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Prisoner of War
by Jolex Del Pilar
Wednesday, September 4 2002
Codemaster's takes a familiar setting and attempts something brave, unique, but in the end, fairly entertaining.
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Title:
Prisoner of War
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Platform:
Xbox
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Publisher:
Codemasters |
Developer:
Wide Games |
#
of Players: 1 |
Genre:
Action/Adventure
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Origin:
U.K
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Expected
Release:
September 2002 |
Grapevine:
The action in POW is fairly mellow compared to other World War II games. You don’t run and gun, or drop bombs on factories, you simply sneak around. |
About two years ago, one of the most popular backdrops for many PC games was World War II. Some of the best included European Airwar for the PC from Microprose, and a multitude of ground based strategy games from other companies. To a certain extent the original fervor for World War II games seems to have subsided, although the Medal of Honor series from EA seems to have garnered plenty of popularity. However, out of all the World War II games ever developed, none has taken quite the approach Prisoner of War has.
When most gamers think of a World War II game, some of the first things that pop to mind are daring daylight raids over Berlin, or storming the beaches at Normandy. That isn’t the case here with Prisoner of War. Prisoner of War puts you in the shoes of a downed American airman who is captured by the German’s and put into a POW camp. Of course being an American, that makes your character brash, loud mouthed, and generally hard to keep in captivity. That being the case, your main objective is to circumvent the German captors and find your way to freedom and safety. Obviously that won’t be an easy task or there wouldn’t be much of a game.
You start the game out as Captain Lewis of the American Army Air Force (that was what it was called back then). While you are fulfilling a special surveillance mission for command, you are shot down and taken captive. The first camp you are brought to is only a small holding camp that prepares prisoners to transfer to larger camps. There are only a few POWs and not many guards. This is where you will learn the basics of gameplay, which in essence makes the first camp one large tutorial, a fairly smart idea on Codemaster’s part. Later on in the game, you will be put into much larger POW camps as big as small towns with over a dozen POWs to interact with.
When you first start out, sneaking around the camp safely will remain dependant on your quick reflexes and general awareness about your surroundings. Even so, some things will be nearly impossible to accomplish without some sort of aid. Aid may come in the form of face camouflage, a nifty telescope, or even a crowbar for breaking locks. However to get this aid, you must have “currency”. Currency in POW isn’t what you might think because as you might imagine Reich marks and US dollars aren’t exactly going to be lying around a POW camp. Currency in POW is actually just valuable items that you will find (or steal) around the camp. Things like medical supplies are highly valued and can be stolen from the camps infirmary for trade.
Interacting with your fellow captives is the key to success in POW as they will provide you with many helpful items.
The action in POW is fairly mellow compared to other World War II games. You don’t run and gun, or drop bombs on factories, you simply sneak around. You duck behind buildings, hide in bushes, stand in shadows, and even distract guards by knocking on items ala Metal Gear Solid. This is the basic gameplay of the game, and if you are turned off by that then maybe POW isn’t your type of game. However if you enjoy games that require a little bit of thinking rather than quick reflexes then POW might be up your alley. The game is also nice about keeping you in the right direction, especially with the amount of objectives you have to complete during any given mission. In your options menu (press start), you can access your current objectives for the mission and it will tell you what you have left to complete for the mission.
Visually, the game isn’t all that bad. Of course, it’s not going to be Halo, or Wolfenstein 3D, but it’s acceptable given the game environment. Low-res textures, and some glitchy clipping sometimes surface here and there, but nothing that will ruin the gaming experience.
There isn’t much to the sound in this game in terms of music or musical score. It’s not really that type of game so that’s forgivable. The voice acting is great in some parts, and borderline acceptable in others. The NPC characters seem to have good voice acting talent behind them. At least they don’t have the A.D.D inflicted Shenmue kids syndrome (“Hello Mister, would you like to play!!” *shudder*).
In the end POW has little wrong with it, besides the minor stuff mentioned above, but the game isn’t going to appeal a lot to those who want a lot of action, which not surprisingly is a lot of you out there. It’s slow paced, sometimes methodical, but in the end you do feel a sense of accomplishment when you finally do finish the game. It’s not for everyone, but then again, what game really is?
--- Jolex Del Pilar
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