and the inspector points out that it's a crude fake.
533** The love poem an entrant gives you isn't very well made, similar in style to Jorji's fake passport. Is also drops the rhyme scheme by the end to just say "approve my visa."
534* SuicideAttack: There are several suicide bombers in this game. Once you get a scanner and papers that state entrants' weight, you can detain them before they blow themselves up by highlighting the mismatched weights, enabling the inspector to use the scanner to find the bombs, and then detaining them.
535* SuspectIsHatless: Starting on day 13, foreigners will have to carry an ID supplement, which describes their appearance. Some of them simply say that the entrant doesn't wear glasses or has short hair or something equally non-descriptive. This description still manages to expose many StupidCrooks and causes several false positives that must be overridden by matching fingerprints.
536* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Jorji, the day he appears when his face is in the wanted bulletin.
537-->'''Jorji:''' Everything is definitely ok with me. For sure I am not in criminal bulletin or anything!
538* SuspiciousSpending: You are subject to an audit if you [[spoiler:don't burn EZIC's large monetary gift]]. You are an underpaid border inspector, so your neighbors will grow suspicious of your sudden wealth and report you. [[spoiler:To EZIC's credit, they will apologize for their mistake and clear you of any wrongdoing if you admit their agent into the country and send you smaller and plausible gifts from now on. It really was incredibly naive of you to deposit all that loot, instead of hiding it someplace reasonably safe; what were you thinking?]]
539* SwissCheeseSecurity: The checkpoint has pathetic amounts of physical security at first, having a wall so low that intruders can simply leap over it. There is also only one guard initially who literally cannot aim to save his life. As time goes on, eventually the government responds to the terrorist attacks with heightened security measures. [[spoiler:The player can even gain access to a tranquilizer gun and sniper rifle to stop attackers.]]
540* TakeAThirdOption:
541** The best ways to handle Dari Ludum is [[spoiler:neither to let him in (obviously bad option, but will save you a citation) nor deny him (supposed good option, but he somehow crosses the border and kills the prostitutes, while you also a receive citation for your trouble). The best ending to the quest is either showing Dari the note written by one of the prostitutes, which will anger him and cause him to spew death threats, giving you the justification to legally detain him; or using the inspection mode to compare his name in his documents to the note asking for help, which allows you to interrogate him about that and then arrest him, ultimately saving the hookers from harm]].
542** If you want to [[spoiler:help EZIC with all of their tasks, one of them involves poisoning an assassin called Khaled Istom. If you poison him as instructed and allow him entry, he dies after a few steps past the border, and a guard checks on the body, which kills the guard, too. If you poison him and deny entry, he and a bunch of people in line die from the poison. It seems impossible to not let an innocent die while carrying EZIC's order out, but you can kill only Istom if you keep him in the booth until 6:00 and let everyone walk away before denying him.]]
543* TakeThat: A subtle one, but after you are forced to check for proper vaccinations from people travel from certain countries, you'll likely have someone try to enter without any vaccinations, at which point when you point it out, they state they do not believe in vaccinations. This makes it somewhat apparent that the game's creator isn't a fan of those who don't believe in getting vaccinations.
544* TakeYourTime: Time won't advance until you call the first entrant of the day into your booth. Until then, you are free to peruse the instructions and guide book to your heart's content, .
545* ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine: One of the scripted entrants is a former border inspector from the United Federation, who brags about how the Federation's border controls are now computerized and can deny entrants much faster that way, suggesting that they seemed to get a kick out of keeping entrants out of the U.F. If they have a discrepancy that bars them entry and you point it out, they'll tell you to just give them the denial stamp so they can leave. As you hand them their documents back, they quietly mutter "So this is what it feels like" [to be on the receiving end of a denial] and leave.
546* TemptingFate: "For sure, I am not in criminal bulletin or anything!" [[spoiler:Unfortunately, Jorji is...]]
547* TerribleArtist: Your son. Granted, he's a child, but in the "old family photo", he doesn't look that young, either. If you hang up his drawing the day after you receive it, an entrant will comment that their dog can do better.
548* ThisIsGonnaSuck:
549** If you're not making much money and can barely keep your family alive, you're going to brace yourself for the citation printing noise every time you process an entrant.
550** The inspector from the Ministry of Information. If you've been helping out the [[spoiler:rebel group, EZIC]], God help you when you have to see him again...
