Customer Reviews

Prison Tycoon 4 Supermax

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'm not sure why I keep going back to this game. I feel like I keep going back to a girlfriend I dumped, only to realize in the first 5 minutes WHY I dumped her in the first place.
This game is SO terrible.

There is NO manual, or tutorial.
When you mouse-over something it never gives you a pop-up window for info.
You just have to guess what all the buttons and icons mean.
The Idea is great. I was hoping that (this being the 4th in the series) that it would be the latest and greatest.
NOPE.
The guards look like prisoners. Too much like the prisoners. There is no easy way of finding them. In all the other TYCOON games you can turn on/off
layers of things (ie. trees, buildings, guests, etc). Clicking on a character only works once in about 8 clicks. Normally, you end up selecting the building they are standing near.

When a guy is mad, they never tell you why. In all the other TYCOON games they have thought bubbles (ie. "tiger is sad, and wants a mate.", "Joe is upset there are no fast rides", "betty feels the park is dirty", etc)

You have to assign guards a path to walk, or they will sit on the bleachers with the Cons all day. In Roller Coaster Tycoon, you can assign workers AREAS to maintain. The guards will also do nothing unless you click them, and tell them to beat a prisoner. I have three guards, and a councilor sitting on the bleachers, right now, watching an inmate get killed less then three feet away.
Oh.. that reminds me... you can not remove the dead. I'm not sure how to, anyway. I have dead bodies laying all around my prison. The guards have no "remove corpse" Icon, and neither do the janitors.
The dogs seem to be the only proactive guards in the prison. They walk around, attack fighting prisoners, and take care of themselves.
good boy.
When you find there are more prisoners then beds, you have to open the prisoners list, and click each of 50+ prisoners names, to find which one has no Bed Icon that pops up on one of the Housing Dorms. That is the only way to find out who is bed-less.
My Prisoners dug a hole. The alarm goes off. Its very loud. And they tell me to fill in the hole. After searching forever, i find it. It is UNDER another object. One of the buildings has these pillars that stick out in front, and the hole was on the same location as the pillar. I click a guard (about 9 times), then run the cursor over the hole, and click..... AHHH! It clicked the prisoner escaping, and selected HIM. I have to go and try an click the guard again. Then ... wait for the prisoner to escape... then click the hole... DAMN! I clicked the pillar, and I get the building edit screen... grrrrr..... Get the Guard selected again, and try to click the hole.... WORKED. He runs over to the hole... then STOPS. IT's time for his coffee break, so he turns around and walks toward the bunk-house! You would think stopping prisoners from escaping would over-ride his break time....
They must be UNION Guards.
....... to fill that damn hole took about 15 minutes of clicking, and re-clicking.

I love all the other Tycoon Games, and I keep going back to this one hoping I just missed something that will make everything make sense... but it never does.

This game sucks.

Like most of the tycoon series games, this is a great idea ruined by poor execution. I love the premise and was excited to build and manage my own prison but the interface is so frustrating to use that I just got tired of trying to deal with it.

It will give you a couple hours of fun but don't expect much more than that.

This is actually a pretty slick game. It doesn't have a tutorial mode, which could be a problem for the uninitiated tycoon players. The interface is smooth and unobtrusive. The commands for your guards and staff can get a little confusing when starting out. Say for example giving a guard a patrol path or assigning a guard to a building. There's two different interfaces when interacting with a guard or inmate. There's a main screen which you can do patrol paths or correctional interactions. Then there's the management window that allows you to micromanage/assign people to areas or adjust their daily schedule. It's pretty intuitive once you learn the motions

The graphics aren't as bad as people claim. Its a budget game please keep that in mind when purchasing. Hopes should never be too high. You want high-end graphics go buy a high end game, simple logic.

The music does get on your nerves but it can be muted. The sound effects are good and really are just ambient.

It's really not a complicated game once you get down to the inner workings. I've played worse tycoon games where there's no point of even trying. If you've played other tycoon games and are sick of managing whiney people and stupid animals this one is defiantly worth your hard time.

As one gamer to another. :-)

-no tutorial
-prisoners don't follow your instructions
-hard to make money
-hard to move around
So unless you are an expert at learning things that have no instructions and have lots of patience, do not buy this game!!!!!

This is a great game. I have been having alot of fun with it. It is a great way to kill time.

Bought it off amazon for I think it was 4 dollars plus $4.50 to ship so around $10 and for that little money I am very satisfied. Although the game controls did take some getting used to it is simple yet fun game that once you get the hang of is fairly addicting. One note for those of you who do purchase this game which all who are reading this should, do not undervalue the benefits of rehabilitation. Always build an education center (the primary tool for rehabilitation) it helps combat overcrowding (less repeat offenders), you get a premium bonus from the state if they are rehabilitated and do not go back to jail, it makes the prisoners happier, which makes the guards jobs easier and overall education is the key to running a successful prison in this game. Otherwise you'll contend with prison escapes, high fight levels requiring extensive medical facilities, hightened mortality which all boils down to high penalties from the state.

I downloaded this game and wished I never had. The controls and interface are so backwards and strange and difficult to get used to that it will probably take you about 30 minutes just to figure out what in the hell you have to do. I downloaded this game for free and felt like I got ripped off. Don't waste your money on this piece of crap. It's atrociously bad and the programmers of this game should probably quit making games.

there is almost no tutorial and you are expected to know what you are doing from the beginning. Boring game....

I think the game is very cool to play. I started off not doing so well but then a few days later I got good at the game. One way to make alot of money in this game is to build rehab buildings to cure your prisoners and then when prisoners get released (on only some prisoners not all) you make thousands of dollars form charity. The other cool part of the game is you get to control your workers pay (salary). If you like this review, I reccomend you getting this game. Remember it is for computers only!

I learn new things for assist cell and assist work. Then I have more research them and other things.