The first question you should ask yourself is: "Do I like prisons?"

Well, ok maybe not quite, but if you like the idea of simulating what running a prison made in the style of Alcatraz might be like, then you can't go far wrong with Prison Architect.

Whilst the game is still in Early Access I still find it incredibly engrossing and a great game to waste many hours on striving for an ever more efficient prison. If you decide to grant yourself virtually unlimited money (yeah, ok that is cheating, but so what?) then the game becomes a pure prison design simulator, but if you leave it the way it is you're left facing the difficult choice between keeping the prisoners happy and safe and keeping the prison's books level. To that end there's several grants available for completing certain facillities, as well as a potential for constant income from labouring prisoners in the workshops.

As for the style of the game, it goes for a fairly friendly looking soft cartoon style for the assets and the people. Each prisoner has their own story (some contributed by Kickstarter and Early Access backers) as well as a family that'll want to visit them from time to time. The sound effects mimic the sort of noises you'd expect from a functioning prison: shouting prisoners, slamming doors, emergency sirens, noises from the utilities, etc. All of which change in intensity depending on how dangerous things are getting in your prison.

Prison Architect fits in quite well amongst the other games in Introversions catalogue. Uplink, their first game, was for all intents a hacking simulator. Defcon was a "Global Thermonuclear Warfare" simulator. Darwinia was a... well, that was more of a RTS really. But all of them were fairly small games in terms of scope but had a very distinct and striking aesthetic that matched the game well, as well as good solid gameplay that would retain its value in subsequent gaming sessions. Whilst the road to Prison Architect has certainly been rocky for them, I'm very happy with the game they've turned out this time.

But I'm still waiting for Subversion guys, you're going to have to make it someday!

The first question you should ask yourself is: "Do I like prisons?" Well, ok maybe not quite, but if you like the idea of simulating what running a prison made in the style of Alcatraz might be like, then you can't go far wrong with Prison Architect. Whilst the game is still in Early Access I still find it incredibly engrossing and a great game to waste many hours on striving for an ever more efficient prison. If you decide to grant yourself virtually unlimited money (yeah, ok that [i]is[/i] cheating, but so what?) then the game becomes a pure prison design simulator, but if you leave it the way it is you're left facing the difficult choice between keeping the prisoners happy and safe and keeping the prison's books level. To that end there's several grants available for completing certain facillities, as well as a potential for constant income from labouring prisoners in the workshops. As for the style of the game, it goes for a fairly friendly looking soft cartoon style for the assets and the people. Each prisoner has their own story (some contributed by Kickstarter and Early Access backers) as well as a family that'll want to visit them from time to time. The sound effects mimic the sort of noises you'd expect from a functioning prison: shouting prisoners, slamming doors, emergency sirens, noises from the utilities, etc. All of which change in intensity depending on how dangerous things are getting in your prison. Prison Architect fits in quite well amongst the other games in Introversions catalogue. Uplink, their first game, was for all intents a hacking simulator. Defcon was a "Global Thermonuclear Warfare" simulator. Darwinia was a... well, that was more of a RTS really. But all of them were fairly small games in terms of scope but had a very distinct and striking aesthetic that matched the game well, as well as good solid gameplay that would retain its value in subsequent gaming sessions. Whilst the road to Prison Architect has certainly been rocky for them, I'm very happy with the game they've turned out this time. But I'm still waiting for Subversion guys, you're going to have to make it someday!