Paper Trail

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

.

Review:

Paper Trail is a character-based Puzzle game released in 2024 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. In this game, players take the role of Paige, a young girl who runs away from home to attend college against her parents’ wishes, only to discover herself in a magical journey where she must literally fold the world to get past obstacles and continue forward.

Levels in the game are laid out as if printed onto origami paper, and progress requires players to fold that paper to connect your path with the paths on the other side, fixing bridges by folding a walkway onto an empty path. As you progress, you can start to manipulate other parts of the world, but generally speaking you’re trying to make your way to the next origami square so you can keep moving on.

It’s a cute gimmick that makes for some interesting puzzles, but unfortunately it’s inconsistent in how it works – sometimes folding a page will transform what’s underneath, but usually not. Sometimes you can freely fold any side or corner, but other times you’re restricted from doing so, either because an object prevents it, or sometimes just because the game doesn’t want you to. This inconsistency in puzzle design often makes it feel like you’re looking for the solution to the puzzle that the game wants you to come up with, rather than discovering one for yourself.

The presentation here is nice, making use of simple, colorful 2D visuals, backed by a relaxed soundtrack with some nice vocal elements, joined by some decent narration for the main character and amusing gobbledygook speak for everyone else. It’s nothing truly amazing, but it works.

Overall, I think Paper Trail is a Puzzle game with a nice presentation and a clever gimmick, but its inconsistent use of that gimmick leaves something to be desired. Puzzle fans may enjoy this, but everyone else is better off taking a different trail.

tl;dr – Paper Trail is a character-based Puzzle game where players fold the world to reveal passageways that can get them past obstacles. This is a clever gimmick, but it’s not used consistently, which makes this more frustrating and restrictive than I believe is preferable. It’s still a game Puzzle game fans may want to try, but it doesn’t live up to its potential.

Grade: C+

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Jared Wark, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}