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What games are most like Papers, Please?
Not Tonight and Contraband Police are the closest, since both are about checking documents at a door or border. That’s Not My Neighbor adds horror to the same inspection idea.
If You Like Papers, Please
Papers, Please puts you in a border checkpoint booth, checking documents against a growing list of rules while your family waits at home. People who love it want games where small decisions at a desk carry real weight.
This list has the best known inspection and moral choice games, plus three free games made on Chatforce that you can play in your browser right now. If you like slow, tense horror, our list of games like FNAF is a good next stop.
Games Like Papers, Please: 9 to Play Right Now
1. Khatm al-Ra’is Made with Chatforce
Khatm al-Ra’is · Made with Chatforce Play free in your browser · No install
You play the President of Egypt at your desk. Citizens bring you documents, and you read each one and stamp it approved or rejected with the State Seal. The game is in Arabic.
2. Narinig Mo Ba Made with Chatforce
Narinig Mo Ba · Made with Chatforce Play free in your browser · No install
Run a small Filipino neighborhood store at night. Serve your customers and quietly work out which of them are folklore creatures in disguise.
3. The Mimic Files Made with Chatforce
The Mimic Files · Made with Chatforce Play free in your browser · No install
An analog horror investigation game. Watch the cameras, look for clues and decide who is human and who is an Imitator across four chapters.
4. Not Tonight
Available on PC and consoles · 2018
You work as a bouncer in a near future Britain, checking IDs and guest lists at the door. The closest in structure to Papers, Please.
5. Beholder
Available on PC, consoles and mobile · 2016
You are a landlord in a police state, told to spy on your tenants. Report them, protect them, or look after your own family first.
6. Contraband Police
Available on PC · 2023
Run a border checkpoint in a fictional 1980s country. Inspect papers and vehicles, search for smuggled goods and deal with the fallout.
7. That’s Not My Neighbor
Available on PC · 2024
You are a doorman checking every visitor against your records, trying to spot the doppelgangers before you let them in.
8. Orwell
Available on PC and consoles · 2016
An investigation game about state surveillance. You dig through people’s private data and decide what to pass on.
9. Return of the Obra Dinn
Available on PC and consoles · 2018
The next game from the creator of Papers, Please. A deduction mystery where you work out the fate of every person aboard a lost ship.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did the creator of Papers, Please make other games?
Yes. Lucas Pope also made Return of the Obra Dinn, a deduction mystery set on a ghost ship. It has a different setting but the same careful attention to detail.
Are there free games like Papers, Please?
Khatm al-Ra’is, Narinig Mo Ba and The Mimic Files are free and play in your browser on chatforce.com with no install.
Is there a game like Papers, Please where you spot impostors?
That’s Not My Neighbor, Narinig Mo Ba and The Mimic Files are all about checking people and working out who is not what they seem.
