Prison Architect
Description
Only the world’s most ruthless Warden can contain the world’s most ruthless inmates. Design and develop your personalized penitentiary in Prison Architect.
Reviewer’s Take
Prison Architect is one of those games that you don’t expect to be so addicting. You expect to spend Five minutes at least, and three hours at most on this seemingly simple game.
However, You would be mistaking! Prison Architect is one of the best sleepers in the past decade. And decade is no understatement, this game came out in 2015!
Concept
The concept of the game seems simple, build a prison, but immediately you’ll realize, it was never that simple. You are the face of the prison, not just the builder. You even proceed the executions.
The Game play and Sound Design
The Game play is one of the best elements about Prison Architect, It’s smooth and very fun to play. The game play is snappy, and there is a distinct lack of fluff. The sound design adds to the game play, making it feel more satisfying as you build your prison. But like I mentioned above, Building is not your only duty.
It’s Your Call.
As you may be mistaking to hear (I know I was…) you’re actually the WARDEN of the prison… Kind of… You see, you HAVE a warden staff member; but, you control the prison… So… At the same time you are the warden, but you’re also not? Anyways; You’re a warden.
As the warden, you’ve got a ton of other things to do, not only with building the prisons, you can work out routines for your prisoners, set up security, hire staff members, and manage your prisoners! For example; You can set up security doors, and zone the areas so that only certain people can pass through it.
Capital Punishment
But really, the game is great. It’s a lot like the escapist… Because you can also escape your own prison! Wow! I bet you did not see that coming – Yes, you can escape the prisons you build, so instead of letting prisoners have all the fun, you can invite yourself into the prison as well. Take off your warden uniform, and put on a jump suit, you’re going to Prison!
There are legit reasons for the game to send you to prison. If you mistakenly kill 1 or 2 extra prisoners then you normally do, there is a probability that you may be fined, if you can’t be fined – you’re broke – You go to Prison, which prison? Your prison of course! You’ve got the benefit of knowing the ins-and-outs!
Escape should be a breeze… Unfortunately, you have armed guards everywhere, so… Good luck.
Art Style and Graphics
The art style is admittedly rather simple, but so are many great games, Hotline Miami, The Escapist, Minecraft… Many great games have simple art styles, and don’t let this game’s graphics fool you, it’s a really good game.
The game comes with very simple art, which can be modified from the Steam Workshop if need be. It isn’t like it’s low quality however, It’s simply not the most complex artwork. However, the style is there, it’s not like it lacks a style at all.
The style is actually fairly gritty for a game like this, dark, gritty, and fits very well with the tone of the game overall. However, the art style can be this game’s downfall. Like I mentioned above, I originally thought this game would be a simple 3 hour game, but it’s game play surpassed my expectations drastically.
The graphics also look really good for what it is, Sprinkle in a few shadows here and there, some light sources, and you’ve got yourself a very compelling set of graphics. The art style and the graphics fit in very well together. In a way similar to Custom shaders in Minecraft… Unexpectedly GOOD!
Conclusion
It’s honestly a great mini-tycoon-simulator game, The details of the game are tremendous, The game doesn’t hold your hand, and it lets you experiment. You can create the prison of your dream, if you have a dream about a prison, and manage every single little aspect of it until it’s just right.
Overall, I have to give this game a shining 5/5, It’s fantastic for what it is, and I’m excited to see what more there is to come of it.
