Jail Breaker Slot
Not many of us have been to jail, thankfully, and the closest we get is watching Orange Is The New Black on Netflix. Or at least it was until The Art of Games brought out Jail Breaker, which is OFFICIALLY just like being in prison. But fun.
It’s certainly one of their grittiest games and has a really impressive skin and atmosphere, especially if you play in the dark while wearing an orange jumpsuit and get a loved one to shout threatening phrases at you.
Games like these are best when they have a gimmick that really grabs you, and Jail Breaker definitely does that, really locking you into its theme from the get-go and not letting you go til you’ve served your sentence. Or run out of credits, whichever one happens first. The Art of Games know how to rock a theme and this one rocks. But is the gameplay up to scratch or just criminal?
In the Jailhouse Now
As we’ve mentioned the skin for this game is incredible, instantly drawing you into the jail theme, with the reels represented by a bunch of CCTV screens showing scenes from within the prison, a clever idea that works so well, with fifteen screens and some great imagery, all of which makes you glad you’re just playing a game online rather than actually living there. Some of the people frankly don’t look very friendly.
Fortunately, even within the context of the game you’re nice and safe in a guard room with your feet up on the counter (and you’ve got rickets, by the look of the legs). But at least there’s some doughnuts (essential for any officer of the law), a nice warm brew, with steam rising up from it, plus a saucy-looking prison guard lady on the calendar to keep you company on the long nights. Oh, and a lively spider and a couple of even livelier critters, but probably best to ignore those.
Tonight There’s Gonna be a Jailbreak
So we’ve established that the atmosphere is spot on, and that includes the sinister sound effects and soundtrack, while the animations we’ve mentioned are amongst the best you’ll find in this kind of game, but how else does Jail Breaker try to win your favour? Well, like many of The Art of Games’s other most popular themed slot games, there’s a mini game where you have to try and prevent a jailbreak, and it’s good fun.
The gameplay itself isn’t quite as slickly incorporated into the theme as it is in some of The Art of Games’s other themed games, with the key buttons a bit less obvious to find, meaning that it takes you a little while to get into the swing of it. The spin button is quite clear, and the animation of the phone dial spinning when you click it is entertaining, while the paytable’s layout within prison files is pretty cool too. But when you’re still trying to find the Bet Per Line button after 10 minutes of playing, that can be an irritation that could have been avoided.
Jailhouse Rocks
Despite what Elvis Presley tried to tell us, being in prison isn’t much fun really. For a start you’re almost certainly not allowed to play online games that recreate the experience of being a prison guard with a poor diet and a whole lot of CCTV monitors to watch, all within the prism of a slot machine game.
Luckily for those of us who are free to do what we want with our spare time, Jail Breaker is a load of fun and is set up to be easy to pick up and play whenever you want.
As previously mentioned, it’s not quite as well done in gameplay terms as some of its compatriots in The Art of Games stable, but the theme and atmosphere that they’ve clearly spent a lot of time creating here is stylish enough to make any time you spend in this slammer a real pleasure. Wonder if any prison guards have been caught playing it instead of watching their CCTV screens…
Clinky, and Clunky
Jailhouse Breaker is one of the most fully-realised worlds we’ve seen from The Art of Games so far, particularly when it comes to visuals and sound effects. The gameplay itself is a little more clunky than we’d expect from them, but the overall experience is more than enough to compensate for that, so it’s time to get your handcuffs and baton at the ready. And don’t forget the doughnuts!
