The Prison Experiment (PC) Review

 

The Prison Experiment is a Battle Royale inside a prison complex. This setting sounds really promising, unfortunately the game can't really deliver on it. There are two modes in this game 'Classic Battle Royale' and 'King of the Cell Block'. Both modes feature a maximum of 50 players and can only be played solo (squads was planned as well, but never got implemented). Classic follows the basic BR formula, where cell blocks close as the way of reducing the playable area (the cell block doors of that section actually close permanently, preventing trapped players from escaping). The big problem here however is, that the game doesn't indicate which cell block is going to close next and there is also nothing like an ingame map. In King of the Cell Block, players are split up into 5 different cell blocks and the winners of each cell block fight off in final confrontation in a sixth cell block. This is actually a really cool idea, which regrettably also suffers from the games poor execution.

The map design of the prison is actually not bad (even though I would like the prison to be a bit bigger than it is). The cell blocks do look differently to each other and there are couple of other areas like the cafeteria, the showers or the prison courtyard. Visuals in general are probably under average, but also not a complete disaster. Far more problematic is the gameplay. Movement is extremely stiff and the walking animation just looks wrong and not smooth at all. The weapon variety is alright, but all weapons do make the exact same sound effect, which is really disappointing. Even more troublesome is the gunplay. The bullet pattern is awful and follows no logic. Bullets just randomly fly somewhere. There is no real scope-in function and no way to shoot precisely. Other big problems are the price point and lack of a playerbase. The game released in this state and asked for around 15 Dollars/Euro as an entrance price, which immediately killed the game. Nowadays Prison Experiment can be bought for around 2 Dollars, but in comparison to all the great free games, this is still pointless. There are no players left and no updates have ever been released for the game. 

 

Result:

I like the scenario and the idea of King of the Cell Block is pretty cool, but the movement and gunplay are unfortunately awful. Yet another cool concept ruined by bad gameplay. 

 

3/10