Prison Architect Review

Prison Architect is a game that can bring out the best and worst in people. In many ways it can be a yardstick through which you can introspectively judge your own morality. When I first started running my own prison I was a benevolent warden, who aimed to create an environment in which my prisoners could serve their sentence, learn skills and be reintroduced back into the world as model citizens. A few riots, contraband epidemics and stabbings soon put paid to my open-plan cells and extensive yards. Now prisoners would be locked in their cells most of the day and beaten punishingly by guards. Justice can be a bitch.

Introversion Software first introduced their prison sim in late 2011, making the game available as an Alpha the following year. It earned $270,000 in pre-orders and crowdfunding in just two weeks. That figure would go on to balloon to $9,000,000 by December 2013. Prison Architect is perhaps unique amongst the new wave of funded games in that the developers made sure everyone knew where the (admittedly huge) investment had gone. From Alpha to release the game has had around 40 major updates, each accompanied by extensive notes and in many cases a YouTube video.

For those with no idea about the game, Prison Architect is a top-down management and construction simulator where the player can take control of their very own correctional facility. Everything from the layout of the cells to the plumbing and even what your inmates eat for dinner is in your control. There is a truly staggering amount of facilities available to be built and modified, as well as hundreds of possibilities in how to combine them.

Once you’ve set up your prison you’ll have prisoners arriving by the busload, ready to be rehabilitated. Through a info panel you can choose between minimum, medium and maximum security prisoners, who will each have their own rapsheet, experience, and personalities. They’re not there for a holiday after all: most will try to escape and make your life as miserable as possible. Prisoners will look for every chance to escape, no matter how small. Even those you think are content with their surroundings and happy to live out their sentence will bolt for the countryside if they spot a hole in your fences.

To help you combat the prisoners are your staff of guards, cooks, engineers and K-9 units. Unlocked through the game’s tech tree (which in itself is expanded by having more cash), these intrepid officers will work their hardest to keep things in line – even if it means dealing out some baton-based punishment here and there. Guards can be posted into separate rooms or made to patrol routes that you expect would-be escapists to take. Careful though: your guards are few and the prisoners many, they’ll struggle to stop a riot if you force the prisoners to revolt.

It isn’t just riots you must watch out for: contraband in the form of drugs, electronics and even weapons can flow into your prison through a number of means (even your own staff). Finding and punishing offenders for carrying them is yet another facet you can control. In my own playthrough I tested to see what would happen if I gave people carrying games consoles more time in solitary than those with weapons: in short it resulted in a rather alarming amount of stabbings.

Prison Architect is a game that requires experimentation. Despite the developers introducing a campaign mode that lets you fiddle with various aspects of the game many players will struggle upon entering the sandbox mode to build their own facility. When I was introduced to the game in Alpha years ago I had to go on YouTube for an hour before I knew what I was doing. Sadly it seems like fresh players may have to do exactly the same.

Experimentation may not be such a bad thing in the game, though. Many times my trying something new ended in disaster – but it was hilarious disaster. I once spent half an hour designing a super-maximum security prison only to forget to add gates to my entrance and watch in shame as the first busload of convicts simply turned around and legged it off-map. Whether other players will find this endearing or annoying is yet to be seen, though.

Everything in Prison Architect is rather colourfully designed and cultishly cartoony – something that can make rather serious occasions of murder, snitch-stabbing and rioting unintentionally hilarious. Blood splats onto the floor from a stabbed inmate, while water pours between rooms with sometimes-irritating fluidity. I spent a lot of my time zooming in on the K-9 units because the little dogs are unbearably cute.

The game, despite a year of development, still lacks in the musical and sound effects department. Guards make a similar walkie-talkie noise to the Combine in Half-Life 2, while prisoners make no real noise apart from an ongoing backing-track that you just sounds like generic crowd noise. The lack of music allows players to chuck on their favourite music or podcast, but you’d think the developers might have bought some simple backing tracks by this point. On the whole, though, the lack of quality in this area never really detracts from the overall experience.

Introversion Software should also be praised for their acceptance of the modding community. At the time of writing there are scores of mods for the game, ranging from small improvements here and there to full overhauls of the game’s premise. If you fancy controlling a WW2 POW camp or administering a Death Star-like Rebel Alliance holding camp, there are mods for that.

It’s been a long time coming and, after such a long Alpha period, the release of Prison Architect doesn’t really have the fanfare you’d expect. That shouldn’t be held against Introversion Software, however, as the game started out as a diamond in the rough and has been polished and hewn into a truly unique gaming experience. For those who are new to sims, the game may have a steep learning curve, but it also has everything you need to be sucked in for hours on end. Existing players coming back will see just the right amount of improvement and new features, too. Introversion Software can be proud that they’ve built Prison Architect the right way and created an exceptional experience unrivalled by many in gaming.