The dictionary has a lot of words in it. Words you may have not heard of before to those that you have. But when is the last time you actually opened up a dictionary or took the time to learn a new word or two? For some, this may be a daily or weekly thing. But for many others, the thought may have never crossed their minds. It’s a good thing to get in the habit of because you never know when you may be faced with creating new words with just a handful of letters in a timed environment. So does developer Team Monster Games and 4 Fun Studio show us what’s like to create words and solve anagrams? Let’s find out with Paper Jam! for PCVR.
Paper Jam! has you playing where all the printing presses are damaged and are missing single words from each new book where you must form words and solve anagrams in order to help tell the story. So before jumping in trying to solve the world of missing words, there are just a few things you will want to do. For one, read up on your dictionary skills. Second, remember so said words that you read up on. Third, attempt to use them here, and finally, just have some fun. With that said, let’s continue…
Yes, your dream job of working at Ro-Books Bookstore has finally come. But this is a time of robots and robots just want to have as much knowledge as possible before trying to take over the world. Well, maybe not here, as the robots are very nice. Well, nice as long as they can have their books complete and then they will become sad robots and no one wants to see a sad robot. See, since all the printing presses were damaged, all the books are missing a letter. So it’s up to you to try and make up words based on the random letters that are presented in front of you. So you have patient robots just wanting to be served before the day ends. So all you have to do is create a new word that is more than three letters for each customer before the day ends. So how hard can this be you might ask? Well, in the beginning, it is pretty easy.
Along with the eight random letters (four on each side), there is a swap button. You have three swaps just in case you do not like the random letters or when the timer is going and you cannot think of any words, you can swap them out for new random letters, However, you may or may not like new random letters which may or may not be more difficult depending on if you had enough coffee to generate words in your own head depending at what time you are playing. I also forgot to mention that each level has a bonus word that you can try to solve to earn extra points or an extra swap which can come in handy.
After each day, which really lasts as long as the timer, you can earn a new title and then hopefully keeping making it further in the days where you are presented with an anagram to solve and to help tell the greatest story ever known from Ro-Books Bookstore.
Earlier, I mentioned in the beginning, that it is easier. But it’s when you get into the latter days that things can get more challenging. Going from a handful of robot customers to what seems like the line may be out the door (as a new recruit, I checked and we had not planned for any book signings) but more and more robot customers want their books to be complete. This is fine, except when you have a timer and you cannot finish them because the timer runs out and you couldn’t think of any words because you used all your swaps, it can become a tough day here at Ro-Books Bookstore. There is an easy difficulty setting that will affect the timer, but not the word length. So the longer letters you can make, the better off you will be as well as your score.
Let’s talk about the graphics and sound. Playing Paper Jam! everything really looked sharp. When waiting for days to start, I was trying to look around and see all the small details that were put in the bookstore and had no problem reading them even when they were at an angle. Even across the street through the window was clear and was made to seem that there was some distance between the store which added to the perspective of everything. Listening to the sound, the music was just at the right amount of balance when hitting the letters. Nothing distracting as I was concentrating on more of trying to make words. Robots sounded like robots even when they tried to have a human tone which was kind of fun since there are no humans here. Even after the end of the day, hearing the truck beep didn’t sound too loud as it sounded like it was outside the store.
There are a few things that I hope to get added in the future. For one, I couldn’t readjust my view. Usually, when you adjust your view, a game will do it, here, I had to actually move to the center within the game. It wasn’t bad, but I just had to do the actual adjusting of myself. Second, leaderboards. There are no leaderboards in the game and it would be fun and challenging to see who had the most points, words created, and hidden words found for each day. And lastly, I think it would be fun if there were some different themes of stories to try and solve and have the bookstore decorated in that theme. Maybe a Halloween spooky story to tell or even with the holidays coming up would be kind of awesome to have.
Paper Jam! brings the word game into VR. It’s a simple concept that can be challenging and something the whole family can play where even those school-age children can try and beat their parents for some fun. It shows that not everything in Virtual Reality has to do with some type of violence, but where you can use your mind to embrace the power. Sometimes we have a certain perspective about things either from what we are told or heard, but sometimes if we take the time to form our own opinion, we may just be the ones to tell others so that they hear from a reliable and trustworthy source. Remember, we should never judge a book by its cover, otherwise, the power of the message might be missed.
Paper Jam! is out now on Steam. A review code was provided.
To learn more about Tea Monster Games, please visit their site, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, follow them on Instagram, and subscribe to their YouTube channel. To learn more about 4 Fun Studio, please visit their site, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
Also, check out the Paper Jam! interview.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I am going to go try and find more hidden words.
