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<b>Story</b>
Well we have a nice simple story for prisoner of war. In the middle of World War 2 Captain Lewis Stone and his Co Pilot, Flight Lieutenant James Dall, are passing over Germany on a bombing run when there plane is shot down and they are captured and thrown into a German POW camp. They don't intend to stick around though and start formulating an escape plan.

It's a simple linear story that involves escaping from a series of POW camps. There is an espionage story that eventually ties it all together with over the top villains and typically gung-ho American as a hero, but the story is just designed to tie the levels together. I never really found myself involved with any of the characters, and couldn't even describe Stone as likeable. Though the villain, General Stall, managed to give me a laugh.

<b>Graphics</b>
The graphics in the game look very nice, but they're nothing spectacular. Faces are very detailed, and on the whole so are the rest of the character models. Particularly Stone, who looks more than realistic enough to draw you into the game. Even in the detailed textures it looks good, pockets don't look painted on and wire fences have a different texture to wooden buildings, but I've already become accustomed enough to demand this. There's nothing outstanding or new, and compared to games like <b>Metal Gear Solid 2</b> or <b>Final Fantasy X</b> the graphics looked a little rough around the edges.

Though I do admit that the graphics were fine, however I have to complain about the character animation. Compared to the games I've mentioned the animation of the characters looked plain ugly. Necks swing around like they're on hinges, lips bounce up and down independently of the facial muscles and when the characters walk they begin to look like Pinocchio with Termites.

<b>Sound</b>
The sound in Prisoner Of War works to make the game a lot more suspenseful. I can't honestly pick out a stand out moment in the background music because I don't recall a moment where it jumped out trying to be memorable. The music just plays out subtlety in the background, consistently keeping you on the edge of your seat. This is helped along, and possibly more effective than the music, by the background sounds. Guards footsteps, particularly the ones getting closer, will keep you pulse pounding. Not only that but the sounds you make, such as the rustling of a wire fence as you try to climb it, adds tension. Not least due to the fact that a guard could hear it and come investigate.

The highlight though is the voice acting that is gleefully over the top. General Staal screams in a heavy German accent, Captain Stone has that assured confidence nearly always placed in an American character and the British characters have that typically hilarious accent that no true English guy could ever pull off. For tension purposes though, you have to factor in that whenever the guards spotted me and screamed "Halt prisoner" I would jump out of my skin, so that was effective.

<b>The Game</b>
I approached this game with a certain degree of caution as I'd heard it had some pretty major flaws, but even with caution my love for stealth games made me approach the game anyway. What can I say though, except that I was certainly not disappointed. Prisoner Of War is one of the best examples of the stealth genre I have ever played. It's not perfect but it's certainly good enough to be an extremely riveting game from start to finish.

As you'd expect from a game that involves escaping from German prisoner of war camps it has been heavily influenced by movies such as The Great Escape. There's the obvious examples where you are required to make use of tunnels to escape, or just get across the camps undetected, but mainly it's in the way you have to work with the escape committee. Each level has an escape committee, and they're nearly always British, who have to give the go ahead on every escape attempt made. They can be an invaluable source of information on the guards activities, item locations or even routes to a mission objective. Though there help will usually come at a price, members will demand items of Contraband, which come in the form of bottles, pills cigarettes and any other forbidden items you find lying around. Unfortunately, as easy as these items can be found, help comes at a far greater price. You lose points every time you ask for help, get captured, shot or simply take too long on a mission and losing points means you can't get a perfect score at the end of the level. I'm no hard-core game player by any stretch of the imagination but even I recognize the satisfaction of getting a perfect score, something you will usually be able to achieve on your second attempt (<i>at the worst</i>).

If you're not bothered about getting a perfect score and decide to ask for help then it will make the game a little easy. I went back after completing the game in order to get this help and they literally tell you how to do everything in a given task. So it's not something I'd recommend doing unless you get very stuck because solving one of the games puzzles yourself is very satisfying. The puzzles themselves are not what you'd normally expect in an adventure game though, but they do fit into this games story. There's no mystical crystals or hidden leavers, instead you have to focus on your timing. One puzzle I remember particularly well involved getting a uniform from a guards hut while there's a guard patrolling the door. What you have to do is hide behind the building and knock on the wall. When he comes looking you run the other way around and pick the lock, but if your timing is even a few seconds off you'll be seen and he'll raise the alarm. That's the kind of puzzles you can expect to be greeted by in Prisoner Of War and that one I just totally spoiled is one of the easier puzzles so you better get your timing perfected.

That's what makes the game one of the best stealth games available. You have to perfect your timing as you have no weapons at any point throughout the game. It's impossible to go on an M16 rampage like you can in other stealth games such as Metal Gear Solid 2. You'll never get to even look at a gun that isn't firmly squeezed in the guards hands and they're not afraid to use them. The result works to make the sneaking around even tenser because if you're seen you're dead. Thankfully the sneaking is kept varied thanks to the different puzzles you have to do, so sometimes you'll have to do something as simple as hiding round a corner to get in some reconnaissance, whilst others involve disguising yourself in a guards uniform to get an item from a high security area. The disguise sections are easily my favorite as they are by far the most tense levels. They're not as easy as it would seem because a lot of things will make the guards suspicious and if they get close enough to see your face they'll recognize you. This means walking slowly as running is not necessary for a guard, not wandering to close to the guards, not being spotted with large items and staying away from generals who can't be fooled. Trust me, if you're not one of those cheats who payed off the escape committee, you'll need to do a lot of reconnaissance to learn the guards routines if you want to beat these levels.

Unfortunately as much fun as the stealth action is I did say the game wasn't perfect and there a few points that need to be addressed. The guards themselves are not exactly the brightest sparks. Intelligence wise I'd put them up there with the original <b>Metal Gear Solid</b> on PS1. They'll react to noise, follow footsteps and whatnot, but they are always quick to forget the minor point of a runaway prisoner. Succeed at getting up a ladder after being spotted and you'll be fine. The guards will never follow you up the ladder, and if you stay away from the edge then after a few seconds they'll forget you're even there and go on about their daily routine. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there's no problem with the AI and that's just an example of German intelligence (Chris, Bender I'm kidding). Though you can have a lot of fun at the guards lack of intelligence. Stones can be thrown to distract them but it's rarely necessary and you'll soon find it a lot more fun to throw it at their heads. Just make sure there are other prisoners around. They're not that dumb! However when there are others around, the moment you here a confused guard shout "Who Zhrough zat?" (<i>My attempt at typing the games version of a German accent</i>) you'll at the very least smirk.

Finally then, my other problem was that the game is very linear. Each level takes the structure of a number of missions and they have to be completed in a set order with no chance for doing your own thing. Now while there is sometimes multiple ways to get to a mission objective the objective itself never changes. It's impossible to explore other avenue's of escape than the ones you're presented with, which was what the previews promised, and so have to follow the games missions through the level and repeat on the next level. There's not even a chance for multiple endings, you just accept that those who die or get captured have to and there's nothing you can do about it. In this day and age those 2 faults could have easily been fixed and they would have increased the games life span no end.

Still it's a testament to the games quality that it can still achieve 4 stars despite those pretty serious problems. The stealth makes up for it though because despite those problems the actual stealth is among the best, and tensest gameplay I have ever played.