Hanging out in Mumble with a gaming buddy, we were chatting about what games we’ve been playing and what new games were on the horizon. I was clicking around the Steam store as we talked, just to see what was popular and what was on sale, when I spotted something I thought for sure my friend would be thrilled to buy.
Prison Architect from Introversion Software was the game that caught my eye. My friend loves old school, top down, simulator type games and plays a ton of them, and although this game is still in Alpha, it looked like his cup of tea. Prison Architect reminded me of so many of the games my friend would show me as some of his favorites that quite honestly just didn’t seem to appeal to my interests. I thought for sure when he would look at this one he’d have it in his shopping cart before I could ask him what he thought. Strangely he didn’t seem interested or maybe he is too involved in some other game at the moment.
IT was actually his lack of interest that made me dig deeper into the reviews of the game and pay better attention to the little trailer on the Steam slide-show. What’s his problem? This game looked pretty freakin cool, and from the reviews I read, I really wanted to check it out. The sale was 80% off, so for just $5 I could pick up this little sleeper! I went ahead and clicked through the purchase, commenting to my friend on Mumble that I was gonna pick it up without a second thought.
“Hey man, its downloading… hope its good! Oh, wait. It’s done. Wow, just 128mb!”
Great, my friend is going to laugh at me now. 128mb! This game is gonna suck! I was so hesitant to even launch it because I knew he was on the other end and was going to ask me how it is. No point in avoiding it so I started the game which immediately came up on all 3 monitors (Eyefinity) without any complaints. Well that’s cool since many games have issues on the first start with Eyefinity. I did however switch it to windowed mode to play at 1920×1080, as it just makes more sense with this game.
I went through the little tutorial, sending a poor convict down death row and putting him into an electric chair despite personal feelings as to his fate. I explained to my friend the feel of the game and the graphics are much better than they appear on Steam – considerably better actually. The sound could be a bit better, more atmosphere and some sort of subtle soundtrack would be great but that is more of a personal taste thing.
I was suppose to run dugeons with my friend in Elder Scrolls that night, but needless to say we never did. Once I started my first new game, building my prison for all those baddies the state was sending me, I never looked back. This game is insanely addictive and so much freaking fun I have already played over 12 hours and I just got it 36hrs ago. Remember, I have a job and have to sleep people! I swear when I went to bed last night and closed my eyes, in my dreams I was working on my next supermax prison. How am I going to secure the yard? Where should I install CCTV cameras? How many guards should I have? What about prison labor? Concrete or brick? Why are my showers flooding!? DAMN IT!
I’ve made two prisons and had to have the national guard come in to put down riots in both. So at least this game has shown me I didn’t miss a calling in life to become a prison architect or warden. It sure has shown me why my friend has found some gems in this genre of games and how he can spend so many hours playing them. I have been researching and planning, dying to get home this evening and begin my new prison. I won’t be allowing any riots tonight, oh no… I have a plan, I am a prison architect!
