The Great Escape is a 2003 video game by Pivotal Games for PlayStation 2, PC and Xbox.
The game is an adaptation of the eponymous 1963 World War II-set film of the same name starring Steve McQueen.
Not to be confused with Rayman 2: The Great Escape.
The game contains examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Hendley, MacDonald and Sedgewick all get in at least one gunfight against German troops while all of them plus Hilts can potentially choke out a large amount of German forces.
- Artificial Brilliance: Guards will investigate opened doors, follow your bloodstains you leave when low on health and are surprisingly hard to shake when they're chasing you and will even lock the doors on Prisoner huts if you keep opening them.
- Artificial Stupidity: Guards take a surprsingly long time to recognise you on lower difficulties, even on Hard they can be somewhat blind from a distance, (Though they have significantly better vision during an alert.) and Guards checking opened doors in prisoner huts can be easily choked out once they turn around.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Unlike the movie, Hendley, Blythe, Hilts and MacDonald all manage to escape back home.
- Gaiden Game: Can be considered one to the Conflict Series as they share devs and the same engine with alot of the mechanics reused for this.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: You can punch guards to stun them, however you cannot kill them this way (outside of waiting for them to get up behind them so you can grab them and choke them out): this will cause them to start shooting to kill.
- Quick Melee: Trying to shoot a guard in close range will result in you striking them with your gun, Guards can do the same to you which will result in being arrested on Yellow Alert and just damage on a Red Alert.
- Respawning Enemies: Guards tend to respawn slowly when there's no alert, but their respawn rate increases if the alarm is raised; there are also additional guards that respawn and leave once the alert ends.
- Improperly Placed Firearms: The Gestapo and Hendley during "Last Train Home" use Arminius Revolvers, which were not invented at the time of WW2.
- Shown Their Work: Several dialogue/levels show the devs did their research: "Delousing Breakout" is based on a real life escape attempt at Stalug Luft 3 that wasn't shown in the film, and it's thought that Arminius Revolvers (the basis of the revolvers used by Bartlett and the Gestapo officers on the train level) were used in the original film. It's also mentioned that prisoners received tools from the Red Cross (in this case, a compass) which was never mentioned in the film.
- Spared by the Adaptation: The body count in the game is significantly reduced compared to the movie; Mac manages to link up with La Résistance, Hendley's and Blythe's plane doesn't suffer engine trouble and is implied to successfully make it to Switzerland, and, while Hilts is not killed in the movie, he successfully manages to make the final jump across the border instead of botching it up and being recaptured. The only character whose death may have not been averted is Bartlett, as he is not seen again after getting separated from Mac while being chased by the Gestapo.
- Wanted Meter: Your campass will start flashing yellow if the guards are chasing you, it'll turn red if they're shooting to kill and will start flashing slower if they're starting to give up the chase.
