Prisoner of War

 Prisoner Of War. When I first got this game, I thought it might be good, but not great. I was wrong. Prisoner Of War is an instant classic. The more you play, the more you come to love it.

This game is all stealth. There is almost no violence involved, unless you count the guards shooting you if you try to avoid arrest. Other than that, there is no violence at all. Instead, there is a great deal of thought and vigilance required to finish the game successfully. Therefore, if you are a person who likes to shoot their way through stealth games, I do not recommend this game to you.

Firstly, I will talk about the AI. It is basic to say the least. To communicate with people is simple. You cannot ask your own questions to them in the game. Instead, there is a system where you are given a set of questions, which you choose, and the other person who you are talking to responds with their predetermined answers. This is an easy way of communication that you catch onto quickly. Although since you can only ask what the game says you can ask, it does limit the amount of information you can gain from people.
 
The guards in this game gave me mixed reactions. On one hand, they are a good security force and it is hard sometimes to slip past them without being seen. Many a time I have been swatted by their patrols that catch me right in the act of breaking into a door or carrying an illegal object. They also look pretty good. They are all dressed in the same gear and the same weaponry which can be a bit boring, but other than that they look quite cool.

On the other hand, they are quite dumb. Some of the guards in this game seem to have the worst AI imaginable. You can throw stones at them from under tables and they do not know what is happening. In addition, sometimes if you are seen, if you run around a building in circles with them chasing you, they usually just fire a shot or two after you before giving up and going back to their usual routine. But with all the AI faults, this game makes up with it in other ways.

The storyline of this game is great. I will not spoil it all, but it involves you in the game doing something vital for the Allied war effort. At the start of the game, you are bought to your first of three camps. This camp has only three other prisoners other than yourself, so it is lightly guarded and so it is excellent for training yourself for the harder camps. After you escape from this camp, you are recaptured and sent to another camp: Stalag Luft. This is where the real game starts. Nevertheless, you escape, but are yet again recaptured. Then you are sent to the hardest camp: Colditz. All of these camps have their ups and their downs, but all have a good feel to them and are good in different ways.

The soundtrack on this game is quite good. It has different tunes for when you are in restricted areas and doing bad things, and it has other music for when you are just relaxing and mulling around. It is easy to distinguish from the soundtrack whether you are in trouble or not because of the good tunes they play.

The graphics are not much to look at though. When they speak in this game, only their mouths move, the rest of their faces stay locked in place, so they look a lot like puppets. The cut scenes are not that pretty. The voice acting is bad in them. It is obvious that the German soldier's accents are just fake ones, and the British accents sound ludicrous. Sometimes the cut scenes are so badly done that you have to laugh at them, but it does not hinder the game much - it only adds to the fun.

Prisoner of War also follows a 'time table', which adds a lot more difficulty to the game. The timetable is the schedule of the prison camp. In each part of the timetable you get to do different things, such as, Afternoon free time and Lunch. The Prisoner of War time able is pretty routine to follow, and is easy to do once you find out the best times to escape and which times to lounge around. Note that you always have to be present in both roll calls or else there will be a camp wide search. This is the Prisoner of War timetable…
 
Morning Role call
Breakfast
Morning exercise
Lunch
Afternoon free time
Dinner
Evening Role call
Lights Out

In this game, you can pick up many objects that can help you in your tasks. There are two types of objects: pocket and hand. Hand objects are large things such as crowbars and planks. Anything big is classed as a hand object, and if a guard sees you with one of these objects, you will be arrested. Pocket objects are tings like keys and cameras. The guards can not see pocket objects, but if you are arrested any pocket objects are confiscated. You can also find objects to help you sneak around such as German uniforms (disguise) or boot polish (hides you better during nighttime). Stones are another item that you an pick up. You can hold fifteen of these stones, which can be used to distract the guards at any time. They are quite handy sometimes if you want to get yourself out of a sticky spot. You can also pick up currency, which is found all around the camp, which can be used to pay people off for hints or objects.

Also, if you want help for something, everyone can help. In every camp, you have a scrounger, who, if the guards catch you, will give you back your stolen stuff for currency. There are always people who will distract the guards for you if you give them currency also. There is the Escape officer who will give you in depth hints to your objectives if you pay currency, and there are the normal prisoners who give basic information freely. Basically though, to get help, you need currency.

This game will probably be hard to start with. When I started playing, I had a number of problems with doing simple tasks. However, after a while the game sort of clicks and you are all right. The more you play the better you get and by the end you can avoid numerous German patrols to enter the most restricted of places and not get caught.

Overall, it has its flaws. It has bad graphics and AI but that is okay. The game is a classic and I think it is worth buying, as it offers over 30+ hours of play. This game is very enticing and I urge you to get it.