551** Every time the rules get updated in the morning. Especially if it's introducing ''yet another'' piece of documentation that you gotta verify.
552* ThreatBackfire: When you have the option to detain one of the world's three most wanted criminals, sometimes he or she will tell you to let him or her through "or you'll regret it." Unfortunately, ''the criminal'' will [[{{Irony}} regret it]] if Calensk and another armed guard come to take them away.
553* TimeBomb: If you fail to defuse the bomb dropped on your desk in a limited amount of time, it blows you and Calensk up.
554* TimedMission:
555** Your pay is based on how many people you can (correctly) process by the end of the work day. Note that if an entrant is processed after 6 PM, they don't count towards your earnings. You can't rush through people: if you admit entry to someone you should have denied or arrested, you are penalized. If you deny entry to someone you should have admitted, you are penalized. After Day 18, if you deny entry to someone you should deny, but don't stamp the denial reason, you are penalized.
556** If you complete any EZIC objectives, but you don't complete enough to qualify for their ending, then from Day 29 onwards you must [[spoiler:escape to Obristan]] by the end of Day 31 (which will entail [[spoiler:stealing up to an extra five Obristan passports if you want to get your family out too]], as well as having 25 credits for each person including yourself), otherwise [[spoiler:on Day 31 EZIC will kill you in their raid on the border, or the next day you'll be arrested for failing to defend the border or executed for your connection to EZIC]].
557** One of the Endless Mode game types is Timed, where you have 10 minutes to process as many entrants as you can. Detaining an entrant adds 5 seconds [[AntiFrustrationFeatures to make up for the arrest animation taking some time to complete]], while getting a citation takes away 30 seconds.
558* TimeLimitBoss: All of the terrorists except for suicide bombers that you can stop by detaining them are this once you have access to the tranquilizer gun and/or sniper rifle. You have a limited amount of time to shoot them before they start killing the guards, [[spoiler:the guards shoot the terrorist trying to ram you with an explosive motorcycle]], or [[spoiler:EZIC bombs the border wall]].
559* TitleDrop: The game's name is the first thing the inspector says to anyone who enters the booth.
560* ToBeLawfulOrGood: Effectively the whole point of the game. In order to keep the government off your back and stay in the black, you need to abide to their standards, no matter how oppressive they are or how much they'll weigh on your conscience. If you want to complete the game with minimal citations, you'll have to do some pretty mean things, such as turn away the entrant carrying medicine and approve the entrant who wishes to be denied to get out of a bad job.
561* TookALevelInBadass: The inspector, once you have access to a tranquilizer rifle. Think of the many guards you could save from terrorist attacks with a well placed shot.
562* TranquilizerDart: The player gets access to a tranquilizer gun when budget cuts forces the job of guarding the border to the inspector.
563* {{Tuckerization}}: The developer took name submissions for potential immigrants from the public.
564* {{Turncoat}}: You can turn against Arstotzka [[spoiler:and help overthrow the government by doing EZIC's tasks. At the beginning of day 31, a messenger will give you a note that says that EZIC will keep you safe; hold your fire. If you so wish, you can shoot their agents at the last moment, betraying both EZIC and Arstotzka. Let's hope you have enough money to escape to Obristan.]]
565* TwistedChristmas: If you help EZIC at all but don't help them enough that they'll see you as an agent, [[spoiler:and you don't escape to Obristan, then you'll be arrested and sentenced to death on Christmas Eve.]]
566* UnableToSupportAWife: You are already married and with a family and must earn enough money to support them. Arstotzkan workers are expected to support large, healthy families. [[spoiler:If your entire family dies, you'll be fired from your job.]]
567* UncertainDoom:
568** Detained individuals are escorted off of the premises by the guards for questioning by the government. Many are not seen after this, but [[spoiler:Jorji is able to return from these arrests, providing the chance for survival, at least if one has [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections the means]]]].
569** If you choose to [[spoiler:escape to Obristan and do not have enough passports for your entire family, the ending slide will say that the fate of those that left for Nirsk is unknown]]. Additionally, if you did not adopt your niece after the option to do so comes up, the game will note that she has disappeared. "The safety of your family is unknown" as well if [[spoiler:you are put to death for aiding EZIC]].
570** The "Too Honest" ending, gotten by handing over the EZIC documents to M. Vonel, ends with you in prison awaiting the results of an audit of your activities; your ultimate fate is unclear.
