Great Escape Xbox ( 2003 )

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Published on July 5, 2023 4:00:17 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlhxKyIXU38

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The Great Escape is an action-adventure stealth video game based on the 1963 movie of the same name. It was developed by UK-based developer Pivotal Games. The game was released on Xbox, Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 2.

Gameplay
There are four playable characters, from the film, each with a special ability:

MacDonald (Gordon Jackson's character), who can speak German to pass himself off as a guard.
Hendley (James Garner's character), who can pick pockets to get papers, keys, etc., and must also act as guide/escort to Blythe (Donald Pleasence's character).
Hilts (Steve McQueen's character), who can pick locks to get into buildings.
Sedgwick (James Coburn's character), who can fix mechanical devices.
There are 18 levels in the game. Some of these recreate scenes from the film, but most are original scenarios. The early levels of the game are all original scenarios, depicting the characters' first captures and their early escape attempts from other POW camps, all of which ultimately fail and lead to their being sent to Stalag Luft III (whereas the film began with the prisoners arriving at that camp). By contrast, the later levels of the game are nearly all based on scenes from the film, albeit significantly expanded, in particular in the case of Sedgwick, who is shown undertaking several missions for the French Resistance before escaping with their help into Spain.

The ending of the game is also changed so that all four playable characters escape, whereas in the film only Sedgwick escapes, with the other three being recaptured (and, in MacDonald's case, executed). In the game, Sedgwick escapes as he does in the film (extra levels in the game have him work as a saboteur for the French Resistance before they help him escape), Hendley & Blythe manage to fly safely to Switzerland, MacDonald escapes Germany in a cargo ship, and Hilts succeeds in jumping the border fence into Switzerland.

Despite the cover showing Hilts with a gun hiding from a guard in the camp, such a scene never occurs in either the game or the film. The front cover may have been inspired by a scene late in the film where Hilts, disguised in German uniform, holds a gun while hiding behind a shed after trying to escape a German patrol on a motorbike.