Prison Architect

Prison Architect is one of the most in-depth, satisfying builder games in ages, if you can get past the initiation.

Tonally schizophrenic, yet still one of the more fascinating game experiences ever made.

Emerging from Early Access lean and focused, Prison Architect is one of the best management games in a long time.

A complex, challenging, and grimly satisfying simulator.

Great moments emerge naturally from well-made simulations, and Prison Architect has no shortage

How difficult could it be to build a jail and keep everyone inside? With this impressively detailed simulation, you're about to find out

[T]hose who haven't got it by now may be quite happy to continue ignoring it. I think this would be an enormous shame. If this is you, I want to tell you that it is a game worth playing.

I like computer books. I have a shelf packed with programming textbooks, stories about the industry, and a library of eBooks on various languages I learn and work with. I also have one oddity published by O'Reily called Getting Started With Dwarf Fortress.    Of course Dwarf Fortress is not a programming language, but a game. An infamous game known for an incredible depth of complexity and one of the worst user interfaces ever built. Aside the fact that the game is comprised entirely of ASCII characters, it is difficult enough to parse that it has its own sizeable text box. A shame considering it is one of the most unique and wonderful games around.I never mastered Dwarf Fortress, but it stoked the fires of my interest in the simulation genre and as the years have gone by there have been plenty of interesting clones of the game. Prison Architect is one such game, and while it chooses to ditch the mind boggling scope of Dwarf Fortress and focus the player on a singular task, it is not any worse off or lacking in depth because of this. After hanging around on PC, it has made its way to the Nintendo Switch, making it (for now...Rimworld, anyone?) the only notable title like it on the console.

A deep, absorbing prison sim that won't teach you anything about mass incarceration in America. Enough interlocking systems to keep your mind off the systemic inequities in our actual prison system. The campaign can be boring and the tutorials are inadequate. Escape mode is disappointing.

Prison Architect is a fantastic simulation game. Its clever systems combine in interesting and intuitive ways to create an experience which is tense, challenging, and engaging. Niggling control issues aside, the title is a terrific example of how a traditionally PC-only genre should be ported to consoles.