Booth: A Dystopian Adventure

About

Booth: A Dystopian Adventure is a single player simulation game with mystery, post-apocalyptic and science fiction themes. It was developed by Guanpeng Chen and was released on July 22, 2020. It received positive reviews from players.

The year is 2036. In this famine-riddled world, food-centric sovereignty has been established. Living alone inside a food-inspection booth, you are striving to find truth and peace beyond the borderline.

Skip User Reviews

88%

Audience ScoreBased on 149 reviews

story50 positive mentions

grinding2 negative mentions

Engaging and thought-provoking dystopian story with meaningful choices and multiple endings.
Atmospheric pixel art and soundtrack that effectively complement the game’s setting and mood.
Gameplay is challenging and reminiscent of Papers, Please, combining task management with narrative elements.

Gameplay can be repetitive, tedious, and sometimes frustrating, especially the food inspection minigame.
Poor English translation and occasional grammar mistakes detract from immersion and story impact.
The pacing is uneven with slow starts and long stretches of monotonous tasks interrupting story progression.

story
116 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
54%
3%
The story is widely praised for its captivating, emotional, and well-paced narrative with multiple endings and impactful player choices, often compared favorably to Papers, Please. Beautiful pixel art, immersive atmosphere, and intriguing world-building enhance the experience, though some find the pacing uneven and story interruptions by gameplay sections jarring. Overall, it is highly recommended for story-focused players who appreciate dystopian themes and rich character interactions.
- “The story is very well written, and your choices have very important consequences.”
- “Beautiful pixel art, deep atmosphere, and a story that lingers long after playing.”
- “I was hooked on the story from some lets players, but even the best story could not redeem what I found dull, repetitive gameplay.”
- “Very poor replayability, where there's no dedicated game save slot or skip conversation feature to quickly see different story branches/endings.”
- “After a while in the game, you enter a very story-heavy part, but the story content is broken up by the main gameplay of being a food inspector. This felt jarring and made continuing the job feel pointless, leading me to stop playing the gameplay loop altogether.”
- “The art and mechanics are okay, but the story writing is terrible.”
gameplay
64 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
34%
60%
6%
The gameplay, often compared to "Papers, Please," offers a challenging and engaging food-inspection mechanic with multiple task variants and a strong narrative integration. While the difficulty can feel unforgiving and the gameplay loop sometimes tedious or jarring when interspersed with heavy story segments, many players appreciate its depth, pacing, and the tension it creates within the dystopian setting. Overall, it is recommended for fans of task-oriented, story-driven gameplay who enjoy a mix of strategic challenge and strong storytelling.
- “Interesting lore and story, good Papers Please-esque gameplay, different choices.”
- “I have always been a huge Papers Please fan, and this game, while far from perfect, managed to live up to Lucas Pope's masterpiece, lacking in some areas while expanding in others. It's certainly worth the attention of fans.”
- “As far as gameplay goes, there are eight main forms of actions you can take, from weighing items to checking them for harmful germs. As the game progresses, you unlock more of these at a quick pace. The other main mechanic is hunger/health; you have to eat each day to keep up your health, but getting a good night's rest and reading a book also seem to help stave off hunger.”
- “The main gameplay, food inspecting, is stressful and easily screwed up, causing a domino effect for a day, and while it sounded great, it wasn't interesting or rewarding.”
- “The gameplay has that same mundane-yet-frantic quality at the best of times, but it can descend into outright boredom at the worst.”
- “Now let's talk about the one bad part, after a while in the game something will happen and you will be in a very story-heavy part of the game; however, this story content is broken up by the main gameplay parts. Eventually, you will arrive at a part of the game which I will not spoil, which is very story heavy, but the game will break up the story sections with more of the gameplay loop of being a food inspector and personally it felt rather jarring to me. In addition, the path I had taken in the game put me in a position where continuing to do the job felt pointless, so much so that I gave up even playing the gameplay loop and left to do something else as the game quite placidly told me that my pay would be docked for each error after my allotted 3 but at that point in the game I couldn’t honestly care.”
music
31 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
74%
16%
10%
The music in the game is widely praised for its beautiful, niche indie vibe and strong contribution to the atmosphere, often described as lovely, eerie, and emotionally engaging. While some find the soundtrack limited in variety or inconsistent in quality, the majority agree it enhances the narrative and overall immersive experience significantly.
- “The art, storyline, and music are all so beautiful.”
- “This game has amazing atmosphere and music, a compelling story, and smooth gameplay that feels like it has consequences to said story.”
- “Booth has an excellent narrative, and very engaging story, interesting and functional graphics style, great music, and the setting is just so unique and cool.”
- “The music was cute but there was like 5 minutes of memorable music total.”
- “I find the music to be somewhat inconsistent in quality, and you do not get to see many different locations until several hours into the game, at least in my experience.”
- “Music is pretty bad too.”
atmosphere
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
64%
22%
14%
The game features a strong, immersive dystopian atmosphere enhanced by beautiful pixel art and compelling music, creating a deep and lingering emotional impact. While its grim setting and limited exploration evoke a unique mood reminiscent of titles like Papers, Please, some suggest that improved audio and expanded lore could further enrich the experience. Overall, the atmosphere is praised for effectively conveying tension, mystery, and a thoughtful narrative.
- “Beautiful pixel art, deep atmosphere, and a story that lingers long after playing.”
- “Booth is an atmospheric, well-crafted slice-of-life simulation set in a dystopian world which you cannot explore freely in a traditional sense.”
- “There is a very depressing atmosphere in this game, much like Papers, Please, but Booth manages to interweave a much stronger sense of mystery and progression into the game.”
- “This is a shame because the other locations really help build the world around the core location, and I think improved audio could really enhance the game's atmosphere.”
- “There is a very depressing atmosphere in this game, much like Papers Please, but both manage to interweave a much stronger sense of mystery and progression into the game.”
graphics
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
92%
8%
The game features beautiful and pleasant pixel art graphics that effectively capture its unique near-future dystopian setting. Reviewers praise the visual style for enhancing the engaging story and atmosphere, making the overall aesthetic both appealing and immersive.
- “Booth has a beautiful pixel graphics and an interesting story that could lead to different endings.”
- “The pixel graphics are pleasant to the eye and perfectly reflect the environments and scenes presented in the game.”
- “Aside from the gameplay, there is great music and a beautiful pixel aesthetic art style that perfectly captures the near-future dystopian setting.”
replayability
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
14%
43%
The game offers strong replayability due to meaningful choices and multiple endings that significantly impact the story, encouraging multiple playthroughs. However, some users note pacing issues and a lack of convenient features like save slots or conversation skips that can hinder quick exploration of different branches. Overall, it provides engaging content with around 8-10 hours per playthrough and varied narrative outcomes.
- “Didn't expect the story to be so gripping and draw you in. The choices really matter, which adds to the replayability!”
- “Also pretty lengthy and challenging, it has high replay value as well, as the story changes based on your actions.”
- “There is roughly 8-10 hours of content if you only want to play through once, but definitely has replay value.”
- “Very poor replayability due to the lack of a dedicated game save slot or a skip conversation feature, making it difficult to quickly view different story branches or endings.”
- “The pacing is too slow at the beginning and rather fast in the later part of the game, which negatively impacts replayability.”
- “Although there are multiple endings, the game lacks features that encourage replay, reducing its overall replay value.”
emotional
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players praise the game for delivering a powerful emotional experience through its simple mechanics and minimal dialogue, creating an intense and touching narrative. The atmosphere, especially in key moments, evokes strong emotional responses, making the gameplay not only challenging but deeply moving.
- “Papers Please is beautiful because within its simplicity, lack of dialogue, and absence of complex controls, it still manages to tell an emotional story.”
- “Behind the simple and monotonous gameplay lies a very intense, exciting, and emotional story.”
- “Absolutely a fantastic game in every way; it's not only fun and challenging to play, it's just as challenging emotionally.”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is manageable but becomes excessive and tedious, especially for players aiming to unlock multiple endings, turning the gameplay into a repetitive and dull chore.
- “If you want multiple endings, be prepared for tons of grinding. Hope you like the gameplay.”
- “While technically there are no issues, the dreary and dull assembly line becomes a tedious chore too early.”
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users praise the game for its strong character development, noting it surpasses many other dystopian games. The characters are well-crafted and contribute significantly to the immersive world-building.
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game offers limited humor, with few cute or funny collectibles and hidden dialogues, resulting in a less engaging comedic experience.
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is well-optimized, delivering a smooth and stable experience without any bugs or performance issues throughout extended play sessions.
- “My first playthrough was about 9 hours and I experienced no bugs or performance hiccups of any kind throughout.”

