Prisoner of War

"Great concept, major flaws"

I bought this game after finishing Metal Gear Solid 2, all excited about a game that would allow myself to play as a stealth hero once again. Of course, I disappointed myself by comparing it with the legendary game. However, the biggest thing that disappoints me is that POW could have been one of the greatest games out there with its interesting game concept but it fails badly in other aspects.

Graphics - 7
Average graphics in today's PS2 standard. It simply gets its jobs done, though it would better if it has a more interactive background. The pictures hanging and pasted on the walls are repetitive and blur, showing that the production team did not put in effort into the smaller details of the game (compared this with ''you-know-what-game'').

Sounds - 7
The music flows well with the mood, and the voice-acting is good generally. I would understand if the germans speaks to the prisoners in broken english, but it's strange that they speak to everyone (including among themselves) in very good english but with a weird german accent. However, I experienced some bugs when the voices get stuck halfway during conversations.

Gameplay - 1
This is where the game fails badly. Firstly, it's difficult to save the game. You need to be back at your bed, and sometime when you move on to a new area which you are not familiar with, you end up having to search for even your rightful bed to save the game and may end up at the wrong place at the wrong time and get caught by the guards. Secondly, everytime you save or load a game, you need to go thru a 'time-skip' and wastes unnecessary time. Extremely fustrating if you are trying to beat the level with an A grading. Thirdly, the AI can be extremely stupid. The guards spotted you next to a truck, you climb underneath it, and the guard will forget about the whole thing. You get into trouble, they conduct a major camp search, you remained in hiding or managed to go to bed, and everything just go back to normal like nothing has happened. Did I mention that no matter how many times you were caught in mischief, the germans will still allow you to go back and create more havocs? Next, this game is totally linear, you do not plan your own escape, the game will plan everything for you and you just have to act accordingly. Lastly, this is the killer flaw, the camera view is horrible! It can be a challenge to even enter a door, the directions get messy and confusing when the camera changes dramatically. You stealth behind a guard skilfully, you move and suddenly the camera changes, and you frantically adjust yourself, that's when you blew it and get caught! You are crouching and waiting in first person view, the guard turns his back to you and you stand up, all anticipating for a run, and find the camera staring upclose at your butt or at some wall to your side. Frustrating. Otherwise, it is a highly addictive feeling, trying to sneak past the security from ''unbreakable'' prisons and collecting stuff to aid you in your plans. And don't think you can knock out some german guards in the process, you can't do it, not in this game.

Replayability - 1
You can try to beat your previous gradings, unlock some boring secrets by getting A gradings and that's about it. Nothing really interest me to go back and play the game after beating it once.

Overall - 4
A very below average game overall, almost a poor game. I'll give it 1 point if you compare this stealth adventure game with MGS2. For MGS fans who has played this game, imagine you can do the stuff that Snake does in this game while breaking out of a tightly secured prison camp with minimal resources. Now THAT would be a MARVELLOUS game.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 08/29/02, Updated 08/29/02