The Great Escape is based on the 1963 film of the same name starring the inimitable Steve McQueen. And any game that promises the option of playing as 'the Cooler King' himself has got to be alright. Hasn't it? Well hasn't it?

Brought to us by Pivotal Games, the same crowd that created the Desert Storm series, it's interesting that they chose to release The Great Escape at almost exactly the same time as Conflict Desert Storm II. They're similar games in so far as they both focus on war, different wars yes, but war nevertheless. Also similar is how each game borrows elements from several different genres, so releasing both at the same time seems like commercial suicide to us.

Seeing a multi-platform release, The Great Escape is largely an action game at its core, but is also part stealth and part driving game. Multiple characters are playable, each with different skills to help you in the many situations you encounter. It's only later in the game that you get to play as Steve McQueen's character 'Hilts', who is able to pick locks. You start off as MacDonald, a Scot who sounds like Sean Connery with a bad case of the 'screaming awfuls'. He's an intelligence officer, who can speak German fluently.

Once past the opening cutscene, you're thrown straight into the action – a set piece that explains how your man MacDonald gets captured. You're in a Lancaster Bomber that's on fire; grab an extinguisher, put that fire out. Next, man the tail-gun, and bag as many enemy Stuka aircraft as possible. By this stage, your bomber is all beat up, and is going down, so it's time to grab a parachute and bail. You land in enemy territory and are captured.

So begins your stay in the lovely German resort that is Dulag Luft 10. It's a medium-security POW camp that you must escape from using stealth, subversion and cunning. Being the closest thing to a training mission that the game has, it's in marked contrast to the full-on action of the first mission and is a nice change of pace.

We like how the effort was made to explain how MacDonald ended up in a POW camp, and it's an effective set piece to boot. The game is full of set pieces, including a finale based on the 'motorbike chase' scene from the film (and several others that are also driving-based). The missions themselves consist of acquiring items to enable you to complete the many objectives you have for any particular mission. Objectives are updated throughout each mission, which helps keep things moving at a decent pace.

Our first reaction to the stealth-based missions in The Great Escape was to exclaim "Yuck!! A poor mans Splinter Cell…." and to a certain extent it is. In saying that though, the compulsion to progress, to 'just get to that next mission', is great. How the game moves from mission to mission is rather linear, and in some places it plays like it's on rails. However, you do often get the freedom within the boundaries of each mission to achieve your objectives how you want to, and though there is occasionally only one way to complete a particular objective, it's a challenge figuring it out.

Graphically, it's somewhat dated. The character animations and level of detail leave a bit to be desired; they're not completely crap, but they're far from great. The various environments and locales throughout the game are generally pretty nice, for instance, one mission set in a castle atop a mountain has an excellent atmosphere, with spotlights slowly panning across the compound and guards patrolling the area. Guards are momentarily illuminated as spotlights pass over them, and while this is a nice effect, it also happens to your own character, even if he is hiding behind a solid brick wall.

There are more graphical glitches like this throughout, and while they're annoying they don't hinder your progress; your character can be lit up by a spotlight even if in hiding, but it doesn't mean you get discovered. Minor niggles rather than serious flaws.

Cutscenes are good, but the lip-syncing is distinctly average, and could definitely have been improved upon. The cutscenes themselves have a habit of 'jittering' right at the end, which causes an effect not dissimilar to an audio CD skipping on your stereo. In general, the graphics just feel a little cheap, even though there are some very nice touches here and there.

One of the things we did like about The Great Escape was the sound. The stirring orchestral soundtrack swells and builds at appropriately tense times, and certainly adds something to the overall vibe. Weapons, when you eventually acquire some, sound very meaty. They boom out of the stereo speakers and work exceptionally well with the excellent Dual Shock 2 vibration effect. The only letdown with the sound is the voices. Not so much the quality of the acting, rather the quality of the soundbites themselves; they sometimes sound crackly and muffled.

We enjoyed the fluid and intuitive control method. A number of control options are selectable, but we found the default set to be more than adequate. In no time at all you'll be sneaking, crawling, peeking around corners, and taking out guards with your bare hands. When in 'stealth' mode, you can peek through keyholes to see what, or who, is on the other side of a door. This is a nice feature, but it's flawed; you can pan around to an excessively large degree. While we do not want the game to be more difficult than necessary, it just gives too much away. It's not dissimilar to poking your head through an open window and looking around to your hearts content, all without anyone on the other side seeing you.

There are also several other flaws with the game-play. Like not being able to pick up an enemies weapon after you've killed him, and a weapon aiming system that is clunky and far too restrictive. You can go into first person mode to use weapons, but as soon as you move your player it reverts back to the third person. You can lean out from behind objects and use a weapon when in third person view, but not in first person. The "auto-lock on" aiming system is unpredictable and many weapons require you to be standing still for effective aiming, which leaves you completely open to enemy fire.

Two main types of enemy feature in the game, standard 'Goons' – who are thick as pig-sh…. err we mean to say they're grunts who just aren't very bright, and 'Ferrets' who will actively seek you out if they notice anything suspicious. Unfortunately the 'Goons' are just too stupid for words. If they're alerted to your presence they will go after you, but it's not an uncommon experience to be running around with a half dozen of them on your tail. Even if you end up in the same room with half a dozen of them, it's no problem to simply run past them and carry on exploring; such is their lack of urgency in apprehending you.

The guards follow set paths, so it's often a matter of lurking in the shadows until you've got their routine sorted before proceeding. Another continuity issue that didn't sit particularly well with us was how enemies just disappear after they've been killed. So gone is the added challenge of having to hide bodies to avoid detection, a feature that has become standard in most stealth games around today.