Prison City Review: Doing Hard Time In Detroit

It’s no surprise by now that I tend to prefer retro and indie adventures. So it probably won’t shock anyone that I’ve been following Prison City for a while through the magic of the somehow still-functioning Twitter algorithm. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to check the game out when it was initially released, but I finally found a little bit of time to experience it recently. And let me tell you, Prison City checks many of the boxes I look for in a video game. It’s a modern retro adventure with great style, pumping tunes, and varied bosses. Despite that, this experience wasn’t quite as polished as I would have liked, though in general, it’s a fun time.

Prison City is about a militarized prison complex in Detroit that gets taken over by ruthless Techno-Terrorists. Like many of the NES games that clearly inspired it, it takes place in 1997. The premise is sort of like a demented hybrid of RoboCop, Judge Dredd, and similar stories. There are plenty of robots, mutants, and all sorts of hard-edged sci-fi crazy. You play Hal Bruzer, a former cop who’s called back into action to infiltrate Prison City and defeat the Techno-Terrorists that have taken over every Ward within. Armed only with your trusty Chakram, eyepatch, and guts, you’ll have to find a way to save the day.

The levels in Prison City are generally pretty linear, though there are plenty of far-off corners and hidden areas to discover. Ultimately, your goal is to find the Warden Key in each, which is used to unlock the boss door. They’re held by allies that lie in wait, the best of whom is a bionic dolphin that speaks perfect English.

Mega Cool Stage Select

Further cementing the NES style, there’s a stage select that would be right at home in a Mega Man game. I enjoyed the variety of stages, from lush, mutated forests to fiery factories and even a sports stadium. What I liked less was how, despite featuring a mini-map, it was very easy to get off track and locked out of the route forward. In the Power Plant level, I got the Warden Key, only to find that the way forward was totally blocked. I had to figure out which path to take to safely reach the boss door, which involved navigating moving platforms and getting electrocuted a few times. The one saving grace is that each area features a couple of checkpoints you’ll respawn at when you inevitably die. And once you get to the boss room, you’ll respawn there instead.

As far as combat, Hal’s primary weapon is a Chakram that you can throw in various directions, which returns quickly to you. The return path can actually be used to damage enemies if you’re skilled enough. Better yet, you can collect three upgrades to empower your Chakram, allowing it to pass through walls and do even more damage. The main issue is that once acquired, taking damage three times will weaken it back to the default strength again. I thought this was unnecessarily cruel and restrictive to players. More than once, I would get the powered-up Chakram, then lose it trying to make my way safely to the boss door. You can also find temporary invincibility shields and grenades that will destroy everything on screen (other than bosses). And if you’re hungry for some health, you can grab a hot dog.

Cue the Xena Music

While I like all this in theory, I found the combat was overly complicated by a couple of issues. One was the upgrade system I touched on earlier. Another is just that the level design is pretty unforgiving. Hal can slide through narrow apertures and hang onto ledges, but it’s far too easy to fall into a pit of fire or get zapped when you’re clinging to a grate. Enemies also love to snipe you when you’re prone. My least favorite enemy is one that hides in the background and summons a spread of drones that slowly home in on you. Though you can Chakram them away, they come from all directions, and it’s very easy to take damage as you flail about.

Also, though the Chakram is a cool and varied weapon, its reach isn’t sufficient for many situations. A notable example was a boss battle clearly inspired by Mad Max against a mutant named Fury Rhoads. The musclebound bozo chases you with his minions riding alongside him in a massive truck. You have to keep enough distance from the truck not to take contact damage, but you also have to get just close enough, so your Chakram can actually hit it. Suffice to say, the first few times I challenged this boss, I was killed within a few seconds, caught in the crossfire between Rhoads and his roadies.

There’s also a mechanical spider boss that crawls along the bottom of the screen, firing homing missiles and jumping into you. Your goal is to trick his missiles into hitting him, stunning him for a few seconds. But it’s far too easy to get hit by a missile while this happens, and then kicked away by his massive mechanical legs. It was a struggle getting close enough to hit the spider with my Chakram, and the one time I made it to the boss with my powered-up version, I lost it within a couple of seconds of battle.

Bossy and Beautiful

Those complaints aside, in general, the highlight of Prison City was the boss battles. I truly never knew what to expect, and they ranged wildly from robotic drones to helicopters trying to scrape me off the roof, to mutant plants and more. Once you get the hang of their patterns, most bosses are manageable, other than the two I mentioned above, which caused me a lot of grief.

If all that wasn’t enough, the game also features bonus stages. One has you trying to break a car to smithereens, much like in Street Fighter. Another has you navigating a dangerous underwater labyrinth to disarm bombs, like in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Both are neat, but I also found them incredibly challenging, and was never able to beat either variety.

Dolphin to the Future

Visually, Prison City is a delight. Programancer knows their stuff and makes clever use of Game Maker Studio and Aseprite. The entire game is full of loving details, and no area or foe is boring to look at. As far as the music, that’s incredible as well, possibly even better than the visual style. The music is bombastic, with lots of catchy tunes to get you motivated to slag some inmates.

I have one more complaint with the PC version of Prison City, and that’s the gamepad support. I’ve played a lot of games on Steam, and I’m relatively used to my Bluetooth gamepad disconnecting on occasion. What I’m not used to is completely losing all control after that happens. Whenever my gamepad disconnected while playing, I was forced to use my mouse and keyboard to quit back to the desktop and try again. Usually, this would happen a couple of times per level, if not more. When the game works, it’s a blast. But this issue happened with sufficient frequency that I really think the best way to play Prison City is to pick it up on consoles in mid-November.

Released For Good Behavior

Prison City is a fun, albeit mixed experience. While I applaud the modern retro revolution that’s taking place and love the style of the game, the gameplay itself is hindered by control issues and the often unforgiving challenge of the game. Sure, you can turn down the difficulty, but I feel the default should be well-tuned enough so that the game is a balanced challenge. Despite that, if you’re a fan of retro-styled games and want to try something new, you might very well enjoy it. Though for those on the fence, I’d say wait until Prison City comes to consoles next month.

Final Verdict: 3.5/5

Available on: PC(reviewed); Publisher: Retroware; Developer: Programancer, Retroware; Players: 1; Released: August 28, 2023; MSRP: $16.99

Editor’s note: The publisher provided a review copy to Hey Poor Player.