Skip Game Offers

Buy Booth: A Dystopian Adventure

7h Median play time

7h Average play time

7-7h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs

Skip Videos

Videos

Skip Games Like Booth: A Dystopian Adventure

85%2.6kreviews

The Pale Beyond

2023

Survival Role Playing

89%992reviews

Lacuna

2021

Action Adventure

92%832reviews

Minds Beneath Us

2024

Role Playing

93%5.8kreviews

Roadwarden

2022

Role Playing

88%2.7kreviews

Yuppie Psycho

2019

Survival Puzzle

More games like Booth: A Dystopian Adventure

Skip FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Booth: A Dystopian Adventure is a simulation game with mystery, post-apocalyptic and science fiction themes.

Booth: A Dystopian Adventure is available on PC, Mac OS and Windows.

On average players spend around 7 hours playing Booth: A Dystopian Adventure.

Booth: A Dystopian Adventure was released on July 22, 2020.

Booth: A Dystopian Adventure was developed by Guanpeng Chen.

Booth: A Dystopian Adventure has received positive reviews from players. Most players liked Booth: A Dystopian Adventure for its story but disliked it for its replayability.

Booth: A Dystopian Adventure is a single player game.

Similar games include The Pale Beyond, Lacuna, Minds Beneath Us, Roadwarden, Yuppie Psycho and others.

Booth: A Dystopian Adventure

Platforms

Buy Booth: A Dystopian Adventure