The current job market is in turmoil. Whether you’re actively seeking employment or haven’t updated your resume in years, it’s hard to ignore the immense difficulty in securing a position due to the rise of AI, mass layoffs, and an ever-increasing number of applicants. This is particularly true in the video game industry, and developer IceLemonTea Studio has chosen to present a dystopian vision of the job market in their game, “Thank You For Your Application,” which evokes comparisons to “Papers, Please.”
Hired as a junior recruiter on a fixed-term contract, your mission is to sift through applications for positions within a large, impersonal corporation. You’ll scrutinize CVs, diplomas, employment certificates, psychological evaluations, and more, looking for any inconsistencies that could lead to a candidate’s rejection. Much like in *Papers, Please*, you’ll encounter individuals begging to proceed to the next stage, even if they don’t meet all the required criteria. Showing compassion will result in a reduced salary. With bills to pay and a family to support, making the right choice for everyone, including yourself, isn’t always possible.
The gameplay in “Thank You For Your Application” is deeply satisfying. You’ll transform into a ruthless HR manager, crushing someone’s dreams over a spelling error in their employment certificate. The influx of information can sometimes be overwhelming, with new criteria appearing daily in the bulletin. However, once you get into the rhythm of a workday, you’ll quickly become more machine than human. You’ll dismiss polite greetings and pleading smiles to rapidly review documents, deciding whether to advance a candidate or send them to the land of disappointment.
The atmosphere of “Thank You For Your Application” is somewhat more optimistic than that of *Papers, Please*. It’s not strictly a matter of life and death, as even if you reject someone, they might return later after improving their circumstances. The dystopia is different here. IceLemonTea has skillfully crafted a world that appears functional on the surface, with large corporations ensuring no one truly realizes how the desperate job search drives people to depression and manic behavior, and how these corporations crush cities, metropolises, and even countries under the weight of their greed. Everything seems smiles and roses until the cracks begin to show.
“Thank You For Your Application” boasts significant personality and charm. The graphics are vibrant and pixelated, as are the characters, so you won’t mind encountering the same young graduate for the third time that day. Some dialogue related to standard rejections can become a bit repetitive. However, the core gameplay of spotting differences is so captivating that you’ll barely notice what’s being said until the Q&A section appears. This is partly a drawback, as it often prevented me from focusing on anything other than the immediate information before me, causing me to miss certain story elements. Most of the narrative is discovered through emails in your in-game apartment or conversations during your commute home. Even with full attention, it’s easy to get lost and face unpleasant surprises.
The game offers multiple endings, some of which can catch you off guard if you’re not careful. Working too much overtime, for example, could lead to your death from exhaustion. Or, if you purchase something from the in-game “black market,” you might one day be informed that your purchase history will be forwarded to your company, ultimately leading to your dismissal. What’s frustrating about these endings is that while some can be easily avoided by reloading a previous save, others practically force you to alter your previous playthrough or start anew. Given that a playthrough of “Thank You For Your Application” lasts around 5 hours, the game’s encouragement to replay isn’t a major issue. However, this replayability contrasts with the core mechanic. The candidates you encounter aren’t randomized, based on my observations. Therefore, if you remember who to keep and who to let go, the experience loses much of its intrigue.
As the story progresses, maintaining your work habits becomes increasingly difficult. The work-life balance is virtually non-existent, yet you also have to care for your younger sister and mother, not to mention a potential revolution you might want to join. There are numerous options and different endings, but it can sometimes be hard to follow what’s happening, especially since everyone is referred to by a letter followed by two numbers. When a character named K88 wants to speak with me on the train home, it would have been helpful to see their image appear during the conversation, as I couldn’t recall their appearance. The naming convention contributes to the game’s atmosphere by reducing individual identity to three symbols, but it also makes it hard to connect with characters on a personal level. The names of some in-game organizations suffer from a similar lack of identity, leaving me unsure whether to support or oppose someone calling me “comrade.” Everything becomes somewhat blurry past the halfway point, with your character’s story feeling secondary to global events, which you might not even witness if you make a small mistake during gameplay.
Beyond the endings, I was intrigued by the universe and story of “Thank You For Your Application” from beginning to end. I only wish for a bit more clarity to fully immerse myself in the game’s well-crafted dystopia. The gameplay is incredibly fun, providing a slightly perverse satisfaction with each rejected CV, until you’re moved by someone explaining they need the job or they’ll disappoint everyone who has ever known them. It’s a game in the vein of *Papers, Please*, with plenty of its own charm, and a title truly worth the few hours you’ll likely spend playing it.