Prison Architect is a construction and management simulation game in which the players get to build a private prison and manage its functioning, at the same time, in every little detail.
Prison Architect is incredibly addictive. I've played it since its early access stage on Steam, and even if I currently have more than one hundred hours of playtime, I feel like there are still a lot of things that I haven't discovered about it. Plus, updates were really consistent and brought a lot of novelties to the game since I started playing it. It's no coincidence that it's just as addictive as the old Bullfrog productions of the 90s (like Theme Hospital), as it's inspired by those games and resembles them in many aspects, so it's no wonder that it got record sales and almost unanimous positive reviews.
The main reason why it's so addictive is, in my opinion, its complexity. There are so many aspects that you have to take care of in order to be able to manage your prison successfully, that you won't have a moment to rest your train of thought, let alone get bored. Every prisoner comes with unique traits, such as distinct security levels or special attributes, and no individual can be treated superficially. There's also your staff, utilities, rooms, the prisoner's needs, the regime and the programs, and so many other things to look after. Maintaining the right balance between all these aspects is key to having a functional prison, but it's also really difficult to achieve. Anyway, if you just go with the flow and stop caring that much, even watching your prison failing and succumbing to riots and violence is still somehow fun and captivating.
There are also different game mods and user-generated content, a story mode and an escape one, and the latest update also uncovered the existence of a previously-hidden 3D mode.
To sum it all up, Prison Architect is an amazing experience that comes to prove that games can still be great even when they come without sophisticated visuals. It's an awesome game that I recommend with all my heart.
Comments