Prisoner of War
 

Has anyone else played this old PS2>PC game? Don't laugh because it's a really good solid game and one I often return to... you get sent to Colditz once you've caused enough trouble in the holding-camp and then the Stalag Luft, and the Colditz arena is very well modelled.

The sad for me thing is that it's a third-person game and the controls drive you mad at first... if only someone could've modded first-person play into this. Maybe that's not possible, I don't know. You can switch to a temporary 1st person view while watching for guards and looking through keyholes etc., but as soon as you start to move again you're back to 3rd person view.

And you won't want to turn off the music in this game because it contributes massively to the tension... and for a wartime game where you never have a weapon and nobody gets killed, this is one of the most exciting I've ever played. You increase your chances of success along the way by such devices as stealing German uniforms from places like laundry rooms... when you start out all you can do is hide your face with a tin of boot polish.

Nope, never got around to try that but had great time playing 'The Great Escape' on Commodore 64 and 'Escape from Colditz' on Amiga. Not that I had any clue what I was doing since I was way too young a ferret at the time.

SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT ESCAPE!:O:

Escapism has never been so, well... escapist

I've now found this wonderful feature and walkthrough online, written by someone who clearly loves the game and I'm going to study it carefully:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/xbox/5...war/faqs/18622

... in it he describes how (for both PS2 and PC) you can switch to first-person view! Boy, this is going to be so much fun now! The clunky third-person controls really spoiled things the first time around. I've already tried it out and it works.

@ Dowly...I also have 'The Great Escape' (I had a thread about that on here somewhere too). A much more visceral game... the shouts of the pursuing Germans are harrowing, plus you have guns, knives and blood. I've never heard of 'Escape from Colditz'... I wonder whether that ever found its way onto PC?

It was Amiga only title, but the there appears to be a recreation of it on PC:
https://aperture-software.github.io/colditz-escape/

Thanks. I just downloaded the Windows file so I'll take a look at it later... looks a bit like LEGO :salute:

The sneaking and clambering about in the dark on balconies and rooftops in "PoW" reminds me of the Splinter Cell games, only here you don't get to hang down and snap sentries' necks with your thighs

Is POW that game where you are in a POW camp with only about 6 other prisoners?

I remember playing some game like that but I can't remember the name. It was pretty goofy being in a mostly empty POW camp and too many of the missions were timed missions which I hate.

But it was a cool concept.

Yes, you start out in a holding camp with about 6 others, then you get sent to other camps where there are greater numbers of fellow 'kriegies'... Colditz among them.

A great concept as you say, and I'd love to see a newer version with better graphics, although these are solid and pretty soon it all seems real enough.

It's got all the trappings of a good PoW yarn too... tunnels, diguises, scrounging and also the Colditz glider which you help to build.


EDIT: Been a while since I played last and I've just begun a new game to find that there are indeed only 2 other prisoners in the holding camp, one of which tells you that the others were bussed out the previous week.

You are time-limited by the simple necessity that you are present at the next roll-call, otherwise a camp-wide search is instigated. This is all part of the fun, though

I'm finding this First Person view can be buggy... occasionally you get dumped to the desktop if you open a door (right-click) or toggle the crouch (I configured this to either middle mouse button or keyboard 'C', but both had the problem so it isn't the mouse). But I don't have to restart the game... just click the toolbar to bring it back up... but this is a nerve-racking distraction if you're on the verge of discovery by sentries.

I tested this out on two different PCs and it's the same on each, so the instability is in the game when played in First Person... it never happened in the Third Person view

This is driving me bloody mad already. I have to steal a set of bellows from the kitchen in the Kommandantur for use in the escape tunnel. It's easy enough to grab them, avoiding the German cook, but getting away from the building and back into the pound without being seen is near impossible. I did it when I played this before but I can't remember how.

Edit: There's a much simpler way: stroll into the mess hall at breakfast disguised as a goon, then pinch the bellows off the little table behind the counter as soon as the cook leaves. After this, wait for the prisoners to return at lunchtime and hand them over. And don't forget to change out of the German uniform when you go back to your hut to save the game

I made it to Colditz. Now I'm going to make such a stink in this Third Reich of theirs. Oh... wrong movie