571** If you have qualified for Ending 19, but [[spoiler:after the border wall is destroyed you open fire on the EZIC agents, then they turn against you. If you neutralize all of them, then in the following ending, you're told that although EZIC has taken over the government, [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment your last-second betrayal of them means "there is no place for you or your family in this revolution"]]. What exactly this entails is not elaborated upon.]]
572* UndyingLoyalty: One of the good endings requires you to not help EZIC at all and stay loyal to Arstotzka.
573* UngratefulBastard: The western journalists who show up with press passes instead of proper paperwork and expect to be let in to expose your country's corruption. If you let them through, they write scathingly about how incompetent the border control is.
574* UnstableEquilibrium: If you don't have enough money for food or heat, your family members will become sick. If you don't buy sick family members medicine (on top of the daily food and heat), other family members will become sick, requiring more medicine. Conversely, once you become really good at recognizing information and discrepancies and remembering which entrants can be quickly processed, you can accrue more than enough money to buy everything available and still leave more than a thousand credits in your account.
575* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Nobody around you bats an eye at [[spoiler:the hooded people with the EZIC symbol on their face]]. You'd think M. Vonel would also notice the suspicious cards on the counter right in front of him.
576* UnwinnableByDesign: It's possible to arrive on the last day with no way to get any of the three good endings. [[spoiler:Specifically, only help EZIC with 1-3 tasks (rather than 0, 4, or 5) and don't have enough money or Obri passports to bring your entire family to Obristan. At this point, assuming you don't get killed on duty, you'll be arrested for failing to defend the border, be executed for associating with EZIC, or escape with only part of your living family or by yourself.]] Fortunately the game saves for you every in-game day and you can go back to any previous day's save, but depending on which ending you want and how much money you have you may have to retry a large chunk of the game.
577* VastBureaucracy: Arstotzka. You're assigned your job through a "labour lottery." Your rulebook is updated with new complicated rules almost every day. You have to deal with at least three different ministries, each with their own set of seals (they can't even agree on a single seal per ministry).
578* VerbalBackspace:
579** A surprising number of immigrants get their length of stay ''completely'' wrong. Not simply off by a short measure of time, but ''way'' off. When you confront them about the discrepancy, they universally have an "Oh, right, that" reaction. Even more amusing is that the system sees this as clearing the discrepancy.
580--->'''Immigrant:''' I remain for six months.\
581''(Access permit specifies 2 days)''\
582'''Inspector:''' The length of your stay is different.\
583'''Immigrant:''' I make mistake. I stay for just 2 days.
584** If you get some artwork from your child and hang it up at your work station, one scripted entrant will insult it. If you deny or detain them for any reason, they think it's [[BullyingADragon because they offended you]] and [[AintTooProudToBeg proclaim that such art should be in a museum]].
585* VideoGameCaringPotential:
586** Some good people might be unfortunately in possession of an improper set of identification or insufficient amount thereof and a kind player can "look the other way" and stamp them approved anyway. Similarly, you can also simply deny entry to people with incorrect/possibly forged documents instead of having them detained, which the first possible person you can detain begs you to do.
587** In one instance, a woman claiming to be at risk of becoming a SexSlave to a man in line after her will slip you a note begging for your help. When his turn comes up, you can detain him. The next day, you learn that your actions shut down an entire human trafficking ring, likely saving the lives of many women under the ring's captivity.
588** About halfway through the game, one of the guards befriends you. A few days later, he asks for a favor. Granting him his favour ''will'' make you feel really good about yourself (but get you in trouble).
589** On the same day there will be a terrorist attack. That same guard can be one of the casualties if you're too slow. If you manage to save him, he will be eternally grateful to you for not only reuniting him with this love, but also saving his life twice now.
590** In the later days, you will learn that [[spoiler:your sister gets arrested, leaving her daughter up for adoption. She may be another mouth to feed, but she is family... And adopting her gets you rewarded with an extra 100 credits, thankfully.]]
