Game Reviews

Prisonhood

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iOS
| Prisonhood
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Prisonhood
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iOS
| Prisonhood

If the rumours are to be believed, going to prison in real life is far from a fun experience. Thankfully, video games have the knack of finding the joy in ostensibly miserable human activities like war, assassination, and waitressing.

And so it is that a nice variety of mini-tasks and a relatively fair in-game economy make Prisonhood a surprisingly enjoyable place to spend a few lonely nights.

Top dog

After first creating your inmate, you'll explore your new blandly hip-hop themed penitentiary home while trying to figure out how to survive.

Veteran prisoners treat rookies like chew toys, so the only way to make it to the top is by completing tasks and earning respect. Luckily, the warden takes pity on you and helps you to rise through the first few ranks, dispensing tips in a perfect "casually evil businessman" tone.

Most tasks only take about a minute to complete, but there are so many of them and they are so diverse you can grind through a bunch in a single sitting without getting bored. Boxing mini-games play out like Punch-Out!! Lite. Rival gang leaders need to be intimidated, and new recruits can be gathered for dog pound fights against other players.

You can also choose more noble pursuits like working or taking classes. Once started, these longer missions can be completed in the background while you handle other business, and their payout is usually bigger.

Stacks on stacks

Prisonhood's most intriguing feature is how it tries to replicate the economies of real prisons. You earn cash and poker chips by completing missions, or by spending real money, and they can be used to buy things like dog tags and attack upgrades for gang fights.

However, those big bucks are most useful for bribing guards. You can instantly go to any part of the prison using the map, but to get inside specific cells and areas where new missions typically are, you'll need to pay off the right guard to open the doors. Those doors won't stay open forever, though, so be quick.

With enough cred, you can even buy black market contraband like adult magazines or brass knuckles from guards and sell them to other prisoners at a profit.

Given the game's generic graphics and focus on spending your way to power, it would be easy to dismiss Prisonhood as just another boring, money-grubbing free-to-play RPG. However, it makes good use of its prison setting, and the gameplay is well balanced enough that even freemium sceptics may find themselves enjoying the pleasant rhythm of prison life.

Prisonhood

Prisonhood's multitude of bite-sized tasks makes incarceration surprisingly addictive
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