Why the Escape mode in its current stage, somewhat of a fail.

[Pikachu]

White knights[www.urbandictionary.com], read

Just to clarify one thing straight ahead before any white knights jump forward and say IV is an indie company, and you love them like Donald Trump loves to look himself in the mirror for hours, combing his glorious hair. I like Prison Architect, and I love how great of a sandbox game it is.

Escape mode, not really

I really had high hopes for the Escape mode. Concept sounded so fun, especially if you consider the mere objective of this game was to create inescapable prisons. Not only you can test your own Prison I thought, with this mode, but also the others - and perhaps players creating new prisons just for this game. Damn, I was so very wrong.

What I did was to download a Prison that looked somewhat hard to escape, and started my game. Loaded the map and arrived to the prison, dun dun dun. After getting comfy in my cell, I punched the first guard. Earned two points, put one in tough and used the other to fast-forward. Repeat. Max out all skills, and I am invincible. I mean, yeah - I get tased, over and over again. But at that point, I could just attack armed guards, get their firearm - and kill everyone around me. Get tased, recruit eight inmates, max out their skills, and repeat.

I just went pew pew. Shoot the guards, shoot the dog, and shoot the gate. No remorse. We escaped, the end.

Inmate mode

What lacks in Escape mode is depth. I just need to punch people enough to tank my way out of a Prison. I am not afraid of the safety of my character, nor I can personalize it. It is just a random Doe, and he can not die. There are no repercussions for his actions, as long as I have one reputation point tucked in somewhere. No reason for me to play smart. List goes on and on.

What I want to see from Prison Architect is for me to create my own personalized Inmate. From his name to his face, his priors, his security level, his age, so on and so forth. And I want to be afraid that I might lose him. Perhaps the Guards do not look kindly to a prisoner who kills 70 of them. And I want to work my way up. Be a lonely Prisoner first. Get a guy at start, not more. Do some mischief. Gain reputation, recruit more. Turn the "friendship" into a "gang membership". Move forward from there on. And if I start acting out too much, goodbye Maximum Security, and welcome SuperMax. Free-fire. Keep it low, make sure my gang members are earning their share, kicking up.

That is my two cents.

[Frazzledragøn the Trustworthy]

I was kinda hoping you'd have to satisfy the needs of a prisoner. During canteen hours I just strut around and try to collect some contraband. Which brings me to another thing.
Pointless contraband. I have no idea what to do with drugs or poison. What are Cellphones or cigarettes good for?
All you need is a weapon and a key to get you through most of the things.

But, I believe that they will actually expand Escape Mode a bit further and handle some of the issues.

[ohz]

I tried myself, and ended in this game style too, means gameplay is a fail. I would love it's easy to die, and you need to eat/sleep. I would love to buy and sell contraband, be friendly or hated by some gang members because you offered gift or attacked one of them, corrupt guards (but like very expensive then, should be in super emergency case when you're digging and you want to shut is mouth, cost like 1000$) ect...

[RobJ81]

Is escape mode just a dumbed down version of Escapists game? lol

[John Hadley]

It was bound to happen. You don't have a fully fleshed-out and well-developed game mode when it gets put into the game for the very first time at release. It'll take time to mature like the sandbox mode.

[The Juggling Hamster]

I'm hoping they add a lot more to it, it sure was fun pretending to be evil and deadly for awhile.

[Silverain]

I've not managed to play it, I keep having bugs such as the prisoner bus not stopping and then leaving the map.

Edit: Nevermind the I was using the random prison wasn't accepting prisoners, works fine after changing it manually.

[Kortak]

What they should add are 4 things for escape mode..

- You have to fullfill your needs first to be able to gain rep points
- You need to loose rep points and the skills should be way more expansive
- You need to start a gang first to be able to recruit people..and climg up to gain more then 1 members (or joina gain or somthing
- Also if cctv sees you when you are somewhere you are not suppose to be because of schedule they should try to grab you

[John Hadley]

How will you fulfill your needs if you start in a random prison that is poorly built so it has no way to fulfill some needs?

[Clord]

Yeah, the mode was hidden away under "Extras" menu tells that they wanted to design it as a side attraction. It's more like different kind of Sandbox where you become Sauron or something due you are crazy powerful.

And I doubt AI managing the prisons in that mode acts much. It seems that there is no-one counteracting your actions.

[Helmet Hair]

Man, the fanboys here. Let people criticize the game. Why even have a forum if you can't leave feedback without getting attacked?

[Commander Giles]

Originally posted by Local:

Man, the fanboys here. Let people criticize the game. Why even have a forum if you can't leave feedback without getting attacked?

"Feedback" I think you need to understand is called in the review section hence why it is there to all people even the developers can read it, you don't need to bring it here. Read over what a review is for and tell me. No manipulating the words and rearranging to your favouritism or POV

[Ragnarr Loðbrók]

Fix your Patience please and stop trolling urself! D:
As everyone should know even if the game reached 1.0 it doesn't mean it's finished at all!

The Devs still gonna work on in for the next 1-2 Years

[Commander Giles]

glad "Real Dedicators" Watched the whole EGX Video where they said they'd keep updating the game monthly. That's when the game is considered to be completely released when they stop working on it which won't be for a while hence, I ain't going to explain it all completely as it would kill the point since they show there gratitude in saying what they do @ The announcement platform.

[Primzahlteiler]

(I'd gladly pay for a full escape mode DLC)
I'll just repeat the ideas, that I posted under the release youtube video:

Overall I hope, they give this mode a lot of lovely features. I hope, this was just a very simplified presentation of what is coming in the future.
They made it look like: punch some guys, return to cell, punch some guys, return to cell. Repeat until you are strong enough to punch your way out. (with a very primitive fighting mechanic)
I am more of a planer and strategist, then a bute force - punch your way out - kinda guy.

1. please add unknown territory to the escape mode. It would add that element of discovery, if you had to explore the prison first.
   
2. implement the windows right, so that you can see through them.
   
3. add AI manager-events or let the designer configure simple AI behaviour (shakedowns, lockdowns, gangups, freefire and reinforcements) for escape mode.
   
4. bind the AI events to characters in the Prison. Security chief causes Lockups, Warden causes shakedowns, for example. So if you prevent the caracter from reaching his office desk by ..., he can't do these events and it takes maybe three days for a replacement to arrive.
   
5. If you dig on a cable line, give the option to cut off the power. SO MANY SCENARIOS
   
6. give the option to tell your buddies where to move (even through tunnels) / who to attack / what to steal / where to dig / what powerline to cut at what time. EVEN MORE SCENARIOS
   Because of unknown territory, you can't actually see them operate, and just hope, everything is working according to your plan like:
   - it's 5,38pm was he caught or is that metal detector turned off now?
   - those guards should be rushing to the yard any second now.
   XD
   
7. give the game an extra-slow clock level, so that we can execute our plans better (game simulation runs the same, but schedule is slowed down.
   
8. Let the players reputation enable the request to be assigned another cell (with a different rating).
   
9. Let the player have to follow the schedule and let him see his own schedule (but not the ones of others)
   
10. Let the player apply to different programs like work in the kitchen, before he may enter it or just call your family to pay you a visit (and bring you something nice)
    
11. give every contraband it's own feature and purpose.

[ORION]

They need to add the ability to look at other prisoner bios in escape mode, for imersion; I really hope they improve on this feature in the future