Papetura

Papetura is a million miles away from being a blockbuster movie, yet it shares the same sense of intense energy and craft, which it distils into each second of its game time. Every crease and scrunch of its scenery and characters is shining with Ostafin’s passion. Its rudimentary and vague story, very brief running time, and control niggles do hold it back slightly, but nothing can completely overshadow its captivating presentation.

On the occasion of the release of a physical edition (Craft Edition) of Papetura, it's time to take a look at Petums' vision by travelling to a magical, paper world.

Papetura is an incredible visual and auditory experience, crafted with care and devotion, using paper as a material to create beautiful sculptures that serve as the backdrop and embellishments for this fabulous and bizarre world. The gameplay is simple yet effective, and the slowness of actions allows one to fully appreciate the hard work of its creator.

Papetura is one of the most beautiful video games I've ever had the privilege of seeing. It's unique and passionate, but it's somewhat melancholic when I think of it as a reminder of something that was good while it lasted, which wasn't much. Made for one-shot play, the point-and-click gameplay isn't meant to be challenging, though it still does require a little thought at each step, enough to feel like you're achieving a goal. Enter this world knowing two things: it is endlessly fascinating and purposely brief.

While I wish there were more to the story and a few puzzles don’t quite hit the mark, Papetura absolutely achieves what it was made to be: an atmospheric experience.

I see Papetura having a broad appeal to both fans of cinematic puzzle platformers and graphic adventures. It doesn't overstay its welcome, yet it feels fully realized. It grew on me, and I suspect I'm not alone. With attractive visuals, a captivating world, and more, this game is well worth your attention.

Papetura is short and undemanding, and with controls that have made the leap well to the Switch from its point and click Steam origins.

The word that defines Papetura for me is experience. The images are stunning, the story unfolds in an extremely inviting way, and knowing that so much of it is handcrafted from paper just made my jaw drop. Looking forward to the next work of art by Tomasz Ostafin and his studio Petums.

While visually distinct, a relatively short and sometimes aggravatingly uneven puzzle adventure holds it back

Making a monochromatic minimalist puzzle game isn’t easy. It’s not something I would recommend most people try, and Papetura is a good example of why. I love so much about this game that I wanted to love it. I wanted to have fun inside this amazing world with gorgeous music and strange little puzzles, but I just can’t. If only all the puzzles were a little more intuitive. If only some switches didn’t change things in other rooms, if only you didn’t have to backtrack through the world at a snail’s pace all the time, Papetura could have been a contender for my personal GOTY. It’s fun, it’s frustrating, it’s beautiful, but it’s just a little bit off-kilter.