The Great Escape details

SCi has today released the first gameplay information on its action game The Great Escape, which is based on the 1963 movie of the same name. In the movie, which is based on actual events during World War II, the Germans open Stalag Luft North--a maximum security POW camp designed to be escape-proof--and in imprisoning some of the Allied forces' most skilled escape artists there, unwittingly assemble the finest escape team in military history.

The third-person action game will revolve around the subsequent escape attempts from the POW camp, with other levels in the game challenging players to make their way through a busy hospital, a moving train, and an active Luftwaffe airfield, to name but a few. There'll be plenty of action and combat in the game, but to succeed, players will also have to master the art of stealth using such cunning tricks as looking through keyholes, dragging the bodies of unconscious guards into the shadows, and having other prisoners create distractions.

It's not yet known which character or characters the player will be in control of, but it seems that players will either be able to switch between a number of different characters or at least control members of a team indirectly. SCi has revealed that different Allied characters in the game will all have their own skill set, with talents including speaking German, lock picking, and picking pockets.

The Great Escape is being developed by Pivotal Games and is scheduled for release in the second quarter of next year. For more information, check out our previous coverage of the game.