Prison Architect

Paradox bought the IP and ruined EVERYTHING. This game *WAS* a masterpiece, one of the best game ever made, and Paradox destroyed that, they added a launcher, added (bad) DLC, added hundreds of bugs, added a mandatory EULA... and just gave up trying. The latest good / playable (aka made by people that cared) version is update 17 (Multiplayer Version 1) (file name: prisonarchitect-multiplayer4f-pc.zip / prisonarchitect-multiplayer4f-linux.tar.gz / prisonarchitect-multiplayer4f-macosx.zip) from December 19, 2018, do not bother with anything after that. This is the only version that I will ever play again, I will never ever install the Steam/GOG version, or any version of the game released after Paradox. I really hope Introversion made a lot of money, and I hope their next game is as good as PA was when it was made by them.

I think the positive aspects of this game have been reviewed in depth. If you like management games, Prison architect will probably be great fun for you. I waited for the release of the stable version 1.0 until purchasing this game, because I hoped it would be more or less bug free by then. This is unfortunately not the case. Please let me give you three examples of game-breaking (!) bugs and flaws, which you will hit for sure and which are all documented, but not fixed yet: 1. ) There is a "virus" event, which infects and possibly kills your prison inmates. You can't cure it with your doctors. The patient is listed as "Needs treatment", but there is no way to give him treatment. Eventually all your prisoners will die or get injured in a fight and then treated (which also cures the virus then). 2.) You can deploy Guards around your prison and assign them specific rooms and areas of your prison, e.g. four guards for one cell tract. Unfortunately the grouping of your prison rooms sometimes gets messed up when you build new rooms and subsequently changes when you save and reload the game. You will silently loose you complete guard deployment configuration. 3.) Some figures, especially doctors, run into walls and get stuck there. Prisoners and staff die because they get no doctor/guard assistance/etc. I'm generally satisfied with the game, but I don't expect this kind of problems in a release version and I feel mislead about the maturity of the game. It seems Introversion just declared it to be stable.

Used to be a great game, played it when it was released and a bit later when some features were added. Apparently the original develop sold if off since, and today the game is terrible. Clunky semi-broken UI, needless complexity, had to muck about for half an hour to even get the damn thing to start. Used to be a great game; rated it 4 starts originally. Now it's broken and 1 star. I wish I could download older versions :-(

DON'T BUY IT!! IT HAS DRM! EVERYTHING GOG STANDS AGAINST!

This is probably the best game (out of 10-15) early access games I've owned/invested in. Consistent monthly updates for literally 3 years. I've enjoyed their monthly Youtube "UPDATE Videos" released where the two developers show off all the new features of the month almost as much as the game. The last 8-9 months or so have surged with some of the biggest new features added. Death row, gangs, random events. etc. The game also features Steam Workshop with an active community with great game changing mods like an entire Star Wars re-skin and re-premise, recreations like Alcatraz and Pelican Bay, items/objects to be placed in the prison etc. The game is a bundle of mechanics seamlessly working together to create the illusion of a real prison. Some systems are fairly easy to see how they work, the cause and effect of decisions, the root of your issues. Others require a little thinking. For example, don't hire enough cooks? Well you're not going to be able to cook enough meals for your prisoners during the say, 2 hours you've assigned to them to eat. Possibly you've just assigned too tough of security measures bottlenecking prisoners. Causing a guard needing to constantly be diverted to open up locked doors to let prisoners through. Maybe you have lax security, enough cooks but not enough cookers. Maybe the problem is up the supply chain. It's taking too long to get the food material (everything in the game must come in through a delivery truck, nothing "spawns" in this world out of thin air) from your delivery zone outside the gate to the kitchen store room. Maybe you don't have enough room to store the food before cooking it. The possibilities are endless. The feeling of "I am GOD in this prison" is undeniable. Buy it. Now. I'm confident this game has at least $20 worth of content and replayability for anyone semi-interested in the genre.Best way to see if this game is for you is to watch the monthly Alpha vids: https://www.youtube.com/user/IVSoftware