Prison Architect 2 1 0 3

Prison Architect is not a game for children. This thought was foremost in my mind after only a few short minutes of playing. Hidden beneath minimalist and cartoonish graphics lays a game rooted around warring philosophies and heavily weighted decisions. Sure, as with most games, it is easy enough to waltz through, content to play the system and build to win. Prison Architect, however, is able to make a subtle play to the deeper thinkers and moralists. The overlying theme is Punishment vs Rehabilitation; with most of the decisions made by the player boiling down to these overarching concepts. Will the player prioritize space over comfort, spend valuable cash educating prisoners, or impose the death penalty? Each of these decisions will affect how you build your prison and ultimately, what kind of Architect you become.

Upon launching Prison Architect, the player is thrust directly into the campaign setting. Throughout this campaign, you are given a variety of tasks to complete within pre-constructed prisons, effectively taking the role of an architect in training. The campaign begins with a call from the CEO sets the scene and gives us the first task. This task: Building an execution room. At this point, the CEO does not give the player a choice. You are following the orders of your boss. To progress, you must build a room containing an electric chair with every intent of wiping an inmate from existence. To really drive it home; a guard relates the details of the inmate’s confession. His crime: killing his wife and the man she was having an affair with. Just for added punch; the condemned man turned himself in and confessed, leading to his incarceration. Do with that information what you will.

This period of play is when we realized that Prison Architect would deal with much more than ‘make prison good so bad people no make escape’. This depth is achieved through the many moral and ethical choices available and not least through artistic renditions (which are unexpectedly intense) of various scenarios throughout. Prison Architect does well to give a feeling of gravity to both the actions of the inmate; and the subsequent actions of you, the playe