Papers Please or this?

[PuppyFiddler]

Having played the demo to day 3 it's made me want to play Papers Please. This just feels like a quick 3d cash grab on Papers Please only with tedious fetch quests and old graphics.

Whats the verdict having played it for hours? Does it find any "soul" and become fun?

[SpaceBikerV]

I have 28 hours on Papers Please and 20 hours of Contraband Police. I have all 3 main endings in Papers and only got 1 ending so far in Contraband

Papers Please:

(Story)
-Play as an Immigration Officer of Arstotzka processing entrants of 6 countries after a conflict with Kolechia. Along the way there is a secret organisation, the Order of the EZIC Star, that plans to break the wall separating the countries and you can choose the help or stop them. You can also leave the country entirely via the help of one Jorji Costava. There's a newspaper once in a while that shows the world's affairs which affects entry regulations. We don't really know much about other countries other than a few tidbits of lore. Heavy Communist vibes and uses pixel graphics.

(Gameplay)
-Papers lets you control the on-foot immigration of the Arstotzka-Kolechia border and does a really good job at document inspection. You can cross reference issuing city, entrant height and weight, entrant gender, check for diplomats, verify purpose of visit, verify fingerprints, work passes, and everything can be cross referenced using the discrepancy tool with no limits. Though the workspace is very limited

-There's a photo list of criminals given each day and you can arrest them for an extra bit of coin. You can arrest anyone without penalty even if their documents have 1 false flag (in some cases). Otherwise, you can refuse non-criminal entrants after applying a generic "reason for refusal" stamp

-Money management is very limited as you can only spend on rent, food, heating, medicine, and few post upgrades (which are just shortcuts to make entrant processing faster). there are many ways to lose the game and you can replay a previous day to rectify a mistake.

-There are some shooting segments but you are only ever given a pistol or a tranquilizer to stop an invasion, with limited ammo.

-Papers has an Endless mode where you can choose between 3 gamemodes of Timed, Perfection, and Endurance where you can also choose between 4 "difficulties"

Contraband Police:

(Story)
-You have been assigned as a new Border Patrol guard of Acaristan, a country that shares borders with 4 countries. Along the way you discover a secret plot by some police officers who are collaborating with the Blood Fist rebels to topple the government. Blood Fist claims they want to achieve democracy and destroy the tyranny of Acaristan. You can then choose to help either the government or the rebels through a variety of missions that the game gives you. There's a newspaper in every chapter that reports the world's state of affairs which affects entry regulations. The background of every country is given in the inspector handbook, in addition to the lore behind manufacture of vehicles. Also heavy Communist vibes and uses 3D semi-realistic graphics

(Gameplay)
-Similar to Papers, you control the immigration of entrants by checking their documents. This time entrants come through via car. Although the level of detailed things to inspect is less than what Papers offers (no issuing city, weight and height, diplomats, fingerprints, and gender, which is a strange one because there are no female entrants in the game) Contraband tasks you with Vehicle Inspection instead. Later on you can check cargo amount, vehicle weight, and vehicle damage condition. You are evaluated and rewarded based on every detail about the driver and vehicle, even if you know they are not eligible.

-The main star of the show is contraband confiscation. Every chapter you are given hints as to who may or may not be a smuggler. If a smuggler is suspected, you can use your UV light to check for the snake symbol. The driver might give you a bribe if you start tearing their car apart, or in one case, sneakily enter their car and drive off and become a runaway.

-Money management is a lot more elaborate in Contraband than Papers. You can spend money to upgrade your lodgings, warehouse, prison, hire and upgrade guards, buy and upgrade vehicles, and buy weapons and tools. Money is primarily used to maintain the Post, and you lose if you earn less than the required "rent" (for lack of better term).

-Another thing that separates Contraband with Papers is the open world and driving. The world is quite small; you can drive the entire map in 5 minutes. But the game does encourage exploration by giving you hidden collectibles (KGP files and gang treasure). The main reason for driving is to send contraband and prisoners to the police station and labor camp respectively. You can even drive smuggler cars for back to the Post for an easier time finding contraband, and ask your mechanic to teleport your squad car back.

-Shooting is also vastly better in Contraband, unsurprisingly. You can buy a variety of weapons, ammo, and tools which also acts as melee weapons from Vlad's Tools. Sometimes gangsters may ambush the Border Post and you have to survive the battle. Sometimes you can get ambushed by gangsters along the map as you drive, and you can either keep driving or fight back, the latter which gives you money after wiping them out. The actual shooting mechanics themselves, though, is pretty basic compared to mainstream shooters.

-Another thing that Contraband does is missions and interventions. As you progress, HQ will call you for help to participate in some police work, which usually ends up in a choice between helping Acaristan or helping Blood Fist. Interventions are a side hustle if you're looking for some extra cash.

-In addition, Contraband has a rank system where you level up based on your inspection performance. Higher ranks allows you to call Vlad to come to you and also a police transport to send contraband and prisoners for you, eliminating the need to drive around. Of course, their services are at a cost each call.

-As of writing, Endless mode is still being worked on so I cannot say for sure if it can be up to the quality of Papers'

(Extra)
Papers Please took 9 months to make by 1 person and Contraband took 6 years to make with team. I wouldn't exactly call this a quick buck. And I know some games that are delivery simulators, of which I have also enjoyed, and I personally did not find Contraband's ferrying of stuff tedious, though of course it is not as elaborate.

(Final Comments)
I played Papers Please years ago because I loved the concept and I love pixel graphics. Even today the game is still very fun and I play Endless from time to time. When I saw Contraband, I was immediately interested because it adds vehicles and shooting mechanics to the document inspection idea. I genuinely had fun with Contraband and am planning to do the Rebel ending soon, but Papers' document check is more "complete". Having said that, I would recommend you get Papers because of the level of detail, if you can look past the pixel graphics.