| Game Reviews From a Parental Perspective! | |
|
|
|
| Home | Forums | Review Archive | Columns | Feature Articles |
|
Home >
Review Archive >
Video Games
> Results: Great Escape, The
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Scroll down for our Kid Factor. 
Itﾒll remind you more of Hoganﾒs Heroes than the classic film The Great Escape is one of the all time classic World War 2 films. Itﾒs a fictionalization of a real life escape from a legendary Nazi prison camp where the Germans housed the most cunning and dangerous prisoners- the oneﾒs most likely to try to escape. The idea was to put all the bad eggs in one basket, and put them in a camp that was supposed to be escape proof. The film had an all star cast, featuring James Garner, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasance, and yes, Steve McQueen. This game is a rather late tie in to that game. The first thing to note about the game, even before you open it, is that it FEATURES STEVE MCQUEEN! Thatﾒs right! None of the other actors are mentioned, but the legendary Steveﾒs name is mentioned repeatedly on the box, and heﾒs in every single screenshot. Using motion capture technology, they added Steveﾒs likeness to the game. Iﾒm not sure how much motion they were able to capture, considering heﾒs been dead for 30 years. Heck, just getting him into that blue suit must have been a rather icky job. Production problems like these could explain why the game is so mediocre. The Great Escape consists of 18 chapters, of 2 different types. Most are stealth levels, where you sneak around accomplishing objectives. Think of it as being like Tenchu or perhaps Metal Gear Solid, except instead of killing people, all you ever do is run from place to place talking to people and getting items. The rest of the levels are action levels, which play like Medal of Honor, only with a third person perspective. The first few levels detail the exploits of the prisoners before The Great Escape (the film) takes place, detailing how they were originally captured and some of their earlier escape attempts. Despite the packagingﾒs emphasis on Steve McQueenﾒs presence in the game, youﾒll only actually use him on a few missions, and youﾒll be a third of the way through the game before you even see him. The missions also tend to be rather short. You could easily play the whole game in 12 hours or so if youﾒre any good at this type of thing. The game often feels like things were tacked on just to make it longer. One mission for instance has you talk to the highest-ranking British officer. Afterwards, your next objective is to talk to the Forger, whoﾒs STANDING RIGHT THERE. Why was it necessary to make this a separate objective? It feels like unnecessary padding to lengthen a short game, and things like this happen all too frequently. The stealth levels are rather easy. Generally youﾒll have objectives like Get to Building 3 and talk to the Forger, or Go to the Guard Hut and steal a key. In fact, all the missions in the stealth sections involve going from place to place and either talking to someone or getting something. There are a variety of ﾓstealthﾔ moves you can do, such as crawling, ducking, rolling under buildings, and peering through keyholes, but youﾒll find that you donﾒt actually have to use them. In fact, the fastest and easiest way to get through these levels is to simply run from objective to objective. When guards approach you can simply run behind cover or a building and avoid detection. The controls are rather clumsy, so trying to actually crouch down or roll under a building is more likely to get you caught than running away. Similarly, while you can look through keyholes, you usually wonﾒt need to, because you can simply throw open a door and if a guard sees you, heﾒll simply walk up, yell ﾓWhat are you doing?ﾔ, and, if you havenﾒt actually walked OUT of the door, heﾒll simply walk away. In fact, thatﾒs the easiest way to do things. Simply throw open the door, and after the guard yells at you, walk right out behind him while his back is turned. He wonﾒt turn around or notice you. In fact, all the guards seem to be graduates of the Helen Keller Military Academy, incapable of noticing you at a range of more than 10 feet. These missions also tend to be very short. The action missions are more frustrating. Inevitably theyﾒll remind you of Medal of Honor, and they compare badly in every way. The controls are extremely clumsy. One particular level has you fighting on a train. The bad guys are dangerous, but youﾒll die more often from accidentally falling off of the train. Moving and shooting is nearly impossible, you wonﾒt hit anything, so you have to sit and shoot the bad guys until theyﾒre all gone before moving on. The incredibly bad save game system makes this especially frustrating. How bad is the save system? Some games only allow you to save in particular places. That can be frustrating. The only thing more frustrating might be being allowed to save wherever you want, but only 3 times per mission. Thatﾒs what The Great Escape has. To compound the problem, the missions only present to you one objective at a time, usually. You never really know how much further you have to go. So youﾒll often find yourself using up your saves early in the mission, only to find that you have several difficult parts to get through, or worse that you tried again and again to get through a particularly tough part, preserving your saves for later, only to find that the mission ends soon afterwards and youﾒve saved them for nothing. I simply cannot imagine a worse save system. The graphics in the game are rather poor. Again, inevitably it will be compared to Medal of Honor, and itﾒs inferior in every way. Lower resolution, poor character modeling, and the people look like rubber dolls with melted faces. Clipping errors abound. The sound is even worse ﾖ Steve McQueenﾒs sampled voiceovers sound like they were recorded with a tape recorder by holding it up to the TVﾒs speaker. Even worse, the things they say rarely match whatﾒs going on. Steveﾒs saying when he fails in a mission is ﾓOh, uh, youﾒll still be here when I get out?ﾔ. I guess that makes sense if you assume heﾒs going to be put in solitary, but when heﾒs just be shot to pieces, it doesnﾒt. There are some bugs, but mostly with AI, and nothing to crash the game. One mission, for instance, involves a guard and an officer searching the barracks. You have to hide everything before they come in. However, the guard sometimes would stop in front of the door, blocking the officer from coming in, and theyﾒd just stand stuck in the doorway until you reload the game. Another time I was running past a building when a message popped up advising me on how to open a tunnel. I tried and tried to open the tunnel before I realized the game was referring to something INSIDE the building. Ultimately, The Great Escape is disappointing. Itﾒs a bad game, but not an extremely bad game. It will hold your interest for brief periods, but there are so many better games out there, it would be a crime to waste your time on this one. Kid Factor: The Great Escape would probably not be a good game to play with your kids. Not because of violence, since even the action sequences are relatively blood free, but mostly because it consists of dull stealth levels punctuated by an occasional frustrating action level. Older kids might enjoy playing it, but probably not. Reviewer Recommended Ages: 10+ Genre: Action/Adventure ESRB Rating: T-Teen Publisher: Gotham Games Developer: Pivotal Games Reviewer: Dave Alpern 
The Great Escape would probably not be a good game to play with your kids. Not because of violence, since even the action sequences are relatively blood free, but mostly because it consists of dull stealth levels punctuated by an occasional frustrating action level. Older kids might enjoy playing it, but probably not.
Kid Factor by Dave Alpern
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Great Escape, The |
Read the GamerDad 2007 Holiday Guide!
|
Please Note: GamerDad is not intended to be read by anyone under 18. We stay clean, but be warned! Content Management System developed by Redbird Solutions. |
