Security 51

I have mixed feelings about this game, it is a good idea, a good twist of Papers, Please!, but in reality is just... Bland, mediocre at best. It has good mechanics every now and then, but overall, the experience is just not there. Let me compare it with Papers, Please! to illustrate it better... In Papers, Please! you have different mechanics in response of certain in-game events, for example, first you can cross the border with only your ID if you are from certain contry, next, you need a passport, but two days later there is an epidemic on another country so peolple from there needs a medical certificate that is valid for a certain period of time, then afterwards, the game changes the mechanic putting 2 or more documents in only one, later on, you have contraband, terrorist threats and so on, my point is, there is a story, simple, not too elaborated, but feels natural, goes with the flow of the game, and the aesthetic and the atmosphere are just great. Now, on Security 51, you have none of that, is just way too random, one day you must check internal organs, next day almost everybody gets a free pass, the idea of "Let everybody pass except...", "Ignore previous orders and call security if..." and "Ignore every order if..." are great ideas, but in this case it is just poorly implemented, what's going on the surface feels totally unrelated to the main story of your character, there is no correlation between the surface and the visitors you must check, some mechanics needs improvement, the microscope thing is just way too tedious. Security 51 has no real sense of urgency, there are no moral questions, there is not a single threat, I managed to lose a game because I deliberately stopped doing the surface missions, and speaking about the surface, after a couple of hours in game I realized you combat whatever is outside with certain resources, you get the resources doing missions, each mission costs your sanity, but you make enough to restore it after each shift, as well as your hunger, and you still manage to save up for the next upgrade, unlike Papers, Please! where you must choose if you are going hungry today so you can have an upgrade for your booth in 2 days, or wait longer. The gameplay is ok, the devs could add a story here and there, like one person trying to get inside tries to brive you to let him in, or how about having to correlate information clicking on it, so the computers prints a report that you must attach to the rejection like in Papers, Please!. (At this point this feels more like a Papers, Please! review) Do I recommend this game? Full price: No, over 50% discount: Maybe,

Played until floor 3. It really feels like they tried to add a lot of things but didn't do a good job of enmeshing them into one experience. The cell isolation and "city management" is depressingly boring. The story impetus of them shoving this all on you as a security guard holds no weight at all. If you liked papers please, you will probably find this game lacking. Every day has the normal paperwork issue, a "call the guards" issue, and a trump condition that ignores the others. So you check for the trump condition first, check for the guards condition, then pass them along if 6 numbers and a name match. Very simplistic, very repetitive. When there are overlaps (both conditions exist in blood test) then there's even less to do. The money management outside of work is also basically pointless. There are always distinct choices to get the most food/sanity for your money, basically no reason to mix and match. The upgrades are intended to make the tests easier/less time consuming, but on any given day you are NEVER under enough time pressure for it to matter. I could see myself enjoying it, but at this time the challenges for the player are too simple and the story is too bland.

Очень славная игра. Я практически взапой наиграл в ней бОльшую часть времени, сам того не ожидая. Будь моя воля, всех бы в утиль сослал и сидел себе спокойно, раскладывал пасьянс, но, к сожалению, пришлось работу выполнять качественно, раз уж устроился. В общем насладился. Пропустил пару хтонических ужасов, но ничё страшного, ребята там умные сидят, в халатах, справятся.

Отличная игра, достойный продолжатель Papers, Please! только гораздо более спокойный. В процессе нет такой судорожной гонки, времени хватает на всё. Однако! Сложность растёт в процессе прохождения игры и первое прохождение (спойлер) - это далеко не конец.

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Overall I have enjoyed it (but see update at the end). It is similar to Papers Please but with its own scifi personality. Some features could be better explained, such as the isolation ward. What are the different tests and why choose one over the other? What are the consequences of the different choices (kill? release? what difference does it make?). What do the the subject states mean (should I keep treating someone who is paranoid? calm?). How should I weigh ward composition (better/faster outcomes with more individuals with a particular affliction?). I see stuff happening and I make choices, but I dont really feel like I know why or what difference it makes to the overall story. Also, the connection between your actions and the broader situation inside and outside is not clear - you are just doing your job and stuff is happening. There is no sense of individual continuity with someone coming in one day with one weird malady and another day with something else. Is it connected to something you did? Something going on outside? Something going on in the facility? Maybe, but you dont really feel like you have any idea and you dont really feel like you get to know or care about the people you are checking every day (Amr came in with a weird infection today and I called security and they dragged him out in a body bag, does that mean I wont see him back tomorrow but now with an alien heart? I dont know, I wouldnt notice, and I dont know if it would even matter). Maybe it starts to make more sense later on (I am only on level 2, day 14) but for now it is fun but not very deep and supposedly that is what motivates multiple playthroughs to get different endings so I'm hoping that improves. I still recommended it because I enjoy the overall gameplay and the look, but I understand some of the more negative reviews about lack of clarity, depth, and challenge. It is a logic puzzle game with gadgets and some minor time pressure, resource management, and strategy elements. It isnt Papers Please. (review and recommendation updated below after reaching endgame) ok, I got to the endgame with the branching timeline and I am going to have to change my recommendation to a no. It is clear that there just wasnt enough thought (or maybe just time) given to this and other key elements of the game. I was hoping that the earlier lack of clarity in the consequences of your actions and choices would get better as you got to the end, but it is exactly the opposite. Now you are supposed to go back and redo sections to make different choices to get different outcomes, but you still have no idea how to do that because you have no idea what those earlier choices did. The endgame actually compounds the earlier problems rather than resolving them. The prospect of going back and redoing earlier sections (endgame branching mechanism) just to get different, essentially random (because you are given exactly zero information on how your choices matter), outcomes is not appealing and I dont intend to do it. Overall the gameplay is fun, but the lack of information on the choices you make and their potential consequences is a real disappointment and turns what could have been a clever choices-matter game into a mindless mini-game clicker with a cool look and vibe. I think that it could be saved with a serious effort to give players real information to guide choices, but until then I cannot recommend it.

Potential to be better than Papers Please but the game loop is a bit random and the doesn't tie in to any story. It's too easy too as you usually only need to do 2 out of the many checks the game throws at you. Im only on level 2 but got bored as the story of what I was doing wasn't encapsulating enough.