591** You don't HAVE to ask questions to anyone with improper paperwork [[spoiler:until the time comes where you need to interrogate entrants to activate the reason for denial stamp and use it]]; in fact, the moment you see an inconsistency, you can deny them outright. If you do ask, some of them may have made an honest mistake, have proper paperwork but looks like someone of the opposite [[DudeLooksLikeALady biological]] [[LadyLooksLikeADude sex]], have bad papers that are not incriminating (e.g., expired or missing paperwork) where interrogation lets the entrant know what is wrong, could use your help to clear discrepancies (e.g., take fingerprints to prove an identity when the person's height or physical description is wrong, take fingerprints to look up a person's claimed alias, perform a search when the weight is wrong to prove that there is no contraband, or have a purpose or duration of stay mismatch corrected) or are [[StupidCrooks criminals that are carrying incriminating evidence]] that can be exposed by investigating them. The fact that you're going through the extra effort just to see if it's a good person that can be admitted is showing that you care for the entrants and allows you to prevent crimes by arresting crooks.
592** There's a man and woman on day 5 who appear to be husband and wife saying they're fleeing Antegria because it is an oppressive regime and will put them to death if they don't get over the border. The husband's papers are always in good order, and he goes first, but the wife's papers are never right, but you can allow her entry to spare her (assuming you haven't made any mistakes that day, she can be let through without consequence; [[MercyRewarded she even awards you with her country's token]]). [[spoiler:The newspaper will report on day 11 that a [[TheStoolPigeon whistleblower]] has exposed [[BigBrotherIsWatchingYou Antegrian domestic espionage]], which suggests that the couple was telling the truth.]]
593* VideoGameCrueltyPotential:
594** You can let the guy running the SexSlave trafficking ring through.
595** You could also just deny everyone entry, whether their papers are good or not, though that'll get you in trouble very quickly.
596** Until the rules change so that you have to interrogate suspicious potential entrants, you make a lot more money by simply denying them, as dealing with the discrepancy wastes time and you're paid by the number of people processed. When you do have to issue a reason for denial, you can just point out the error and use the denial and reason stamps without trying to further clear the discrepancy. This counts as correct processing.
597** The day after the first suicide bomber attack, the rules say you have you search every Kolechian entrant. To save time, you can deny all of them rather than go through the long scanning process.
598** When you find someone with a discrepancy that indicates a typo, stolen document, or forgery, instead of simply denying them, you can detain them since you get a 5-credit bonus for every two people you detain. It's somewhat ambiguous how bad being detained actually is, considering that the guards let Jorji go without much hassle [[spoiler:after he gets caught with drugs]]. Still, it's probably a stressful and massively inconvenient overreaction to what is more often than not a minor mistake.
599** There's the man who tries to bribe you with both cash and a wristwatch (a "family heirloom"). You can deny him and give him back the money and the watch... or detain him and keep the watch and money for yourself.
600** Giving Simon Wens a picture of his victim will cause him to exclaim, "What the fuck!" and run back to Kolechia. Though, [[AssholeVictim he kind of deserves it.]]
601** You can stop paying your family's bills and kill off all but one of them without losing the game. [[http://papersplease.wikia.com/wiki/Bills As the game wiki puts it: "[I]t is possible to [do this] in order to reduce expenses. It is also exactly as callous as it sounds."]]
602** One of the endings requires [[spoiler:getting up to six Obristan passports to use for you and your family to flee the country. You get one of them from Jorji, who hands it over willingly, but you have to wrongly deprive up to five other Obristanians of their ability to travel, who are more often than not completely innocent. And they're not getting their passports back by calling the number on the slip when you'll be long gone by then.]]
603** A man will ask you to let his wife through, who happens to be the next person in line and both of them had fled their country to avoid being killed. The husband's papers are cleared, but the wife's is not. You can send her away, separating the couple forever and dooming the wife.
604** Sergiu at one point asks you to let his girlfriend, Elisa, through. Naturally, she doesn't have her papers in order when she shows up. If you deny her entry, she'll ask you to tell Sergiu that she will see him in the next life. If you really want to be cruel, you can deny Elisa entry and allow Sergiu to be killed in the next terrorist attack without him ever knowing that his girlfriend had come by. You can also allow Sergiu to be killed before the day Elisa comes to the checkpoint if you want to feel less bad about denying her.
605** During a "Drown Out" video, [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee Croshaw]] showed a lot of glee sending people to be detained.
606--->'''Croshaw:''' ''[to one entrant smuggling drugs]'' Oh, ''really''? Let me introduce you to these nice men with ''guns''! They'll take you to the place where a lot of people go in but don't seem to come out of so much!
607** On Day 20, you can use the poison to kill Khaled Istom like EZIC orders you to, or use it on the journalist who seems bent on giving you a hard time...or use it on a completely unrelated innocent entrant. In the latter two cases, nobody ever finds out that you're responsible, and while the day gets cut short due to the resulting security alert, the game carries on like nothing happened afterwards.
