You may not be familiar with Newfangled Games, and you’d be right to, as Paper Trail is the first game to be released under its wings. That’s not to say the people behind the studio are novices; far from it, as the main developers have worked on some big hitters in the past. Henry Hoffman is a breakthrough BAFTA winner and has worked on the Microsoft-published game Mush and Hue, which won multiple awards and is available on all current-generation consoles. Frederick Hoffman has also gained much experience through their skills as a digital illustrator, a skill they carried over into games from their time designing apparel, patterns, and textile designs.
What Harry, Frederick, and the rest of the team at New Fangled Games have created with Paper Trail is remarkable. You can see the years of experience and love that the team has poured into the game, and they have created something that is not only polished and original but also filled with heart.
Paper Trail follows the aptly named Paige, who is leaving home to bolster her academic skills at university. To get there, Paige has to navigate a world on paper that is filled with obstacles, which you have to help Paige overcome through the game’s innovative paper-turning mechanic. Each stage of the game is separated into screens, with each holding a different puzzle for you to solve. To do this, you can grab the corners or sides of the screen and fold them over to reveal the other side of the paper and help create new paths for Paige to progress or gain access to previously unreachable areas. The page folding system works really well, and you can tell the team made sure for a smooth and engaging effect. So much so, I found myself spending some time just enjoying the page turning and it’s satisfying sound effect.
I played this at WASD last month, and I walked away slightly worried as I found myself getting stuck very early on in the demo. I found the surroundings and that people were watching me fail over and over was taking away my attention from the game, so I was keen to play in a much quieter environment to see if it made a difference, and I had a much better experience with the puzzles and the game overall.
The game is hard, but not in an unfair way. As this is a puzzle game, there’s going to be some times where you are scratching your head in bemusement at how you were supposed to solve the puzzle in front of you, and nine times out of ten, it’s a simple answer that was staring you right in the face. I found the puzzles very rewarding, enjoying the ones I understood almost straight away and revelling in the more challenging ones. Many a time, I let out an “oooooh” or “ahhhhh” as I figured out each part of the solution. Some puzzles do involve multiple folds or a series of unfolding and folding, which were the ones I found more challenging, plus you have to be careful where you fold from and how far to take that fold.
I’d like to say here that I am not the best at these kinds of puzzle games, but there’s something about this game that I clicked with, and although I did get stuck a few times, I could eventually figure out what to do to get Paige onwards to her destination.
That’s not to say that there were a few times that I was totally stumped, and as this is a new release, I had no safety net to fall back on. What I didn’t know was that the developers had implemented a wonderful hint system into the game and that I did indeed have that safety net. This system will show you the folds you have to do in order to complete the puzzle, but what it won’t show you is how to move statues that might be in the way or how to reach a lever you need to pull. It’s just enough to get you over that bump, and the rest of the solution will just click afterwards. It’s so refreshing not to have to resort to searching for walkthroughs online or to feel like your “cheating,” and it’s one of the best hint systems I have encountered.
If you feel this hint system puts you off the game, then the team has tried to give you a bigger challenge by scattering origami shapes around the stages in hard-to-reach areas. These create a puzzle within the puzzle, and one that the hint system will not help you with. I managed a few, but there were many I couldn’t figure out how to get to, and I can see this being a popular feature for many.
On your journey with Paige, you will encounter many stages that not only offer a different theme but also different puzzling mechanics. Caves, swamps, a country village, a snowy hill, and a temple are just some of the areas you will come up against while the new mechanics bring new life into the puzzles just when they are starting to feel a little stale. These not only involve having to move boulders, re-direct laser beams, or switch a lever, but some also affect the page turning itself.
Paper Trail treats your eyes to a gorgeous palette of wonder throughout the game. I was constantly remarking to myself on its delicious artwork and attention to detail. It’s filled with fantastic world-building stories told through the visuals of its authentic building and character designs. The storyline throughout the game will pull at your heart strings, which only helps to suck you in even more. The only design flaw for me in this department is that all the characters speak in gobbledygook (with speech bubbles showing text), which is something I am just not fond of; luckily, it’s not as annoying here as in other games. And while I am talking about negatives, the only thing I can say is that the controls can feel a little janky if using a controller, but this is a very minor thing, and it will not impact your enjoyment of the game at all.
Over its few hours of playtime, Paper Trail will delight you, make you smile, and definitely make you curse. You will feel the time and love the team has taken to make sure everything works and that it runs perfectly. Its originality shines through every page turn, and it is a pure example of what an indie game should be, and everyone should play it just for that alone.
Release Date: May 21st, 2024
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and Netflix
Price: £16.75
Check out the Steam page for a brand new demo, which is only available for a week starting 14th May 2024
Many thanks to Newfangled Games for supplying us with a review copy of the game.
Version Tested: PC (Via Steam Deck)
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