Paper Trail review – origami overload

Since Dutch printmaker M. C. Escher showed the world how much fun it is to play with perspective, many video game designers have followed in his footsteps. Given the medium’s unique interactivity, it’s become a key feature of many great games, especially puzzlers. Not-quite-classic Echochrome on the PSP, mobile hit Monument Valley and its sequel, first person puzzler Viewfinder, and Fez have all used the concept to enjoyably confusing effect.

Paper Trail’s twist on the perspective shifting theme is that you’re exploring a world drawn on paper, although it otherwise has nothing in common with Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Instead, you help your punningly named protagonist Paige navigate the space around her by folding parts of each level. That creates new paths, eliminates obstacles, and allows you to drag objects to otherwise inaccessible areas. While its mechanics work even better on a touchscreen, it doesn’t take long to get the hang of things with a controller.

Using a shoulder button to grab a corner or edge, you bend it over using the right analogue stick. At the beginning of the game each page is square or rectangular, so only has a total of six corners and edges, but the game’s complexity comes from your ability to choose how far to drag each fold and work out the order in which you make them. Puzzles require multiple folds to find solutions, and you’ll frequently also be rolling boulders or pushing stone statues to trigger floor switches.

You can hold down another button to see what’s on the back of each page, which is useful because soon enough you’re dealing with three or four pages on a single screen, and that’s before the game starts adding eccentrically shaped bits of paper and levels that span multiple screens. While early puzzles are straightforward it’s not long before you’ll need to apply a little more concentration.

All that folding also infuses cut scenes, framed as Paige reading from her journal, where your origami triggers the next piece of plot exposition. You’ll also use it to complete patterns on floors, which in later levels extends to connecting up tubular circuits, Pipe Mania-style.

As you progress, Paper Trail adds rotating blocks and others you can slide – some of which let Paige ride on them, while others can only be moved unoccupied – and squares that look like the faces of dice, whose number you need to pair with an identical die when you fold the page. It’s actually quite handy, clueing you into the size and direction of at least one of the folds you’ll need to make.

That may all sound like a lot to take in, but it never feels like it. Your introduction to new puzzle mechanics proves almost as benign as its art style, which is adorably cosy – looking like an animated Slavic folk painting. It may not appeal to everyone, but its rosy cheeked cuteness makes a pleasant change from the usual horde of anime characters.

The game’s only mildly annoying feature is its conversations. While Paige’s diary entries are fully voiced other chat is text-only, accompanied by speech-like nonsense noises similar to those used in early Rare games. As was the case then, there’s something slightly irritating about them, even if it’s not enough to ruin the mood.

The final piece of each level is an origami animal hidden on the back of the paper, always in a position that takes a little bit of extra thought and folding to reach. It’s a nice touch that adds to both challenge and longevity.

Speaking of challenge, although a bit of trial and error will get you through all of its puzzles, if you do get stuck there’s a built-in hint system that doesn’t give the whole game away, but does at least show you what folds you need to make and in what order. Where you put Paige during the process, and when you drag boulders, statues or rotating platforms is left up to you, but it means you’ll never be fazed for long.

There’s no one-way crescendo in difficulty, its trickier levels interspersed with more relaxed ones that typically involve brief interactions with villagers, egg poachers, and other offbeat inhabitants of the game’s world. It’s not a long experience, taking no more than a couple of casual afternoons to complete, which is good because you get the feeling its core conceit could eventually wear a bit thin.

That doesn’t happen though. Instead, it’s a mellow and light-hearted pleasure that’s just taxing enough to be interesting and never runs out of new ideas to bolster its mildly surreal plot. Provided you don’t go in expecting something of the brain teasing complexity of The Witness or The Talos Principle, you’re in for a pleasantly entertaining few hours.

Paper Trail review summary

In Short: A charmingly illustrated, perspective-shifting puzzle game about paper folding, that has just enough intricacy to keep you engaged without ever making you feel stumped.

Pros: Interesting central mechanic that’s exploited to its fullest, with simple controls and tons of variety. Unusual art style and sensibly layered hint system.

Cons: Not all that taxing and fairly short. Mildly irritating speech-like noises for text-only conversations.

Score: 7/10

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, PC, iOS, and Android
Price: £15.49
Developer: Newfangled Games
Publisher: Newfangled Games
Release Date: 21st May 2024
Age Rating: 3