Prison Architect is a great game in concept, but only partially in execution. Let me explain

Prison Architect does a lot of things right, including being one of the few games to properly execute the process of Early Access. When Introversion first released Prison Architect as an Early Access Game, they gave us a "complete" yet very basic and simple game. It just worked, unlike most of the garbage that we get nowadays (AAA Title Included).
Prison Architect, when playing by yourself is an amazing game. Not always realistic, at least compared to the United States, but realistic enough for a building simulation game. The game forces you to think creatively to solve the unending amount of problems you are faced with.

But to the bad part of the execution.
Prison Architect just doesn't feel finished in some aspects, such as multiplayer & DLC.
Now, the elephant in the room: Multiplayer
Multiplayer is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ garbage. The game seems to disconnect players whenever there is any "fall behind" between the host and the connected players. I don't quite understand why exactly this happens, but I can't imagine it would be incredibly hard to fix. Multiplayer was not originally intended for Prison Architect, the reason players feel that it was just an afterthought, is that it in-fact was an afterthought. When first starting out on a new save, multiplayer works fine, but once there's a lot of moving parts on screen, it begins to fail. Once you get above 100-ish inmates, it's the roll of the dice if you're even be able to connect if you have the game at max sim speed (4x normal speed). Once you get above 150-200 inmates, you cannot stay connected to a multiplayer game (assuming you're not the host of course) for longer than 10-15 minutes at max with game at max sim speed, you are essentially "forced" to play at 2-3x speed at max.

I didn't make this review to do nothing but complain about the game, singleplayer the game is a work of art, but Introversion has made it extremely clear that they do not care about the suggestions and complaints of their playerbase. I am not suggesting that we should all riot on the forums, I in fact wouldn't even bother, as they do not and will not make any attempt to fix anything unless they decide it would be more profitable... which brings me to my next point: DLC

DLC in Prison Architect is a bit of a joke to be honest with you. I love the concepts of having criminally insane inmates, but the DLC (which costs like 8-10 USD if I'm not mistaken) does not add much for that price-point. In total, while both on sale and in a bundle, all of the DLC is ~40 USD, which is more than the game itself (30 USD) but I would say only adds 15-25% more gameplay, and that's being generous. Like why do I have to own the second chances DLC just to change what uniform colors the inmates wear? That should be part of the base game.

All-in-all, I support the game and would recommend it for singleplayer all day, but if you intend on playing multiplayer for any length of time, be warned: it may be more headache than it's really worth

Singleplayer - 9.5/10
Multiplayer - 3/10

Prison Architect is a great game in concept, but only partially in execution. Let me explain Prison Architect does a lot of things right, including being one of the few games to properly execute the process of Early Access. When Introversion first released Prison Architect as an Early Access Game, they gave us a "complete" yet very basic and simple game. It just worked, unlike most of the garbage that we get nowadays (AAA Title Included). Prison Architect, when playing by yourself is an amazing game. Not always realistic, at least compared to the United States, but realistic enough for a building simulation game. The game forces you to think creatively to solve the unending amount of problems you are faced with. But to the bad part of the execution. Prison Architect just doesn't feel finished in some aspects, such as multiplayer & DLC. Now, the elephant in the room: Multiplayer Multiplayer is fucking garbage. The game seems to disconnect players whenever there is any "fall behind" between the host and the connected players. I don't quite understand why exactly this happens, but I can't imagine it would be incredibly hard to fix. Multiplayer was not originally intended for Prison Architect, the reason players feel that it was just an afterthought, is that it in-fact was an afterthought. When first starting out on a new save, multiplayer works fine, but once there's a lot of moving parts on screen, it begins to fail. Once you get above 100-ish inmates, it's the roll of the dice if you're even be able to connect if you have the game at max sim speed (4x normal speed). Once you get above 150-200 inmates, you cannot stay connected to a multiplayer game (assuming you're not the host of course) for longer than 10-15 minutes at max with game at max sim speed, you are essentially "forced" to play at 2-3x speed at max. I didn't make this review to do nothing but complain about the game, singleplayer the game is a work of art, but Introversion has made it extremely clear that they do not care about the suggestions and complaints of their playerbase. I am not suggesting that we should all riot on the forums, I in fact wouldn't even bother, as they do not and will not make any attempt to fix anything unless they decide it would be more profitable... which brings me to my next point: DLC DLC in Prison Architect is a bit of a joke to be honest with you. I love the concepts of having criminally insane inmates, but the DLC (which costs like 8-10 USD if I'm not mistaken) does not add much for that price-point. In total, while both on sale and in a bundle, all of the DLC is ~40 USD, which is more than the game itself (30 USD) but I would say only adds 15-25% more gameplay, and that's being generous. Like why do I have to own the second chances DLC just to change what uniform colors the inmates wear? That should be part of the base game. All-in-all, I support the game and would recommend it for singleplayer all day, but if you intend on playing multiplayer for any length of time, be warned: it may be more headache than it's really worth Singleplayer - 9.5/10 Multiplayer - 3/10