Hard Time III
Fair · RPG · 2024
Steam Deck VerifiedThe verdict
BUY IT.
Fair at $5.09, the lowest Steam price we have tracked since Sep 2024. Buy it now if you want it.
- Length
- 9.8h
- Value
- $0.52/hr
- Reviews
- 85% positive
Buy now or wait
The Autumn Sale is on until Oct 8. It is 66% off today.
Discounted in each of its last 8 seasonal sales on record.
- Typical seasonal cut
- 50% ($7.49)
- Deepest seasonal cut
- 66% ($5.09)
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
Watch this gameOne alert when it is worth buying.
Minimum on the Steam store: 4 GB of memory, DirectX 11 compatible video card, 399 MB of storage. Windows only.
The toughest prison sim in the yard is back to serve its 3rd consecutive sentence - combining classic moments from the OG with the best aspects of 2D, while putting out a few hits of its own! Tackle crime from either side of the prison fence, while a larger world beyond it makes life worth living.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
The value story
March 2026 is where it bottomed out, at $5.09. 18 discounts in the 2 years on record. They run about 35 percent off, roughly 6 weeks apart. Today's $5.09 at 66 percent off matches the lowest price in the record.
At full price it scores 55. The current cut is what makes it a 65.
On value it sits in the top 7 percent of its genre. It is pricier than 71 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 86 percent. Among the games that feel like it, CHANGE: A Homeless Survival Experience ($3.99, scores 70) beats it on value, while it beats Breakwaters: Crystal Tides ($19.99, scores 6).
Of the 437 Steam-purchase reviews this site sampled, 30 come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written September 2024 to August 2026. That is more refunded reviewers than 9 in 10 paid games this site has sampled to the same depth, and among the 3,162 games in its genre sampled this deeply, 38 have a larger share. The typical game sits near 5 in 1,000, so the score docks it. 4 of the 30 refunded reviewers were past Valve's two-hour window when they wrote the review. Inside the two-hour refund window, 68 percent of the 244 reviews written there were positive, against 85 percent overall, and those are 26 percent of everything written about it.
Valve rates it Steam Deck Verified, and at 9.8 hours it is short enough to finish on one.
What players say
I'm actually impressed by how good this game is. Very simple yet very fun nonetheless Edit: Bought this game expecting nothing or a quick refund but it ended up leaving me speechless, it did break my low expectations in a way that I feel ashamed. One of the games I had the most fun with and it introduced me to Mdickie's games. I simply can't explain how much I love this game, it really gives you that chaotic prison...
Upon arriving to prison, I was immediately asked to date a girl, then joined her gang of Jonklers, kissed her once, to which she had my baby shortly after. My offspring, Jessica, would be birthed on the prison floor. About within 10 seconds of her existence, it was announced that she was wanted of Trespassing, and promptly tased and beaten while her mother was body slammed. It's a hard time, for sure.
Suplexed a guy's skull into the pavement and beat him to death and the judge let me go, just like in real life!
Steam reviews, mixed to match its Steam ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic), achievement curve (Steam global achievements).
Cite this score
Hard Time III scores 65/100 on the BANG Score (fair value) as of Oct 2, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/3009850/hard-time-iiiReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 28, price as of Oct 2.
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