The Great Escape

aka: Escape
Moby ID: 3521
Commodore 64 Specs
Buy on Windows
$3.99 new on Steam
Included in See Also

Description official descriptions

The Great Escape is an isometric action-adventure game. Controlling a prisoner of war in a German camp, your goal is to break out undetected. There are numerous ways to freedom – back doors, cracked fences, even underground tunnels. However, you have to plan your escape while obeying the strict rules of the camp.

Number one: Daily program. You have to attend two roll calls a day, one meal, one exercise, and stay in bed at night. Failure to appear at any of these events will result in the alarm being rung. When you do not touch the controls, your protagonist will move automatically, going to all important events. You have to detect and use gaps in the time-table to explore the camp.

Rule number two: guard rooms are off limits. If a soldier catches you in a room that is forbidden, you will be placed in solitary confinement. Of course, you have to enter restricted parts of the camp to find items crucial for your escape. The moral flag will turn from green to red to indicate that you are in an area where you shouldn’t be.

Rule number three: no prisoner may carry forbidden objects. When you are caught in a suspicious situation, you will be stripped of all items that you found so far. To avoid that, you have to deposit objects in a safe place. You need to find keys to open locked doors, uniforms for camouflage, flashlights to see in dark tunnels, and many more.

Rule number four: guard commands are to be obeyed at all times. The German soldiers patrol on fixed routes and have a line of sight. You have to learn the guard’s routes and sneak past their backs to avoid detection when breaking out. If you are caught, your morale will decrease. If your morale reaches zero, your will to escape is broken.

Groups +

Screenshots

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Credits (Commodore 64 version)

Produced by
Cover artwork by (all releases)

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 79% (based on 16 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.3 out of 5 (based on 32 ratings with 1 reviews)

Ultimately, the game was ruined

The Good
Well I suppose the isometry is nice, though I'm not sure that the lack of colour really adds anything. I particularly like the detail of the barbed wire. The gameplay is quite simplistic, you explore a relatively small prison camp, looking for an escape, before your morale runs out. If you do manage to escape, the idea is that you replay the game, the challenge this time being to find an alternative escape. That's all fine I suppose, maybe the game is short, but replayable.

The picking up and choosing of objects to solve problems is quite crudely programmed, but I found fun in wondering what each object is and what it could be used for. Limiting your inventory to 2 items also creates an interesting challenge.

So the graphics and gameplay produce a bit of a realistic P.O.W atmosphere and the game does feel a bit like the famous 1963 film of the same name, what with being regularly sent to "the cooler" (solitary). And I suppose it's interesting to play a war-themed game, where you're completely on the defensive i.e you don't have to kill anyone to escape.

The Bad
One particular part of the game was a "dealbreaker" for me. An important item is placed, almost completely invisible, in a completely unlikely place. When something like this happens in a game it indicates what the designers/programmers expect from the players... "Spend your precious time studying the screens of our game for an odd pixel that may turn out to be an item needed to win the game!".

So it is quite easy to die i.e lose your morale, then you must start over and after that, going through those daily routines again can be a real bore. One can say of the routine "Oh well, I suppose it's realistic" and respect the realism, but then you're rewarded for that with the "realism" of an important item just lying in the dirt outside. After that happened, no amount of P.O.W game atmosphere could give me the will to keep enduring those daily routines. The character's morale? What about the player's morale?

The Bottom Line
It's probably worth trying, to appreciate the graphics and the prison camp atmosphere, but I'd strongly suggest looking at a walkthrough first so you know what you're in for. It's probably better to be let down that way, than by playing the game. I think the graphics could be left alone and parts of the gameplay changed to make it a much better game.

By the way, this game was recently redistributed under license by Piko Interactive, available online (download).

DOS · by Andrew Fisher (697) · 2018

Discussion

Subject By Date
Was spared this at Christmas '90 Andrew Fisher (697) Apr 16, 2023
Thunder Mountain? Edwin Drost (9295) Apr 24, 2017

Trivia

Engine

The isometric game engine introduced in The Great Escape was reused one year later in Where Time Stood Still.

Awards

  • Commodore Force
    • December 1993 (Issue 13) – #98 “Readers' Top 100”
  • Zzap!
    • January 1990 (Issue 57) – 'The Best Games of the 80's Decade' (Robin Hogg)

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Related Sites +

  • Abandonia
    for DOS (CGA graphics): downloadable releases; additional material
  • CPC-Power (in French)
    for Amstrad CPC: dowloadable releases; artwork; additional material
  • Game Base 64
    for C64: Games, Database, Music, Emulation, Frontends, Reviews and Articles
  • Lemon 64
    for C64: games, reviews and music
  • My Abandonware
    for DOS and Amstrad CPC: downloadable releases; online versions; additional material
  • Wikipedia
    combined platform entry
  • World of Spectrum
    for ZX Spectrum: downloadable releases; additional material; player reviews; magazine references; magazine adverts

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 3521
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by -Chris.

Antstream added by firefang9212. Windows added by Foxhack. Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum added by Martin Smith.

Additional contributors: Terok Nor, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack, ZeTomes.

Game added April 4, 2001. Last modified February 13, 2024.