Games like Papers, Please

If Papers, Please left you wanting something dark and mysterious, you have options. These games offer a similar pull for your backlog.

Contraband Police
It is 1981 and you run a border post in the mountains of Karikatka, checking papers, hunting smuggled goods with a UV flashlight and occasionally shooting your way through gang raids. A tense, grimly funny mix of inspection sim, detective work and shootouts, with choices that decide the fate of Acaristan.
Dark, Mysterious, Replayable
95% of 25,158 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 366$11.09
Border Officer
Usually everyone is unemployed here. But by chance you got a job. You'il work for the state.Everyone in your family is sick or unemployed, only you can help them. You're an immigrant officer.
Dark, Tense, Atmospheric
57% of 1,298 Steam reviews are positive$9.99
Not Tonight
Britain has gone dark: anyone of European heritage gets a number and a relocation block. You get a door. Take bouncer jobs through the BouncR app, check IDs and guestlists under time pressure, and decide how far you'll go to stay in the country. A pixel-art dystopia with a great soundtrack, a story that reacts to your choices and several endings.
Dark, Mysterious, Replayable
84% of 2,238 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 36$2.99
Beholder
You are the State's landlord in a totalitarian country. Bug apartments, sneak into tenants' rooms while they're out, and report anyone who might plot against the regime. Or don't: you have a family to keep alive, and every choice costs something. A bleak, darkly funny story with several endings.
Dark, Mysterious, Replayable
91% of 23,374 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 76$13.99
Thank You For Your Application
A dystopian job interview sim set in Aeropolis, 2066. Screen resumes against rules that change daily, decide who eats this month, then go home to pay your own rent and keep your sanity. Dark humor, pixel art and multiple endings: your tiny desk, other people's lives.
Dark, Mysterious, Replayable
80% of 1,008 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 44$13.99
Security 51
You run the checkpoint at the bottom of an Area 51 elevator shaft. Check papers, scan blood, X-ray ribs, and decide who goes down and who goes into quarantine. A pixel-art document thriller with anomalies, dark humour and many endings, where the real question is not who is lying, but who is still human.
Dark, Mysterious, Replayable
70% of 517 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 12$9.99
Package Inspector
Plunge into the dystopian land of Taxien and check packages at the local customs office! Which packages need to be sorted out? Which ones support the rebels and which ones support the state? Which side will you choose? And will you earn enough to pay your useless taxes?
Dark, Mysterious, Replayable
81% of 31 Steam reviews are positive$11.99
Booth: A Dystopian Adventure
The year is 2036. In this famine-riddled world, food-centric sovereignty has been established. Living alone inside a food-inspection booth, you are striving to find truth and peace beyond the borderline.
Dark, Mysterious, Replayable
88% of 356 Steam reviews are positive$9.99
1998: The Toll Keeper Story
A narrative simulation game where you play as a mother-to-be working as a toll keeper in the fictional country of Janapa, a nation on the brink of chaos. Navigate daily challenges and make difficult moral choices to survive—all for the sake of your unborn child.
Dark, Mysterious, Replayable
89% of 292 Steam reviews are positive$11.99
Next Patient
As the checkpoint guard in the only safe zone of the dystopian Republic of Valdoria, you decide who survives.
Dark, Mysterious, Replayable
81% of 16 Steam reviews are positive$5.99
Teller's Duty
1980, Kertasia Bank: you count cash, check papers, and try to keep your job while saving for your mom's medical bills. The rules are absurd, the customers are worse, and every stamp feels like a small moral exam. Funny, bleak, and hard to put down.
Dark, Replayable, Tense
71% of 394 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 3$11.99
Lines We Draw
Lines We Draw is a 3D isometric narrative strategy game set at a tense Cold War border. Inspect documents, interrogate travelers, and manage a shifting checkpoint between rival states. Your stamp decides fates: Will you be a hero of the people, or a tool of the regime?
Dark, Replayable, Tense
44% of 9 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 9

Cheaper than Papers, Please

Not Tonight

Work the doors of a dystopian Britain, checking IDs and guestlists against the clock while your choices decide how far you'll go to stay in the…

$2.99

Not Tonight 2

Immigration Enforcement Case #112: You are under arrest. Unless your friends can cross a broken America, retrieve your identifying documents and…

$2.99

Next Patient

As the checkpoint guard in the only safe zone of the dystopian Republic of Valdoria, you decide who survives.

$5.99

Self-Isolation

This game is a simulation of self-isolation. You need to support your family, not to lose your job and finally not to go crazy.

$4.99

That's not my Neighbor

Decide which neighbors are human and which doppelgangers get turned away, one nervous shift at a time.

$2.99

Socialism Simulator

The civil war is over. To the rapturous cheers of the crowd, you and four of your companions take control of the country.

$3.99

子夜之章:历史的终局～MidNights of Desperado～

The protagonist of this lonely life is you. You leave your hometown and come to a strange world. The world is prosperous and cold, strange but real.

$4.99

Black Border 2

Black Border 2 is an intense border patrol simulator where you inspect documents and use special tools to detect forgeries and stop smugglers.

$1.99

Your letter has been rejected.

貴殿を検閲官へと任ずる。手紙のやり取りに問題がないか確認するように。問題がある手紙は、決して送り届けてはならない。我々は貴殿の働きに期待している。我らがグルツァナに栄光あれ。

$5.99

Replica

You hack a stranger's cellphone under orders, piecing together a life from its messages while deciding how far you'll go.

$2.99

This War of Mine

Keep a small group of ordinary people alive in a war-torn city, scavenging by night and holding on by day.

$1.99

Ministry of Truth: False Memory

Ministry of Truth: False Memory is a story-driven simulator in a totalitarian society.

$6.99

Hidden gems like Papers, Please

Which Sausage, Mate?

You lost your coal mine job, now you're a cashier at Poland's landmark convenience store.

$5.99

1998: The Toll Keeper Story

A narrative simulation game where you play as a mother-to-be working as a toll keeper in the fictional country of Janapa, a nation on the brink of…

$11.99

Thank You For Your Application

A dystopian job interview sim set in Aeropolis, 2066. Screen resumes against rules that change daily, decide who eats this month, then go home to…

$13.99

Beholder: Conductor

Work the State's proudest train as its conductor, deciding who to report and who to spare as you climb toward the VIP cars.

$13.99

JudgeSim

Read the files, weigh the evidence and hand down verdicts in a corrupt republic where every choice shapes your ending.

$6.99

That's not my Neighbor

Decide which neighbors are human and which doppelgangers get turned away, one nervous shift at a time.

$2.99

Nothing To Declare

Run a friendly checkpoint booth: weigh luggage, scan x-rays and decide who gets through, all at your own pace.

$9.99

Socialism Simulator

The civil war is over. To the rapturous cheers of the crowd, you and four of your companions take control of the country.

$3.99

Security 51

Work the checkpoint at the bottom of the shaft: check papers, scan blood, X-ray ribs, and judge who is still human enough to go down.

$9.99

Teller's Duty

1980, Kertasia Bank: you count cash, check papers, and try to keep your job while saving for your mom's medical bills.

$11.99

子夜之章:历史的终局～MidNights of Desperado～

The protagonist of this lonely life is you. You leave your hometown and come to a strange world. The world is prosperous and cold, strange but real.

$4.99

Martial Law

Poland, December 1981. Martial law is on, the shelves are bare, and Christmas Eve is tomorrow.

Free

Newest games like Papers, Please