# Talk:Paper Trail (video game)

This review is transcluded from Talk:Paper Trail (video game)/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.
Nominator: PresN (talk · contribs) 22:45, 23 October 2025 (UTC)
Reviewer: Shooterwalker (talk · contribs) 13:56, 25 October 2025 (UTC)

I'll try to pick this up. Look for something within the next week. Shooterwalker (talk) 13:56, 25 October 2025 (UTC)
Thanks for your patience. Let's try to get through the body, and then we can circle back to the lead once we know the body is stable.
Gameplay and plot
" Paper Trail is a puzzle video game in which the player controls Paige, a woman from a small village, as she leaves her parents and home to journey to the university in the city where she has been accepted into an astrophysics degree" -> this opening sentence is pretty dense and hard to read. I recommend writing a shorter statement about the essence of the game, and split the details about the plot into a second sentence.
Split
" Each screen is a puzzle, and is presented in a top-down perspective as if the world is sheets of paper, with details and paths on both sides." -> this is a good sentence, but would be more useful before the previous sentence. (Before we talk about moving across many screens, explain how the game is organized into single screen puzzles.)
Moved
It would also be good to explain the goal and gameplay behind each puzzle before talking about how they're chained together. It's decently written, but could be better organized, for new readers.
Done
" these include statues that block folds, keystones that must be moved along paths to receptacles to unlock doors, movable platforms, and sheets that are non-rectangular" -> " these include non-rectangular sheets, movable platforms, statues that block folds, and keystones that must be moved along paths to receptacles to unlock doors." (Flow)
Done
Section is otherwise on the right track. I take it the lost brother is never resolved? Or is the reveal of the lost brother part of the resolution – uncovering the past?
All done; and yes, the brother is not found in the game.
Development
" the latter of which Henry was the lead designer and developer for and the founder of the developer Fiddlesticks" -> "which was designed and developed by Henry at a studio he founded."
Done
" but they found that the folding was more confusing than interesting in those genres and that gravity restricted what movement the folding could unlock" -> Shorten this or break it into its own sentence.
Done
"shifted to " -> "tried" or "prototyped" (less final than "shifted")
Done
" At that trade fair, Henry talked with Netflix, and he has attributed the award with catching the company's interest, as it wanted family-friendly games on its Netflix Games subscription platform." -> "Henry has attributed the award to his conversations with Netflix at the conference, attracting the company's interest in finding family-friendly games for its Netflix Games platform."
Not done like this but differently to clarify that the award led to the interest, not the other way around.
" After its announcement, work on the game continued for nearly another two years, adding new levels and game mechanics and the ability to see the reverse side of the level, as well as numerous rounds of playtesting for game difficulty balance resulting in levels being redesigned and mechanics removed, such as feedable frogs and tightropes" -> this is another long one that should be shortened or split.
All done
Reception
" The PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S versions of the game all received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic, and aggregator OpenCritic assessed it as having "strong" approval" -> Another long one. Do we need to list all the platforms, since they are all in agreement? If that still seems necessary, perhaps split the OpenCritic segment into its own sentence.
Removed the platforms
"The gameplay was generally praised, with Mitch Vogel of Nintendo Life calling it "equally concise and varied", Jenny Jones of Push Square praising the variety and incremental addition of new puzzle mechanics, and Iwan Morris of Pocket Gamer saying that the folding gameplay was intuitive and a "relaxing experience"" -> this also feels pretty long, but it almost flows. I thought I'd raise it for your consideration.
Left as-is, it's 3 parallel clauses
" Push Square, Rock Paper Shotgun, and Gamereactor all applauded the colorful and vibrant art style, and Rock Paper Shotgun and Nintendo Life praised the detailed and lively features and inhabitants of the world" -> Another long one to consider.
I don't feel that "X said A, and Y said B" is a complicated sentence.
Put "lovely" in quotes, as it seems a little out of place in Wikivoice.
