Prisoner of War

"Slightly above average and funny, but for all the wrong reasons"

Prisoner Of War is fairly original, but a few plain stupid bits prevent this from being a masterpiece.You are Stone, an American (tsk) pilot, shot down over enemy lines, and feels an overwhelming urge to escape and return to the front line. It is partially fact-based, and is divided into ''chapters'',with about 4 missions in each chapter
On to the rating.

Graphics 6/10
Some of the graphics are all right, mainly the environment textures, and the effects, eg.The rain splashing on the camera.
And then there the people, these are almost guaranteed to make you smile, or laugh out loud.
The people look kinda plastic, and they move and act like they've been ripped from Thunderbirds,when they talk, only their jaw moves, nothing else on their entire face.
Speaking of faces... OH.DEAR.GOD
some of them are ok, but SOME eg. the Kommandant on the first level are just plain scary.And they forgot some important face animations, like blinking, you can watch the people for hours, they never blink.

Sound/Music 8/10
The music is V. good, becoming more tense as the action grows, making your pulse race as you sprint from your captors, otherwise it is just calm, but has a strange way of making your brain whirr into action.

Gameplay 7/10
As I said before, there are some original ideas, like ''currency'', contraband items you can use to buy items, hints and help.But there are LOADS of ideas borrowed from the very popular Metal Gear Solid series.
And then there's the A.I, which is pretty abysmal, you can run round and round buildings, hide under tables 2 foot away, run inside and jump through a window, all of these are guaranteed ways to lose your ''tail''. And if you miss the morning roll call, a search party will search the camp. But after a while they give up, and if you wander round the camp again, no-one gives a damn you went missing.Also, if you throw a stone at a guard, but they don't immediately find you, they just ignore it.So, the A.I sucks, which lowers the rating significantly.

Replayablity 5/10
Average. There is nothing to do once you have spent the few hours necessary to complete the game the first time, except try different routes, try to improve your end-of-chapter grade, and find more ways to wreak havoc :)

Overall:6/10
A nice game, to last you a few hours, but it will gather dust, as you find other things.Good, but some dumb mistakes stop this being great.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/26/02, Updated 10/26/02