Prison Architect’s Perfect Storm expansion adds an Event System that promises to keep your attention.
When it comes to city-building, management and tycoon games there are more than a few sub-genres. Prison Architect, for me, has always fallen closer to the likes of Rimworld and Gnomoria, both of which are more about building an operational colony than they are developing a project. It’s because of the progression rate; all of these games quickly require you to set up the basics and then, once you’ve reached that point you can set your own pace for the mid/later- gameplay sections. Failure in Prison Architect is, like colony management titles, something that happens because all of the dots aren’t connected earlier on, or are left to random events that fill the game. Perfect Storm massively builds out the events system, and it’s a massive game-changer.
At its core it’s a disaster system similar to that which you might remember from early SimCity games, but, being that Prison Architect deals with the population in a much more personal way, it plays out more like events. In most cases, you’ll get a phone call from a worker or representative who will explain to you what’s happening and why; The roads have melted, the walls are collapsing, there’s a heatwave, there’s a lightning storm. You’ll then have to deal with the issues through using emergency services or changing something about your prison to adapt.
The new emergency services, and the ability to pay a flat, monthly rate to automatically employ them when required, are the most immediate changes beyond the events themselves. However, there’s also training, grants and a few new objects that come along with it. Want an early warning system for heat and lightning? Get a weather machine. Tired of relying on emergency services for power outage issues? Train your staff as electricians.
As a content pack, Perfect Storm is probably one of the strongest offerings thus far. The event system does a great job of shaking up the pace of the core game and brings it closer to some of Paradox’s other offerings, where events and mishaps beyond your control ensure that you can never set a smooth journey for yourself. The only real negative that comes with the expansion is that the ‘character phoning you’ element, which happens in the core game but mostly the tutorial, can be a bit disruptive, especially as it’s quite a big overlay and demands immediate response. That said, Prison Architect doesn’t really have a different way of conveying low or medium-level information as pop-ups, and short of redesigning the UI (which is starting to fill up with consecutive expansions) there aren’t many ways around this.
Prison Architect: Perfect Storm is available now for PC, Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo Switch.
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