Prison Architect Preview
Going into playing Prison Architect I didn’t know much about it. I had heard about it, watched a couple of the trailer videos and thought it was an interesting premise. It was the type of game where you heard about it and thought you’d like to try it one day, but probably wouldn’t get around to it for one reason or another. Well, I got my hands on Introversion Software’s Prison Architect and after playing it for a good hour, I was immediately hooked.
They’re trying to build a prison….
So, what is Prison Architect? Well, the title is a pretty much straight forward. Basically, you start off with some cash, some land, and you build yourself a prison. That’s basically the game itself, but it isn’t as easy nor is it as boring as it sounds. It’s not an easy game to jump in and play. There is a fairly steep learning curve, but once you start and put in the time you won’t want to stop. There’s a lot going on and things will happen that will need your attention, and this will go on all the time.
Now, back to what I mentioned at the top, you start off with some land and you build yourself a prison. From here you have 24 hours before your first prisoners come in. During this time, you have to build some of the necessities your prison needs. For example, a Prison wall; that way once your prisoners arrive they won’t just take off and leave. Electricity for an electric chair, water so your prisoners can bathe and use the toilet. As well as an office so you can hire a Prison Warden. Which will help you in the long run as it opens up various things that helps you keep control of your prisoners. Think of it like an an RPG tree. And there are many, many other things you’ll want to build as well, a kitchen, a shower, etc. hiring different staff members, guards, chefs, etc.
As a side note, to build all this you’re going to need money, and you don’t start off with much. So, to get money, you need to take out a few cash grants which will then give you some goals you’ll need to complete down the line.
I predict a riot
As mentioned above you have 24 hours to build up your prison as much as you can. More than likely, you won’t finish everything up. The prisoners will arrive and then the game really starts up. You are in control of taking in these prisoners and keeping them in control. All the while you decide what sort of prison you want to establish. You can build an easy going type prison facility or have it be a real strict lockdown sort of establishment. Whatever type of prison facility you choose to create the goal is to keep order.
It’s all about keeping control and not letting the prisoners get upset to the point where they start rioting. Rioting will occur from a number of things. Prisoners will start to riot if their needs aren’t getting met. For example, if they aren’t getting fed or if they can’t take a shower or if they don’t have a bed to go to sleep. Any number of these things will get them a bit cranky and set them off. Also, watch out for prisoners being a bit sneaky as a couple of them may have a knife on them. This will lead to them stabbing your guards which will also, obviously, start a riot. You’ll have to pat down some of your prisoners every once in awhile. There are a number of situations where prisoners will start to go crazy so you have to keep a close eye.
The cool thing about the prisoners though, is that not all prisoners are the same. The prisoners that you receive all have their own different backstory. Some may deserve to be in there because they killed family, friends, whomever. But, others may not deserve to be in prison. A small minority of prisoners you receive may have gotten the short end of the stick and probably shouldn’t be in there at all. And for some of the ones that aren’t vicious, murderous killers, they’ll sort of be laid back and not so aggressive as some of the ones that probably do deserve to be there. So, keep an eye out on how your prisoners behave, they have their own unique identity.
Alpha 11 state, still a bit buggy
Prison Architect is a really cool game to play. It’s very interesting, and very addicting once you start. I think very favorably of it. However, as of now, it is still in the Alpha phase. Which means it is not a finished product yet, so there are some bugs that will pop up. I played Alpha 11 and I ran into a few bugs. For instance, I tried to put prisoners to work, but they won’t do anything. The prisoners will just stand around and their comfort level will go down. Nothing much you can do there and there’s a few of these type of situations will pop up. Just be aware of that, and be advised that bugs will occur. But, again, it’s not a finished product, it’s still in Alpha state and keeping it in perspective these aren’t game breaking bugs. Just little annoying occurrences like this will come up every once in awhile.
All in all, If you’re looking for an interesting game, or if you’re into sim/construction/management type games or whatever the case might be. I highly recommend taking a look at Prison Architect. The cost of it is probably a bit steep for some people. Prison Architect costs $30 for the Base Pack which will give you the opportunity to play the Alpha version right now, plus when the final version does come out you’ll get it instantly with a pre-order. On that note, I don’t expect the final version to come out anytime soon, though. The reason I say that is because Introversion Software is planning an Alpha 12 and 13 which are said to include some “big things.”
In the meantime, if you still aren’t quite sure, you can check out the official site of Prison Architect here for more information, follow Introversion here on Twitter, or like them here on Facebook.