608** On the pettier side, there's no consequences for stamping anywhere outside of the designated space on the passport, which means that you can stamp all over someone's picture and information and thoroughly ruin it as a useful document. Just because you can.
609* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment:
610** Refusing entry to a valid applicant will result in a citation in the same way that admitting an invalid applicant will.
611** Once you gain access to the tranquilizer rifle, using it to shoot an innocent civilian will result in you being arrested and sentenced to forced labor. Later you get access to a ''lethal'' sniper rifle, and using it to kill an innocent will result in the ''death penalty''. You will also be sentenced to death if you use either weapon on one of the border guards. Functionally, forced labor and the death penalty are [[GameOver the same thing]], although they count as separate (bad) endings.
612** If you have completed enough EZIC tasks to qualify for their good ending, [[spoiler:you will be ordered to hold your fire on the final day. If, when the EZIC agents show up, you fire anyway, they will attack you as well. If you stop them from blowing up the border wall, you will get a bad ending where you're sentenced to death for your involvement with EZIC ''and'' an EZIC agent passes you a message telling you that EZIC will no longer provide support to your family. If you do let them blow up the border wall before opening fire, then although EZIC has toppled the Arstotzkan government, they will tell you that you have no place in the new Arstotzka ([[UncertainDoom what this entails for you is not stated]]).]]
613* ViolationOfCommonSense:
614** Many first-time players would give the EZIC documents to the M.O.I. Inspector, as what most law-abiding people would do in real life. Unfortunately [[WrongGenreSavvy most law-abiding people nowadays]] don't live in a [[CommieLand communist dictatorship]] with a corrupt, ultra-paranoid SecretPolice. Doing so will get you investigated and arrested for a NonStandardGameOver. ([[LampshadeHanging And unlock the "Too Honest" achievement.]]) Thus, in order to proceed, even if you're against EZIC, you have to keep the EZIC documents to yourself.
615** The second time Jorji comes through the office, he has an obviously fake passport that looks like crayon and construction paper. Rather than any of the glaringly obvious problems that can be highlighted, the only one that works (aside from cross-referencing a lack of entry ticket or the passport itself with the "All entrants must have a passport" rule in the rulebook) is the name of the country he came from having a minor misspelling. Of course, most players don't bother highlighting anything at this point; they'll just stamp a denial, which works anyway.
616** At one point you're tasked with assassinating the "Man in Red". [[spoiler:Your best choice, even if you're siding with EZIC, is to ''ignore him''. Shooting him not only gets you [[NonStandardGameOver arrested]] (and executed, if you used the sniper rifle rather than the tranq rifle), [[SenselessSacrifice but it ends up backfiring on EZIC because the replacement inspector isn't as cooperative]]. Ignoring the Man in Red just makes EZIC change their plans and they can still complete their takeover of Arstotzka.]]
617** To earn the tokens, you have to follow certain requirements that can land you citations and tend to violate the guidelines. While some are simply cases of VideogameCaringPotential, others have you agree to the specific demands of certain entrants, such as [[spoiler:following all of the instructions set by the Vengeful Father[[note]]admitting Simon Wens who is a wanted criminal, so that he can personally find and kill him[[/note]] or the collateral agreement of Danic Lorun[[note]]admit him without complete documents, on the grounds that he'll come back with them later[[/note]]]].
618** Unlocking all of the endings will include making the player resort to outlandish actions story-related and otherwise, such as using the booth's weapons on innocents and guards. Certain endings require specific criteria and thus slight changes to what is instructed, from [[spoiler:using the Tranquilizer on the Man in Red when EZIC specifically orders the lethal rounds, to helping EZIC until the final day and then attacking one or both of their two agents]]. The only reason why one would change their plans like this is if one is going for HundredPercentCompletion.
619* VoiceGrunting: Everyone, including the player, speaks in this.
620* WantedPoster:
621** The newspaper prints and circulates one for Vince Lestrade who is wanted for murdering his girlfriend. He is [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed a reference to]] Oscar Pistorius.
622** After Arstotzka becomes known as a haven for international criminals ([[NiceJobBreakingItHero which you helped create if you previously failed to arrest Vince Lestrade]]), you are handed a wanted poster with the world's three most wanted criminals on it and are required to detain them upon sight.
