Paper Trail is one of those increasingly common titles that appear seemingly out of nowhere on my radar to then suddenly jump up my list as one of my favourite games I’ve played this year. Its mix of clever puzzles, an inventive mechanic (or six) and sweetly told story has won me over these past few nights.
The central hook of the gameplay is in the folding of the games digital paper. As we guide (the aptly named) Paige on her journey – one that tracks her graduation from school to university, and full of wonderful writing and genuinely sweet moments – we work our way through several sets of diversely designed levels, from a small fishing village to a forest, undergrounds caves and more. Each ‘room’ of these locations is its own separate puzzle, presented as a wonderfully decorated sheet of paper.

Using the cursor and right stick, we can choose a point to grab the page, and then drag it to reveal yet more lovely artwork on the back – and, more importantly, scenic elements that will help up solve the puzzle.
This is a devilishly clever-but-simple gameplay conceit. Paige can only step on certain paths in the scene, and so folding the page corners and edges will fill in gaps, or open up alternate routes. The folds can’t overlap (and are also blocked by Paige herself and certain moveable items), but by the latter portions of the game we’re crafting almost origami-type constructs, with corners folded and unfolded into all sorts of abstract shapes, especially when the sheets of paper we have to work with start appearing in shapes other than an symmetrical sheet.
There are other aspects to consider too, such as the pathways that must be linked in order to step on them, or doorways that must both be fully visible to use. Elsewhere, sliding platforms can be moved across folds, as can pushable blocks and materials that come into play. While each area is fairly short, there’s no time wasted with padding or filler puzzles, each one feels unique and a great iteration on the areas theme.
The whole affair is endlessly charming, but that’s not to say it’s easy. There have been a few areas that I’ve been fully stumped on, with the multiple stage steps requiring lots of forward planning. We can press a button to see what’s on the back of the page easily, but even then getting Paige in place is far from simple.
There is a very handy feature thankfully that’s also a button press away that gives us a helping guide. This shows the order and direction of the folds we need to make, though not the placement for Paige and any items. It’s a nice middle ground that offers assistance without simply spelling it out, and the fact it’s there for us to use as and when we need has been a life saver in some of those 11pm ‘just one more attempt’ moments I’ve had playing this.

I’ve only a couple of very minor nitpicks. First being, the interface is clearly best suited to a touchscreen/mouse & keyboard, and occasionally the set up on console can be a tad finicky to use. There’s no time pressure or anything, but I’ve found myself fairly often grabbing the wrong edge of a page, particularly when the folds are butted together. The cursor does snap to interactable parts, but maybe a manual snap would have helped slightly here. Having said that, consider this a very minor gripe as they’ve been implemented about as well as they could. It’s more of a limitation of the console hardware than a game design one, though mouse support would be great.
The only other being the lack of an undo button. Sometimes I’ve found myself stuck a few steps ahead of where I need to get back to, and while nothing is ever so complicated and to get us completely stuck, it would have been handy to have a quick way just to trace my steps back for the folds. Again, minor gripe but something I found myself looking for while playing regardless.
Conclusion
These minor things aside, Paper Trails is stunningly crafted, cleverly designed and simply great puzzling action. Each new locale offers a fun, challenging new twist, and more insight into the sweetly told narrative pinning everything together. Extra challenges are there in the form of hidden collectible origami figures for those looking to maximise their time with the game, but that the hint system is so well implemented means even players unsure about their puzzling abilities can see if through.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.