Prisoner of War

"Stop! (Play this game!) Or I Vill Fire!"

This game is very, very good. Although it may be missing a few desired features, it is still pretty good.

Story is 9 out of 10:
The story of this game is very good. It takes place in World War II. It starts out with you, Captain Stone, and your buddy, J.D., trying to take recon photos over an enemy camp in an airplane. They are shot down, and you are sent to a Prisoner of War camp. From there, you are asked to do various things to continue the plot, from getting a key, to stealing a camera from the mail room. I will not tell you why you are doing these assignments, but they lead to a pretty cool ending. This game does have a lot of comic relief. So don't think the game will be too serious for you.

Graphics are 5 out of 10:
The graphics are on par, but since this is a game for the Xbox, It could have been much better. When the characters talk during the story, they ALWAYS standing stiff as a board, with no facial expression, the only thing on their face that moves is their mouth. It just opens and shuts. Not only that but outside of the prisoners, everybody looks the same. There are three types of guards, guards in coats, patrol guards, and lieuitenant guards. Some of the faces of the guards in the game are just frightening! The game did have good enough graphics to provide atmosphere. The graphics threw in some cool surprises. Sometimes, planes fly by.

Sound is 4 out of 10:
This game is limited to only a handful of sound effects. For example, you can throw stones in the game, when you throw one, there are only three sound effects that will happen. One is a thud, the second is similar to hitting a spoon against a glass, the next is similar is like hitting a metal bucket with a rock (which is exactly how this sound effect happens). Some of the sound effects seem out of place. The voice-overs are pretty good. When you speak to people, they seem to have the right amount of emotion. I'm not sure what a German accent sounds like exactly, but the ones in this game fooled me!

Gameplay is 8 out of 10:
The gameplay in this game is very good. You are given one objective after another. It can get somewhat repetitive though. The basic formula of this game is:
1. A prisoner needs something.
2. You talk to other prisoners for information on how to get to that item.
3. Using stealth, you get the item.
4. Using stealth, you get back to the part of the camp the prisoners are allowed to be in.
5. You tell the prisoner you have the item.
6. The story advances.
7. You have another objective.
The stealthy maneuvers are limited to crouching, throwing rocks, hiding under stuff, and hiding in stuff. The guards aren't that smart though. A guard can catch you in an area you're not supposed to be in, if you run into a bush, the guard won't see you. He can even SEE you run into the bush, and he still won't see you. If you do get caught, which happens by the guard getting close to you, you are thrown in the cooler, which makes you lose a day to do objectives. If you don't lose the guard(s), but he doesn't get close enough to you to catch you, he might lose his patience and shoot you. You might be lucky enough to dodge a shot and hide somewhere, but if you don't, he will eventually shoot you. This causes you to be thrown in the sick bay, which makes you lose two or more days to do objectives. You might as well try to escape. You can get shot or caught as many times as you like, the Germans won't kill you, which I can imagine wasn't true in the real WWII. The only motivation to avoid getting shot or caught is you can get caught is that you'll lose all your items. But the items aren't that hard to get back, you just find the prisoner who sells stuff, and buy them back. Money isn't that hard to find either. The only motivation to not lose days is you will get a higher grade when you beat that level. If you get an A on that level, you get to unlock a secret. The secrets are pretty cool, like infinite money, huge and tiny guards, and other things.

Buy or Rent?
Well, I definitely recommend you rent this game. This game is only enjoyable to a small audience.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/14/03, Updated 03/14/03