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Mar 30th, 2018 at 00:45:27 - Prison Architect (PC) |
Another session down, and though I’m really enjoying the game, I gotta say I’m kind of disappointed by the lack of meaningful moral choices. The game provides the tools to manage the prison however you wish, though it seems you’re heavily incentivized to reform prisoners through educational programs and therapy rather than punishment. Sure, you CAN create a prison with awful conditions, liberal use of punitive reform, with no visitation or chance of parole, but that’s a fast track to rioting and bankruptcy. It’s hard being a tyrannical warden in this economy. The game encourages the improvement of prison conditions through grants, which serve as side-quests that reward you with essential funds for running your prison. The vast majority of them push for the betterment of prison conditions, such as the Health and Well Being and The Reform through Education Initiative grants. Thus, as far as I can see, there’s really only one way to play the game, which makes it unfortunately linear. I’ve put about 22 hours into it so far though, so that certainly doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. I just worry I’ll be scrambling for a thesis for my OPA when the time comes… 😊
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Mar 28th, 2018 at 22:59:56 - Prison Architect (PC) |
I’ve just completed my first session with Prison Architect, and boy do I like where it’s going. The premise of managing a prison is a fantastic foundation on which to place all kinds of moral dilemmas. At the very beginning of the campaign, you’re tasked with building an execution facility for a prisoner named ‘Edward’, who murdered his wife after catching her cheating on him. While you can’t do much about his sentence, even if you were so inclined as to spare him, the game does give you optional objectives to improve Edward’s cell to make his last moments more comfortable.
There seems to be two ‘sides’ to the morality in this game: those who favor punishment and those who favor reform through educational programs and therapy. At first, the two sides seemed pretty black and white, but as I got further into the session, I was happy to see the lines blur a bit. For instance, I decided to lower the quantity and quality of food the prisoners got in order to make enough money to expand various reformation programs. Do the ends justify the means? Well, in this case, yeah probably seeing as their hunger was temporary whereas the life skills they’ll learn are permanent… that’s what I’ll be telling my prison’s investors anyway 😊
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Feb 17th, 2018 at 00:53:28 - This is the Police (PC) |
I’ve now reached Day 17 on this third and final session. As expected, things are picking up with the mafia. I’ve gone from one request a day to now getting two, sometimes three, and they usually want more officers for them. This might just be random chance, but I like to think that it’s indicative of the deepening of the relationship between the mafia and Jack Boyd. Though they don’t have any huge leverage on him (yet), if he wants to meet his goal of making half a million before he leaves the force, then he’s inexorably tied to their desires, as it’s only through them is he going to be able to meet his rather lofty goal. There’s just no legal way to make that much in 180 days as a police chief. I’d say they’ve got their claws deeper in Jack than he’d care to admit.
Some interesting new mechanics were introduced since my last session. For instance, I chose to side with Sand’s criminal organization because what can I say, he’s old-fashioned, Jack’s old-fashioned… it seemed like the best match. In doing so, Jack’s pitted himself against the rival gang leader. Their battle for the city of Freeburg is represented by a scoreboard of sorts. The goal is keep the leader you sided with ahead of the other. Unfortunately, this dooms you to some less than legal tasks in order to keep your dark messiah in the lead. To top it all off, you also have to keep city hall happy while trying to fight this gang war and those pesky civilians always need protecting, so it all makes for a very busy Jack Boyd. You’re constantly spread too thinly, and many concessions have to be made, and many people die as a result of these concessions, all in the name of making Jack a wealthier man. It’s such an ignoble goal, but it makes for compelling gameplay in my opinion. Not often is a player asked to assume the role of the “bad” guy, so when it does happen, I cherish the experience.
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Feb 16th, 2018 at 00:47:19 - This is the Police (PC) |
I’ve now completed my second session, and it seems like things are progressing like I thought they would. Our intrepid protagonist Jack Boyd is now, to put it in his words, “the mafia’s whore.” I was given the decision of whether or not to help my colleague who found himself on the mafia’s bad side. I chose to help him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you end up in the mafia’s pocket regardless of your decision.
So far, all the mafia has really asked me to do is not to send officers to certain crime scenes, and occasionally send them cops for additional manpower. Comply, and you’re typically rewarded handsomely. However, it makes me wonder where to draw the line. I ignored one crime and was paid $8,000 for my efforts (or lack thereof), but unfortunately this oversight resulted in the death of a civilian. Is $8,000 worth the stain that a preventable death leaves on my conscience? Probably not, and I get the feeling that my morals will be tested further as the mafia gets more comfortable with our relationship. My nefarious deeds with the mafia can also affect the public safety indirectly. For instance, there was a case where I didn’t have the manpower to respond to a crime as the majority of the force were tied up with a mafia errand, and a civilian was killed because of it.
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damnlyons has been with GameLog for 6 years, 3 months, and 10 days |
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