Hostages

Hostages is a 1988 tactical shooter video game developed and published by Infogrames for the Acorn Electron, Archimedes, Atari ST, Amiga, Apple IIGS, Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, MSX, Nintendo Entertainment System, and ZX Spectrum. The game depicts a terrorist attack and hostage crisis at an embassy in Paris, with the player controlling a six-man GIGN counterterrorist team as they are deployed to defeat the terrorists and free their hostages. An indirect sequel, Alcatraz, was released for the Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS in 1992. Gameplay Hostages is split into two or three (depending on platform) distinct sections with different gameplay styles. In the first section, the player controls GIGN snipers Delta, Echo, and Mike (names vary between versions, such as "Mike", "Steve", and "Jumbo" in the NES version) as they attempt to reach designated vantage points in buildings across the street from the embassy to cover the main assault; however, the terrorists have searchlights set up and are scanning the street for movement. The player controls one operative at a time in a side-scroller segment where they must reach one of the vantage points while avoiding the searchlights. To do so, the player must time their movements, take cover behind fences or in buildings, or roll, crawl, and dive to avoid the searchlights. If an operative is spotted by a searchlight, the terrorists will shoot at them; the player must roll, dive, or enter cover to avoid getting hit. Once an operative enters a building containing a vantage point, the player takes control of the next operative at the starting area. The section ends when all three operatives have reached a vantage point.