Get me some Pugnac bitch!

One look into the development history of Prison Break: The Conspiracy and the show’s untimely demise and this game had shiet fest written all over it, in fact it appears that the likes of overrated Pre-Madonna websites such as (Guess the Name) and (Guess the Name Also) have decided to slap that bitch where it stings, and give a Dirty Sanchez to the developers Zootfly in the process. Now, I didn’t witness the condemnation of this game until after we played it and I can tell you all now, that both of the reviewers for said sites must have been on their periods the day of writing, as Prison Break: The Conspiracy is a particular solid game when you put it amongst other TV licensed based games.

In Prison Break: The Conspiracy you don’t go playing as Michael Scofield at all, in fact in this game you play a totally new character whom has been employed by The Company called Tom Paxton. Tom Paxton has been put into prison for a recon type mission to learn more about why Scofield is in prison. Now for those that already have watched Season 1 of Prison Break, the plotline is very much the same, except that you’ll see events from the eyes of Paxton and you’ll try and instigate and get involved in the occurrences throughout the nine chapters. To give away any of the story would be a crime, but what I will say is that at times it is full of suspense when the plotline does progress.

The core game-play you are likely to experience is simply two area’s stealth and combat. Stealth is mostly surrounding the process of fetching particular items or accessing areas that are off guard. Avoiding guards and employees seeing you is very much the order of the day and comprises of a good 70% of the core mechanics. Despite being seen makes it game over, you will be put straight back into the action somewhere about where you were formerly so having to start a mission all over again isn’t necessary. There are times though where the save state is between picking locks or flipping CCTV cameras and repeating these until you finally make your way past the guards can be a little annoying. A.I in the stealth missions isn’t particularly bright either, cleaners will walk in set paths cleaning the same spot for hours and guards often fail to spot you despite being blindingly obvious you are around them. It’s when you combine stealth elements with a rudimentary ‘fetch object, I’ll do you a favour’ scenario where the game can certainly test your patience a little, if you can get over the lulls of the first few chapters, the game starts to get interesting especially around Chapter 7 but don’t expect anything to blow your bollocks off with this game, because it simply doesn’t.

Combat feels a little rusty, but by no means the worst system around. The way the buttons are positioned can make it all a little fiddly and most of the time you’ll throw punches aimlessly as the block system seems to be a little on and off. Prison Break: The Conspiracy really doesn’t excel anywhere, but there are some points in the game that are well executed, climbing and making your way through air vents and roof partitions in particular, have a certain Uncharted 2 about them, but with a slight less fluidity, not exactly bad news there then. Graphically the game is pretty horrible, we’re not talking about popping textures or grotesque jaggies but the game clearly lacks the fidelity and detail you expect from games these days, renders of Tom Paxton and Michael Scofield aren’t all that bad though.

Voice acting is very, hit and miss. Scofield, T-Bag and Paxton are well executed, whilst characters from The Company are especially weak, with token stereotypical regional accents, they could be forgiven for just having someone in the Zootfly offices playing filler for these guys. What I particularly loved about Prison Break though was the dialog, some of it is just pure genius, even from the first opening two minutes where the Irish company boss states to Paxton that he was kind and put him in jail under the guise of murder instead of child molestation, hilarious.

Accompanied with the game is versus mode, which basically expands upon the combat system. It gives you a chance to play around with other characters and use the obligatory almost Facebreaker styled combat, button mashing and boring to say the least. Achievements are pretty darn easy to unlock, within the first two hours of play you’d unlock 13 at least with a further 5 if you just put your mind into focusing on them. So for those that have an uncanny and stupid addiction for gamer score, this could be your game whore!

Where The Conspiracy really fails is by making everything so linear. We’re not asking for sandbox per-say but it would have been nice to approach missions in multiple ways and with different tools to complete them. Comprising the bulk game content with fetch missions, just isn’t fun after the fifth time of asking and after a while it feels like sneaking around and hiding in lockers is just a chore to see the plot expand and for those that have already watched Prison Break that may just be the final nail in the coffin. Whilst Prison Break isn’t an amazing game, it isn’t slap dash or hideously bad either, it’s just uninspiring and average, fans of the series may enjoy it, but I feel this game is best enjoyed by those oddly enough toying with the idea of watching Prison Break for the first time. It’ll give you a little insight to the characters, an insight to the plot but without completely spoiling the whole experience and for Zootfly to be able to do that it means that the game definitely does not warrant the scores that the Beelzebub corn hole sites gave it. For the sake of Deep Silver I hope people can look above the behemoth site scores and find a little solitude in this title because it makes Lost:Via Domus look like John Locke’s rotting feet. Worth a rent!