This game feels quite unique due to its different approach that stays really true to its premise. As an inmate you have to lay low and follow the rules or you risk being beaten up or of you are to obvious you will be sent in the SHU for solitary confinement (after some time of potato peeling you are sent back to gen(eral) pop(ulation)). This makes for an interesting gameplay loop: When you start in a prison you want to find out how it is structured to develop an escape plan. All the while you have to show up for counting and meals to not raise suspicion level. In the your free time you need to bulk up in the gym or get smart in the library. This is done with simple minigames and rewards you with more stamina and more crafting recipes. You will also do some odd jobs for other inmates for a little money (true to the concept these jobs are beating someone up, planting some false evidence in their cell, steal something from other, etc.) and you will loot desks and cells to get your crafting materials. Your goal is to keep all the things you are needing for your escape – like makeshift wire cutters or pickaxes to get through fences or walls as well as weapons – safe in a secret stash so they are not taken from you when you are beaten up or the prison is put under lockdown since someone failed to show up for headcount. Once you have a plan you need to cause a distraction or sneak out at night to realize it. You are preparing and coordinating for that moment. And when it comes you are tense and have a high pulse and it feels like you are breaking out of prison! This all sounds like a very involved prison escape simulator – which it kind of is but the cute, pixelated artstyle keeps things in a light mood. There are very creative prison levels and even some fun levels n between where you are on a train or a boat.
The gameplay alternates a bit between coop and multiplayer. There are times were all players are concerned with raising their stats in the gym or the library or everybody is on the hunt for the duct tape you need and it feels like you are playing alongside each other and other times where someone s cutting through a fence and the coop players are beating up guards that are coming too close where the game is very coop. We really loved the game once we got into it.