Prison Simulator Review (Gnurgle)
Update 11/25/21: Baked Games announced they are applying for a Steam award. Instead of adding more content to flesh out their game they have taken to claiming that developers have to apply for a Steam award. Reality is that the Steam Community decides who is nominated. Stay away from this developer, stay away from PlayWay.
Update 11/24/21: So it's almost 3 weeks on from my initial review. The claim from the developer of more "more content to come with the DLC's" appears to have just been a concept since they have asked customers to pick what should be in a DLC. They have released another set of skins for the inmates, but you are still locked at 16 inmates despite being able to have 33 cells in 3 cell blocks (you also only have access to 1 of those cell blocks.) My best advice for those that want to purchase the game: just don't, there isn't $20 more content in the game vs the demo.
So, concept is good. In general it's not bad. English translations are very hit or miss. While the game does have replayability to it, there are parts of the prison that just don't exist despite being able to buy more cells for them. You can have 33 cells per pod, but only 16 inmates (that is total for the prison) at a time. The game feels like it's story mode will last a while, then you realize they padded it out with repeating an activity over multiple days and when you hit the end of the story... it's a let down. I was initially hesitant to buy it at the release discount of $17.99, but after seeing a few streamers play it I saw more to the game than I anticipated so I purchased it. I hit 13.5 hours in the game and finished it, I'm back to my initial thought that the game was overpriced. Wait for a sale on it. While they have a ton of achievements for the game, you have to go to the store page on steam to see what ones you have... and there just isn't enough content to make a person want to continue playing... There is only so many toilets you can shove your hands down before you just stop playing. I say either more content extremely soon, or cut the price to like 13.99 and hand out some minor refunds.