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Prisoner of War Review
Chris Leyton
00/12/0000
Prisoner of War places you with the solitary task of escaping froma prison camp, are you up to the job???
Codemasters and Wide Games should certainly be congratulated for the cerebral approach to Prisoner of War, instead of straying down the easy action and arcade thrills path that most action/adventure titles tread. Unfortunately the conception of this noble idea is let down by a number of gameplay flaws, that stop it being the classic that it could have been.
Players take control of Captain Lewis Stone, an American Flight Officer who is shot down by the Naziâs whilst out on a routine reconnaissance mission with his co-pilot Lieutenant James Daly. Picked up by the German troops, itâs up to you to uncover what is behind the suspicious activity at the camp and escape to tell the tale.
As soon as the first cut-scene begins and the hammy American accent of Stone and the cheesy nature of the Nazi Officers emerge, you can tell that the guys at Wide Games have been watching their War movies. Inspired by the likes of The Great Escape, Prisoner of War does a good job of recreating what the movies thought life was like behind a prison wall.
Protected by the Geneva Convention, youâll find that all prisoners have a relatively safe life in a PoW camp with regular meals provided, free time and the right to converse with your fellow prisoners. Obviously key rules must be adhered to; the player must stay within designated boundaries and turn up promptly for roll calls, but besides this youâre basically free to do what you want and thatâs where your escape plans come into action.
Those hoping for a high action, Nazi bashing, gun-toting action title had better stop reading right now. Instead PoW replaces gun fighting with thought-inducing problem solving, and the flavour of the month steal-based gameplay. By conversing with - and sometimes bribing - fellow prisoners youâll gain access to information and items that will help in your bid for freedom. Most of the actual game requires you to sneak around, performing tasks for some people, stealing currency, and generally causing the Germans a bit of bother. At the same time youâll want to be keeping a close eye on the guards, trying to find out any weak-points in their patrol in order for you to escape. In this respect Wide Games have done an excellent job of recreating prison life, unfortunately there are a few problems that surface.
Firstly there is a very rigid solution to escaping the camps youâll find yourself in, whilst this reflects the strict and controlled nature of a prison camp it doesnât make for very exciting gameplay, especially when youâll find yourself repeating the same situation over and over again. Being detected out of bounds, missing a roll call or a meal, and just generally being a nuisance will earn you time in solitary or in a hospital bed. Fair enough, unfortunately this will see you repeating what youâve just carefully spent the last 20 minutes doing, anyone who has seen Groundhog Day will quickly realise the nature and frustration of Prisoner of War.
Secondly, Prisoner of War suffers from an unresponsive control system that will ruin the best of your carefully formulated escape plans. Itâs frustrating to find yourself caught, after having spent the last 10 minutes carefully sneaking past guards, climbing fences, donning uniforms and ducking under cars, just because you couldnât get Stone to climb up that last wall in time and have to repeat it all over againâ¦
There is a lot to like however, the game certainly features a ludicrous attention to detail when it comes to the presentation. Camps are meticulously detailed both inside and out, from birds flocking outside to paintings donning the walls of the officers room. Technically it is all very good, with a nice variety of textures that are well defined and generally crisp, itâs not Shenmue, but what is???
