User Reviews (1 - 11 of 20)

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Good Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 18
Date: August 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Its a good game but you have to be calm and learn the game. Also you can move the camera angles. My keyboard is european but you hold down the AltGr key next to the spacebar on the right hand side while moving the mouse.

Cute - and you can rotate the camera!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 14
Date: January 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I read a lot of camera comments, but no one ever seemed to google the game name to find this: http://www.valusoftsupport.com/KBArticle.asp?kbid=4874

You can rotate the camera, it's just an odd method - click the mouse scroller (if you have one) and move the mouse, strange but true ;)

I think it's fun, and I'm an avid gamer, nice change of pace.

This game is underated

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is really a much better game than people are giving it credit for. I found a Prison Tycoon strategy guide written by Soldyne online. It really showed me how complicated and fun this game really is. If you're thinking about buying the game do a search for the guide & see all the possibilities. If you've already bought the game and aren't enjoying it then you really need to look at his guide.

I've been playing this game for days and got tired of the music after about an hour so just turned it off in Options screen. Usually do that in games I play anyway.

Prison Tycoon overall fair

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 26
Date: September 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I like the game but it is not as fun or exciting as the description said. Overall though it is a good game.

Waaaay too slow

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Contrary to the other reviewers, I don't find the game graphics too bad. Nor are the controls terrible. However, once you get the hang of it, NOTHING HAPPENS.

The whole point is that you build and operate a prison. Good concept. The options for buildings are good, and it is fairly easy to get control. But you run out of building space reasonably quickly. So, you can't add buildings, you can't move on, you're just stuck making tremendous profits and changing nothing. Becomes terribly repetitive, you keep praying for ANYTHING to change -- more land, a riot, anything!

Anyway, good concept, decent game, but changes too slowly.

Oh Hum

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: August 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am glad I never paid for this game. Great thing was I installed the game, I have never needed the disk again. Woohoo, so brother-in-law gets his game back and a sorry you wasted your money. I only knew of one cheat code. (enter,type sleepworker, then hit m-key) The money code. 10,000 a pop not bad. hated having to hit ctrl key to change camera angle with mouse. BLAH. Name sounded cool, graphics not to bad, loved being able to pick up one of the fighting inmates and drop somewhere else, kept my fighting at 0 for a few years until I got to many inmates to watch them all. If it was not for money cheat you run out of money an can never recover once you have a few things in place. Oh well, like I said I did not waste money on it. ;-)

Don't waste your money!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 28 / 31
Date: March 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I enjoy some of the other titles from the Tycoon set of games, so I thought this would be as much fun as Roller Coaster Tycoon and some of the others. I couldn't have been more wrong!

First of all, this game does NOT come with an instruction booklet or anything that would help you learn to play or even what keys do what. I had to scroll through a readme file just to figure out some of the most basic things, and then I had to search through online walkthroughs to learn how to play. Very time consuming!

Next, the game just isn't that much fun. If you are able to build and manage a prison at a low custody level without problems (can be done) then just make sure not to make even one mistake! That's all it will take to get a riot started that will go on and on despite any logical responses.

In short, this game has a good concept but poor design.

Not recommended to any avid gamer.

I'd rather be IN prison...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 17 / 25
Date: August 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

After seeing this game in the store, I knew I had to play it. What a waste of money. The camera angles are horrible, it's very difficult to learn and overall it's just not fun. Save your money.

Monumental waste of time and money.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 17
Date: March 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

After seeing it on various store shelves staring at me, I figured I'd give it a spin...

Prison Tycoon sounds like a pretty cool concept- Build a prison your way, making it as hard or soft on prisoners as you want while dealing with riots and other cool stuff. But the concept behind this game is where the coolness ends...

Although it's a budget title, The interface and sound outright suck, and the game gets repetative waaaay too quick. The graphics are passable, but in no way compensate for the game's other brutal shortcomings. The game has cool building and customization options, but they are too few and too bland.

What could have been a pretty awesome budget title turned into a gigantic dud. Don't touch this waste of time with a 10-foot pole unless you just had a lobotomy and enjoy sitting at your computer with a blank stare. For a better budget tycoon-type experience, pick up RCT or Tropico.

Pros: Awesome, fresh concept (for a tycoon game).

Cons: Gameplay, graphics, sound, interface, etc, etc...

Overall: An unfortunate waste of time and money on what could have otherwise been a potentially great game.

Long and drawn out!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: January 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Well, first of all, I have to give this game a VERY low rating, because it seems to ME, you have to use the money cheat JUST TO GET STARTED in the game. Otherwise, you will wind up not even having enough money to house the inmates.

Secondly, all this game consists of is pretty much waiting for the next parole period to come up so you can decide who stays, and who gets out (based on length of time inmate has been there, how many rehabilitation projects he's completed, how many fights he's been in, and what, if any, gang affiliations he has). There's really nothing you can do about the fighting that goes on in this game between inmates. I have yet to see a guard break up a fight. So to me this game is just long and boring.

The graphics, in my opinion, ARE kinda cute, but not $20 worth.

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