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Prison Break: The Conspiracy Preview
The release date for Deep Silver's latest game nears, but has it been rehabilitated and is it ready to face society?
Written by Jon Seddon, 22 February 2010
If you're a fan of the Prison Break television series, then rest assured that there is definitely a substantial game to be played in this tie in. The developers set out their stall early on during the opening cut scenes that roll with both decent graphics and good likenesses of the show's cast. It takes more than this to impress us though, so what else did we see during our recent hands on session with the game?
Trailer for the upcoming game based on the popular TV series by Zootfly.To backtrack slightly and set the scene, the game is set during season 1 of the show and follows Michael Schofield as he tries to free his wrongly accused brother from Fox River Penitentiary. To achieve this, Michael gets himself sent down for armed robbery and as the game begins you sit on the bus that's transporting Fox River's latest intake. To enable the developers to tell a different story than the one you will have seen on television, you don't play Michael. Instead you are cast as Tom Paxton who is an FBI agent sent undercover as an inmate to keep an eye on Michael and make sure that nothing interrupts the execution of his brother.
The first couple of hours of play will introduce you to the main elements of the game, which is centred on the prison's recreation yard. Here you will be introduced to the characters and gain access to the missions, which will progress the story. Plot-wise the game doesn't stray too far from the events of that first season, but obviously being told from a different perspective will give the game a fresh take. The early missions, which are all about getting to know the prison's factions, require the retrieval of items be they drugs or weapons and this will unlock other activities.
The main gameplay elements then represent some of the staples of the modern 3rd person action genre and include stealth, climbing, quick time events and melee combat, but the prison setting at least gives you a more unusual environment, unless of course you've just played Batman.
360Zine Issue 39
For our latest Prison Break coverage, click here to download 360Zine Issue 39 for free.The stealth sections let you snap to scenery and either jump between cover points or take things more carefully as you navigate towards your objectives. Guards and security cameras are marked on your mini-map and they either see you or they don't with no middle ground. The checkpoints mean that you never have to repeat too much of the game though minimising the frustration that can mar this type of game.
Combat is relatively simplistic with light and heavy attacks, but is pretty fluid and its satisfying when you knock an opponent to the ground. Your foes appear to be limited to other prisoners, which make sense given your official status, but it's sometimes frustrating not to be able to just knock out a guard. The finale of each of the major fights is a quick time event, which can prove problematic due to the dexterity required.
Climbing, which is integral to reaching objectives is signposted by yellow markers allowing you jump, swing and crawl your way to your goal. This system enables you to see exactly where you need to go, which is good since you don't have the gymnastic abilities of Ezio, but this does make things a little less fluid and freeform.
Finally we got a chance to play the newly unveiled multiplayer mode, which actually looks a lot like your favourite 2D fighter, taking the game's characters and letting you go one on one against a friend. Combat moves are limited to those from the main game and since this is strictly a local multi-player experience it will probably only prove a minor distraction from the single player game.
After a couple of hours with this prison'em up, we saw the influences from games like Bully and Batman, but for fans of the series the well realized characters, decent voice acting and interesting setting may well make this worth a look. For those that haven't become familiar with the series, the appeal is less guaranteed, but it is shaping up to be a better game than many of its peers.
Prison Break: The Conspiracy will launch in March for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Check out the screens and art below and the new trailer.
Prison Break coverage available in 360Zine Issue 39 - click here to download it for free!
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