When Papers, Please released in 2013, it immediately became a darling of the independent video game scene. Lucas Pope's impressive puzzle game created a deep dystopia, and the player's role as a border control officer for a totalitarian regime provided moral challenges that few other games could create. It's no surprise that Papers, Please has inspired plenty of other video games, including newcomer Booth: A Dystopian Adventure.
The debut of developer Guanpeng Chen, Booth: A Dystopian Adventure shouts its influences from the rooftops. The game stays extremely close to Papers, Please, with its 2036 bleak dystopia setting one that aligns political oppression to an apparent worldwide food crisis. The player has taken on the job of a food inspector, shut in a skybound processing centre that pushes the player to their limits as they try to ensure that only the correct food reaches the city of Iden.
It's not just the setting that feels like Papers, Please though, as its puzzle gameplay is very similar. The player will need to drag and drop items to check their weight and color, put through decontamination, and review for bacteria, as the challenge of each work shift steadily increases. Much like Papers, Please, it hits extremely hard as an example of the horrors of mundanity within a despotic regime, particularly since its variety of ersatz lifestyle foodstuffs are very well chosen; there is no way to make 'Quadruped Milk' sound appetising.
Booth immediately creates a tension within the player, as they try to make as few mistakes as possible throughout their shifts. Items that do not meet the seemingly arbitrary criteria that are set of the player are discarded, in spite of the genuine starvation that is happening in the city below. There's very little context given to why the food shortages are occurring outside of the vague explanation of pollution, but there is no time or space to ask any questions.
This is a theme common to many stories of dystopian dictatorships, and Booth will feel particularly familiar to those who have read 1984. The game creates a sense of paranoia and claustrophobia through its confined spaces and gameplay, playing with the friction between doing the right thing and keeping hold of a job. The player might see an entire lot of vegetables be trashed while the people below starve, but there's little within their power to change the balance.
Over time, of course, the true horror of the situation comes to light. High quality goods will be marked specifically for the higher ups of Iden, cementing a division between the governed and those in power. Steadily the player will find less appetising foodstuffs for the common people (and more) come along the conveyor belt, with Snowpiercer-esque ramifications.
Booth ties this gameplay and setting into a wider personal plot that throws the player up against the power of the state. Once again if feels close to Papers, Please or fellow dystopian admin 'em-up Not Tonight, with a relatively reluctant player character who ends up being an integral part of a revolutionary group. This brings with it a variety of different locations, including some that make the player's booth look like a five-star hotel.
Where Booth excels is by being much more character driven. Family is more than just a page of stats to maintain, with the player character's parental relationships a key part of their motivations. Meanwhile, the player's main contact with the outside work is the selection of government-approved restaurant workers who turn up to deliver food.
This character focus helps to propel the plot and cement the player's want for a better world. A diversion from the core plot sees the player given the option to assist someone trying to get into Iden for a better life, while another sees the player striking up a relationship with a fellow food inspector from neighbouring booth. These kind of moments help make Booth become broader and more ambitious in its scope than a first glance would provide.
All in all, Booth is an impressive debut with plenty of depth. It may feel a little too close to Papers, Please from a gameplay perspective for comfort, but it delivers a surprisingly touching story with well-crafted characters alongside its puzzle gameplay and wonderfully haunting music.
Booth: A Dystopian Adventure is out now for PC. Screen Rant was provided with a PC download code for the purposes of this review.