Review: Paper Trail brings a charming mechanic to the puzzle world folded up in delightful package

Obviously, the first thing that stands out about Paper Trail is the art. It’s gorgeous. Like, seriously gorgeous. I know a lot of games have been going for that storybook aesthetic lately, but man does this one just capture it so well. You can even see some texturing in it like ink spilled just a bit darker in places.

I needed my little raccoon claws sunken into this game and I was pleasantly rewarded for my gameplay.

Paper Trail

Paper Trail takes you on an adventure with Paige, an 18-year-old girl who lives in the middle of nowhere in a place called Southfold. She has the dream of going to college to be an astrophysicist. So, getting a letter of acceptance into college should have been a great day.

However, her parents don’t want her to go. They wanted her to stay in Southfold and settle down. They think that it’s “too dangerous out there in the real world”. But, that isn’t going to stop Paige from following her dreams.

Southfold, like the rest of the game, is made up of sheets of origami paper. I go into that in more depth later, but just to preface the rest of what I say, know that it’s all built with the approximation of origami paper.

After a particularly heavy storm at night, Paige takes her suitcase and runs away. To give you a scope of just how small her world is, Southfold is four sheets. You have three on top consisting of a broken bridge on the left that you have to find a way to cross, your Aunt’s house on the left blocked by a tree, your house in the middle, and the lighthouse directly south of your house that, also, has an obstruction.

To get around these issues, you have to fold the scenes by pulling at their corners. Like with Origami, you have several ways to fold and at varying degrees. In the cases of trying to find a workaround, you’ll have to pull at the corners or the sides to try and find a new pathing.

There is an option to right-click the image to see the “reverse” side, but you may not be able to do that until you leave Southfold. Seeing the reverse side helps you to better plan how you might have to fold scenes to make them passable.

There are some rules, however, that make it a bit more challenging. Paige is an unfoldable force and you can only fold around her. You can’t fold over her or unfold lines that she’s currently standing on. So, you have to think rather dynamically about the folds and Paige’s placement.

Would have been a great time to invest in a jetpack…

Luckily, there is a hint system in place, so if you get stuck, you can press the “H” key to see a pop-up of the hint. I, actually, really appreciate the way that the hint system works. When you bring up the hint menu, it presents as a slider. This not only shows you a step-by-step of what you need to do at each step. But, it, also, allows the player to decide how much of the hint they want.

For this review, I’ll only be talking about the first 2 levels of the game and talking about the ways they differ. However, I’m willing to bet that every level has its own gimmick and way that things play out.

In the cave, you’ll notice that there are stones that have numbers on them much like the face of a die. When you look at the reverse, you’ll see those same types of stones. In order to even walk on the stone, you have to line up the two faces of the die that match up.

So, if there are two dots, you have to pull the corners until you can place the reverse block with two dots to set next to the one on the front. This activates them and allows you to pass. Again, you can’t be standing on them, so every time you need to pass through there, you have to make sure they’re connected.

The level after the Cave is the Swamp and that one introduces moving pieces that you can independently move without folds. It seems to work regardless of folds, so you still move it between panels if you need to.

I’m assuming that each level will introduce new ways to solve puzzles, so it will keep things interesting. 

Your level gets this gimmick, and your level gets this gimmick… every level gets a gimmick!

The last mechanic that you need to be aware of is that there are hidden origami collectibles on the reverse sides. They will present like floating little origami ships, but when you manage to pick one up, they will be different shapes like a cat or a butterfly. There are several to collect and it’s pretty fun figuring out how to get to them.

There are 8 levels in Paper Trail not including your home base and each level takes anywhere from 30-60 minutes depending on how agreeable your brain is to the puzzles. So, there should be quite a bit of gameplay for you to work with.

It’s a fairly simple gameplay dynamic once you get the hang of it and it really lets you just zone out and shift elements around to figure out the puzzles. I found it relaxing, but taxing at the same time. At no point was my brain allowed to disengage since it needed active participation the entire time. It’s still an enjoyable game, however. It’s just not the type you can turn your brain off for.

With gameplay out of the way, let’s talk aesthetics. Visually, this game is a masterpiece. We’ve seen a rise in a lot of games that go for the storybook look, but Paper Trail delivers on this design choice so well. It’s in the details of the background so some areas look like they had bleeding with watercolors or some other medium.

I’m, also, a huge fan of the color palettes that they chose. Each level seems to have its own vibes for colors and it really helps to set the mood for the atmosphere.

Do we go with moody blues or swampy greens? The answer is yes.

When it comes to voice acting, the actress for Paige is top-notch. So, I was both surprised and deeply amused when everyone around her took the Animal Crossing approach to talking. The men tend to lean more toward a grunting way of speaking, but more often than not the women have me in stitches with their “boo ba ba doo” speech patterns.

I’ll be honest that it’s been a few days since I’ve played and can’t rightly remember the music, but my notes on it say it’s “really good”, so that’s high praise.

The only other thing you have to really think about is save points. You have to wait for the game to save, or else you will lose progress which can be incredibly frustrating in the middle of a puzzle.

Paper Trail is a beautiful, engaging game that puzzle lovers will relish.
If you want to try out Paper Trail for yourself, you can get it on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, or Xbox for $19.99. If you have a Netflix Subscription, you can play it through your subscription for “free” through your mobile device.

If puzzles aren’t your speed, you can check out our review we did of Pine Hearts.