623** In the iPhone and Android versions, you can attach actual wanted posters to the wall to make it easier for you to spot these criminals due to the compromises required to get this to fit on an iPhone's or Android's screen. Dmitri considers these authorized, and the criminals will always [[FailedASpotCheck not notice their own wanted posters.]]
624* TheWarJustBefore: The story is set in a border checkpoint between the fictional countries of Arstotzka and Kolechia, which recently fought the Six-Year War.
625* WeirdnessMagnet: Face it, the amount of stuff that happens to the player in over the game makes you wonder if there's something in the air in Grestin. Even Sergiu notes that he's seen more action at the border compared to his time in the war!
626* WesternTerrorists: Several tend to attack the border.
627** The Kolechians are responsible for most of the terrorist attacks early on.
628** EZIC, for all their righteousness, are not above terrorism (though never against civilians).
629* WhamShot: Every appearance of M. Vonel is one. He always shows up waiting for you in your booth just as the day begins, and he always comes to deliver grave news that ''will'' have serious repercussions for you.
630* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: When terrorists strike when there is an entrant in the booth, that entrant is locked in the booth during the emergency. You never get to finish processing the entrant or let the entrant leave. The entrant disappears before the start of the next day.
631* WhatMeasureIsAMook: The border guards never get any characterization beyond having terrible aim. Sergiu serves to give them a face and remind the player that even foot soldiers of an oppressive regime are still people.
632* WhatTheHellPlayer:
633** You will receive a printed citation every time you make a wrong call, and your superior officer may make a comment alluding to this depending on your performance. Some immigrants and citizens will also pull this on you, mostly if it's an immoral choice (which at least saves you from earning a citation). Although if you fall through in your word to certain people, this can be justified.
634** You can give [[spoiler:Simon Wens the photo of his victim.]] He runs far, far away, and the man who wanted to kill him will not be happy.
635** Work with the [[spoiler:EZIC group, and shoot the guys the messenger told you ''not'' to shoot? They will be suitably mad at you and will have you killed for your betrayal.]]
636** Some of the endings are earned with you blatantly betraying both EZIC and the Arstotzkan government in one go, predictably leading you to forced labour or death.
637** If you detain the owner of the watch and the owner of the Arskickers pennant without returning the items, they will call you out.
638** On day 25, Sergiu will ask you to approve entry for a woman he met in Kolechia. The next day, she arrives with only her passport, saying that Sergiu's the only person she has and that the authorities wouldn't let her leave for a long time. If you deny her and Sergiu survives the day, you tell him that Elisa should come back with the proper paperwork, to which he responds, "You know this is impossible."
639** Near the end of the game, Jorji eventually offers the player an option of [[spoiler:escaping the audit by moving to Obristan]], and if the player lets him in, he'll force his passport onto the player before proceeding. The player can opt to confiscate his passport before approval, and Jorji calls the player out on it for a bit.
640** Jorji will also call you out if you deny him on Day 11, when he (for once) shows up with proper paperwork; notably, this is the ''one'' time he loses his temper - he takes every other rejection in good humor.
641--->'''Jorji:''' This is crap! You know what? Forget it. Arstotzka worst country. You worst person.
642** Your boss Dmitri will call you out if you [[spoiler:deny his girlfriend entry but don't detain her]], but his jerkassery lessens the impact somewhat. It's far more pleasant than [[spoiler:outright detaining Shae, as doing so results in an ''arrest'' the next day]].
643* WireDilemma: Defusing a bomb that gets planted in the booth during a scripted event requires cutting a set of wires in a numerical sequence listed on the outer casing of the bomb. This obvious design flaw is lampshaded by the nearby guard.
644-->'''Calensk:''' This is poorest bomb I ever see. A simple mind created this. Just cut the wires in order.
645* WouldHurtAChild: Simon Wens is a [[SerialKiller serial child killer]].
646* YankTheDogsChain: If the player keeps the guard Sergiu alive, Day 26 can having a touching moment where you let in the woman whom he fell in love with. The two happily embrace the moment they see each other, before she leaves and he continues working. [[spoiler:That same day, ''three'' terrorists will attack the wall, and the player has to be very quick to prevent Sergiu being killed]] and giving this love story a tragic ending.
647* YetAnotherStupidDeath: After getting further into the game and becoming more proficient, you will likely resolve to never allow something as easy and frequent as an expired passport or invalid issuing city to go past your eyes unnoticed. You will just as likely do it again at some point, after checking almost everything else.