Done
This section is honestly pretty well written, long sentences aside. I hope you consider some tweaks in some cases, but I am willing to admit this is more a matter of style than being strictly wrong. I admit that I am biased against semicolons, but they are technically fine.
I'm definitely biased towards semicolons, lol, though that sentence is partially to avoid pushback that "The game's plot was largely dismissed by critics" as a sentence doesn't have a solid source, so it needs to be part of a sentence with examples that are sourced.
The article is generally well written. I've mostly pointed out a few long sentences with lots of commas and semi-colons. The trickiest work might be explaining the gameplay in a clear and organized way, for outside readers. But I am confident this will get to WP:GA with a bit of work. Shooterwalker (talk) 15:53, 6 November 2025 (UTC)
@Shooterwalker: Replied inline, thanks for reviewing! --PresN 20:45, 7 November 2025 (UTC)
I generally trust your judgment about what sentences should remain. Let me give it another read, starting with the lead.
Lead
"Each screen is composed of one or more two-sided sections that can be folded like a piece of paper by the player, origami-style, to create paths for Paige from parts of the front and back. " -> "The player can fold each screen like a sheet of paper oragimi-style, flipping the back of the page to create a new path."
"such as items that block movement or folding, movable platforms, or non-rectangular sections." -> "such as movable platforms, non-rectangular sections, or items that block movement or folding." (flow)
" Newfangled Games was founded in 2019 by veteran developer brothers Henry and Fredrick Hoffman, with Paper Trail as its first game." -> "its" is awkward right after two brothers. Maybe "Paper Trail was the first game from Newfangled Games, founded in 2019 by..."
"of the scope and the studio" -> "the studio and scope"
"The visuals and music were praised by critics, though the gameplay and its difficulty received a more mixed reception and the plot was largely dismissed as unimportant." -> maybe split this in two, between praise and mixed.
Body
"Paper Trail is a puzzle video game in which the player guides Paige, a woman from a small village, on a journey. Paige travels through a series of puzzles as she leaves her parents and home to journey to the university in the city where she has been accepted into an astrophysics degree." -> "Paper Trail is a puzzle video game in which the player guides Paige, a woman from a small village, through a series puzzles. The plot follows Paige as she leaves her parents and home, journeying to the city university where she has been accepted into an astrophysics program." (some tweaks for flow.)
" in order to reach her destination" -> maybe implied? The short fragment mostly gets in the way.
" or in later puzzles certain objects" -> "or certain objects" (simpler)
" The flashbacks detail how Paige and her brother learned as children how to fold the world to disappear into other places, until one day her brother disappeared into a fold and never returned, leading their parents to insist on Paige staying home rather than pursuing her dreams of higher education. " -> This is a sentence that would definitely flow better as two shorter sentences.
" They found, however, that the folding was more confusing than interesting in those genres and that gravity restricted what movement the folding could unlock" -> "However, they found that folding was more confusing than interesting in those genres, partially due to gravity limiting the movement benefits of folding the screen."
" They prototyped a top-down view puzzle game, and finding that aesthetically uninteresting, ultimately decided on a "tilted top-down perspective"." -> "Next, they prototyped a top-down viewpoint, but after finding it visually uninteresting, they shifted to a tilted top-down perspective."
"The game received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic, and aggregator OpenCritic assessed it as having "strong" approval." -> I'll raise this one more time. I'm on the fence, but it felt awkward enough to raise it again.
The rest of the review section is solid enough. I'd just say look at the semi-colon use and consider times where a full stop (.) would be more straight forward.
This is very much in striking distance of GA. You're doing great. Shooterwalker (talk) 17:22, 11 November 2025 (UTC)
@Shooterwalker: All done! --PresN 01:42, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
Happy to call this a GA. One more thing to consider, perhaps the awards would flow better at the end of the section, as is more standard. Nothing that would keep this from being considered a good article. Great work. Shooterwalker (talk) 16:52, 12 November 2025 (UTC)