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Wednesday 28 March, 2018
Prison Architect — Entry #1, 27 March 2018
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I've begun my plunge into this novelty prison administration simulator by way of the story mode. Although there is clearly narrative content, it feels fairly superficial; I sense that the polaroid story panes act only as an aesthetic layer over this mode's primary purpose: instructing the player on the game's core mechanics and how to respond to the various disasters that are bound to occur. I ultimately abandoned this mode after a couple of levels for the main sandbox mode, though the pedagogy was much appreciated. Prison Architect's greatest teacher, however, is the cataclysmic fail-states that follow inevitable slips of player error. The moral dimensions of this game are apparent through each moment of gameplay. I plan to discuss this more extensively in the coming entries, though I've noticed at this point that once one is able to see past the cartoony presentation and perceive the tiny prisoners as human beings, a sinister element emerges in the player's role as overseer, and the mechanical brutality of invisible bureaucracy is revealed.....
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