648* YouALLLookFamiliar: All Generic Entrants are created through an algorithm which combines different facial parts that are drawn from a database of 16 preexisting faces.
649* YouAreAlreadyDead: a.k.a. You Are Already Under Arrest:
650** If you accept either of EZIC's four-digit bribes, then fail to admit the EZIC operative who is sent to clear you of suspcision, you've pretty much shot yourself in the foot, because while you're free to play out the rest of the day, M. Vonel will be waiting to arrest you the following day (assuming your family doesn't die or you go into debt by then, both of which are also game overs anyway).
651** Similarly, detaining Shae will cause the game to carry on like usual until the next morning when Dimitri has you arrested on false charges.
652* YouCantThwartStageOne:
653** You cannot stop ScriptedEvent terrorist attacks from happening. Try to deny the entrant that would be the terrorist, and the game will just deal out a never-ending queue of entrants with correct paperwork until you approve one of them. [[SchrodingersGun At which point the one you just approved turns out to be the terrorist and what few entrants you can process afterwards will be normal randomized entrants.]] This includes the terrorist that causes the M.O.A. to implement a "random" search of all Kolechian entrants. Similarly, don't bother holding up the line so that they have to leave at 6 PM; the game will just continue until you admit the entrant who's a terrorist.
654** You can't stop the first journalist from smear-campaigning Arstotzka's border controls [[MortonsFork whether you approve or deny them]], causing the Reason for Denial stamp to be required going forward.
655** No matter how many terrorist attacks you stop (with your weapons) or prevent (by never allowing an entrant with mismatched weight to enter), you can't stop the passport seizure program from being implemented and mandated.
656* YouFool: If you arrest an alleged ambassador, he or she might say "You are a fool!".
657* YouHaveResearchedBreathing:
658** One of the upgrades you can only get by buying are tabs for the rulebook, even though the Inspector could just as easily have made them himself anytime.
659** In the iPad version, you have to purchase a booth upgrade to use multitouch. In other words, you have to spend 10 credits ''just to use both hands.''
660* YouNoTakeCandle: Many characters speak in very stilted English. According to Lucas Pope, this is intentional to give the dialogue an Eastern European feel.
661* YourDaysAreNumbered: During the final week, you'll be notified of an impending audit by the [[SecretPolice Ministry of Information]]. In fact, their special investigator will audit you ''personally''. [[spoiler:If you've worked with the EZIC group, even helped them once or accepted one of their gifts, but haven't done enough for them to be able to start their revolution in earnest, you may want to consider escaping from Arstotzka; otherwise, the Arstotzkan inspector will have you arrested for treason and sentenced to death by the last day. On the day of Christmas Eve no less.]]
662* ZeroEffortBoss:
663** [[spoiler:The EZIC attack on the final day]] is ridiculously easy to thwart with a couple of easy shots [[spoiler:because the terrorists are very slow]]. Since there are multiple endings depending on if you shoot them and when, this is likely intentional to give you time to consider what to do.
664** One of the scripted entrants presents two passports by mistake. The Detain button immediately appears.
665[[/folder]]
666
667[[folder:Tropes pertaining to the film]]
668* AdaptationDistillation: Whereas the original game takes place over the course of 31 in-game days and can take a few real-time hours to complete, the film only covers one day in-universe and is only 10 minutes long, boiling down to the essential elements like the mental process of verifying documents and quickly displaying passports of the seven countries, as well as featuring brief appearances from key characters like Sergiu, Jorji, and Elisa.
669* AdaptationalVillainy: [[spoiler:The Antegrian couple turn out to be Kolechian terrorists.]]
670* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:The Kolechian terrorists blow up the inspection booth and kill the guards and possibly the Inspector.]]
671* ChekhovsGun:
672** The pistol the Inspector brings with him. [[spoiler:Too bad he didn't have a chance to use it...]]
673** Elisa's locket. If the Inspector didn't have it on his desk as a reminder of what he did, he would've likely denied the Antegrian couple entry.
674* CuttingOffTheBranches: The film chooses to go with elements that are optional in the game:
675** [[spoiler:Elisa is denied and turned away.]]
676** [[spoiler:The Inspector detains Jorji at least once.]]
677** [[spoiler:Both of the Antegrian couple are approved and allowed to go through.]]
678** [[spoiler:Sergiu is killed in a terrorist attack.]]
679* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler:The Inspector and Sergiu are (probably) killed at the end of the movie.]]
680* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:It's heavily implied that the Inspector and Sergiu were killed by the Kolechian terrorist.]]
681* TheFarmerAndTheViper: [[spoiler:The Inspector lets in a married couple, the wife of which doesn't have her name correctly spelled. The couple then carries out a terrorist attack.]]
682* FatalFamilyPhoto: [[spoiler:A delayed version: The Inspector's family photo is prominently shown throughout the film, which culminates to the point when Kolechian terrorists attack the border and possibly kill the Inspector.]]
683* {{Foreshadowing}}: Savvy players who have been keeping tabs on [[spoiler:terrorist attacks will see a red flag since Elisa shows up, which by coincidence is the same day a terrorist attack occurs.]]
684* FreezeFrameBonus: When the Inspector receives Jorji's documentation, you can pause the video while he looks through them. It has the same information Jorji wrote on his crayon passport.
685* {{Jumpscare}}: [[spoiler:The Inspector asks an immigrant for their documentation, then ''the booth blows up''.]]
686* MoodWhiplash: The Inspector makes the [[spoiler:agonising decision to deny Elisa's entry,]] then [[PluckyComicRelief Jorji Costava]] shows up with an obviously-forged identity supplement.
687* MundaneMadeAwesome: Some segments show how the discrepancy checker function would work mentally, as shown as the Inspector scans through the assorted documents.
688* MythologyGag: Jorji Costava shows up with a "Cobrastan" passport. It looks a lot more professional, [[InSpiteOfANail but he's quickly taken away due to an obviously-forged identity supplement.]]
689* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The Inspector is clearly going through this after [[spoiler:denying Elisa entry.]]
690* NecessarilyEvil: The film makes a great job pointing out that in the dystopian setting, such harsh entry requirements may be necessary [[spoiler:to stop terrorist attacks]] as was demonstrated by the Inspector's act of kindness. Such measures would not be needed at all in a peaceful region.
691* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: An even more extreme example than any from the game. [[spoiler:After denying Elisa, the Inspector decides to atone by breaking protocol to allow the Antegrian couple through. Unfortunately, they turn out to be Kolechian terrorists who kill both Sergiu and possibly the Inspector.]]
692* NotHisSled:
693** In the game, admitting the Antegrian couple simply gets you a citation for invalid paperwork; at worst you lose five credits if you've already had two prior citations for the day. [[spoiler:In the film, doing so ends up being a fatal mistake, as the couple are actually terrorists.]]
694** The decision of whether to approve Elisa's entry or not is made complicated by [[spoiler:a telegram from the Inspector's unseen supervisor warning him that Arstotzka has reached its daily limit of Kolechian entrants]], which never happens in-game.
695* RuleOfDrama: The filmmakers stated this was the reason for [[spoiler:Elisa being turned away.]]
696* SmashToBlack: [[spoiler:We get this as we hear the sound of the terrorist shooting and likely killing the inspector.]]
697* StarCrossedLovers: [[spoiler:Elisa is turned away, and Sergiu is killed by Kolechian terrorists.]]
698* StylisticSuck: As expected, Jorji shows up with forged documentation. The passport itself looks a lot better, but his identity supplement looks worse.
699* SuicideAttack: [[spoiler:The Antegrian immigrant the Inspector breaks protocol for is a suicide bomber.]]
700* ToBeLawfulOrGood: The Antegrian couple arrive at one point. When it turns out the wife's documentation had her name spelled differently ("Robynsky" versus "Robinsky"), the Inspector is prepared to deny her entry... but Elisa's locket gives him a painful reminder of what happened earlier, so he breaks protocol and lets the immigrant through along with a reminder to bring correct documentation next time.
701* TranslationConvention: A variation. Spoken dialogue is in Russian, however written text is in English. While this could be explained by the fact that most of the text consists of international travel documents, and thus would make sense to have English, a widely-spoken language, it doesn't explain why the Inspector receives a telegram addressed to him that's also in English.
702* WhamShot: When the Inspector sorts through the documentation of various immigrants, Elisa's name shows up at the end of one.
703[[/folder]]
704----
705->''"It says here that [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife you are to view the article all week.]]"''
706--->''"Ah, y-yes, well, [[BlatantLies I, uh... have important edit to ma--]]"''
707-->'''[ENTRY DENIED]'''
708->''"NEXT!"''

Top