Prison Architect Review

Prison Architect is an indie game released for PC, iPad, Android, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox 360. The game is based around the idea of not only building a prison, but also running it. You hire guards and chefs, you decide to quality of the food, and you try to keep the prisoners from escaping and killing each other.

For an indie game, Prison Architect has a lot that it needs to do correctly. Not only does it need to include a lot of features, but it needs to make sure each one works together to create an in-depth game. Unfortunately, Prison Architect has far too much available without having much reason to use it.

PROS:

The biggest draw of Prison Architect for me is the power the player has over a large amount of people. Video games often allow the player to live out their own fantasies, and I personally enjoy the ability to make people suffer because they went jaywalking. Maybe that's weird, but I don't see a reason to play this game unless you want to run a prison in a video game.

The art style of Prison Architect is also very nice too look at. The simplicity of the character design makes the game stand out, and it also allows weaker PCs to run the game fairly smoothly even with a bunch of characters on screen.

CONS:

There's virtually no music. I know it's a simulation game, but having some kind of music would help make the game less boring during the slow portions. Most of what you'll hear is ambient that I assume is supposed to be prisoners yelling.

The controls are iffy. I only played the game on the PC, and with the controls being so hit or miss there, I shudder to think what the console controls are like. Trying to do things like clicking on an object when there's a light on top of it can be a pain, and the game's suggestion of pressing the "Tab" key doesn't work in warden mode. This is somewhat excusable since warden mode is in beta, but considering the rest of the game's quality, I'm doubting the issue will be fixed.

Tracking prisoners is nearly impossible. Prisoners on death row require certain steps to be done by you before their execution. I have two prisoners on death row that I absolutely can't find. I can't track any prisoner by name, and there's only a handful of ways a prisoner can look. You can't easily track if a prisoner is almost ready to be let out or if they're in a gang either. The only obvious way to track them is based on their shirt, which says the level of security they require.

Being an architect is difficult. In order for a room to count as a room, you need to build it in the shape of a square using the foundation tool. You can use the foundation tool multiple times to create weird shapes, but the fact that you can't just place walls down is a huge pain.

Overall Opinion:

Prison Architect is more of a concept than a game. It attempts to put you in charge of a prison, but it feels far too restrictive. I hope this game improves in future updates, but I won't hold my breath.