If you\'re a fan of the movies such as The Great Escape, or even Chicken Run, you may find that you enjoy Prisoner of War. As the game begins, you take on the role of Captain Lewis Stone, a WWII pilot who is shot down while flying on a mission. You and your copilot are both quickly captured and taken to one of several POW camps. Your initial mission is to escape by using stealthy tactics and a variety of items that you find throughout the camp. The first camp is small and your first goals are pretty simple to accomplish, but just when you think you\'ve escaped, you\'re transferred higher security prison where you learn new stealthy tactics and gain new items such as a German uniform, crowbar, lock pick, etc. Prisoner of War seems to borrow from games such as Metal Gear Solid and MGS2, where stealth is the key to winning. In fact, there is absolutely no violence on your part at all, and very little on the part of the guards. Sure, they\'ll shoot you if you try to escape, but they apparently are bad shots. When you get shot, you wake up in the infirmary and you get to start out on the next day (or you have the option to load up your last saved game). The sound in Prisoner of War is very well done. It helps to crank up the speakers and let the music and sound effects pull you into the game. As you are in stealth mode and are at the risk of being detected, the sound effects and music seem to intensify adding to your own tension as you quietly sneak past the guards to duck under a nearby truck.

Graphics

The graphics are pretty average and somewhat disappointing. The textures in the camps look pretty good, but the player models look flat and the character\'s mouths don\'t always match up with what they\'re saying. Another problem is that many of the prisoners look identical. It can be frustrating when you need to talk with a certain person, but you find yourself running around trying to figure out who is who. I found that the best time to accomplish this is during mealtime when everyone is gathered together in the mess hall. The biggest problem with Prisoner of War is the same problem that plagues most 3rd person games. The camera. I found myself very frustrated at times when the camera was on an opposite side of a wall from me, or at an angle where I couldn\'t see a guard walking by, but fortunately the game has an extremely useful radar located on your main screen, and the game\'s controls provide a way to manipulate the camera when it is at a poor angle. The game controls very well and the controls are simple to learn. It can be frustrating with any game when you are plagued with a poor control system, but fortunately Prisoner of War does not suffer from this problem. It has an extremely simple pick up and play control scheme.

Gameplay

You should be busy for several hours trying to finish Prisoner of War, and there is some motivation to replay levels once you have finished them. The game contains a ranking system grading you from A-F on each level. If you finish a level with an A rank, you can unlock features such as adjusting guard awareness, infinite rocks, infinite money, etc. Other than that, there is very little that will make you want to go back and replay the levels. So although I highly recommend this game, you might want to simply rent the game or pick up a previously played copy.

Appropriate?

From a Christian perspective, this game is as clean as it gets. Sure it\'s a WWII war game, but it focuses entirely on stealth. The game does encourage theft, but it is stealing items from your captures in order to provide a means of escape. This brings about a moral dilemma that you may want to consider before giving this game to your kids. There is also very little violence. No violence on your part, but the German guards will shoot at you if you try to escape, but you do not die. ***SPOILER*** Also, when escaping from the first camp, your friend who was captured with you is shot and killed, but there is no blood shown. As a result of this, Captain Stone\'s actions are motivated by vengeance. ***SPOILER***