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A warm sunny day in Paris is disturbed by a bunch of terrorist storming a local Embassy and holding all within hostage. As the head of the Direct Intervention Team (DICT) your job is to guide six men through the Embassy on a rescue mission.

You get a choice of difficulty levels: Lieutenant, Captain and Commander. The higher the rank the more terrorists there are to kill, the more hostages to rescue and less time to do it in. Choose from four missions plus a training mission to get you used to the controls: Target, Ultimatum, Rescue and Assault.

The first part sees you guiding three marksmen into position. Codenamed Delta, Echo and Mike they must be individually moved. Calling up a map of the Embassy and its surrounding area shows three red X’s, head for these. The terrorists are out in force: with spotlights they try to track each man and shoot him. Your job is to guide each soldier from doorway to doorway and dodge the flying bullets. Once all three operatives are in position the rest of the team abseil onto the roof and enter the building via a kicked in window.

Hostages is great fun to play mainly because the action is split into several sections. Dodging bullets is a dangerous business, but sat in an armchair with joystick in hand a bit of flying lead here and there is nothing.

MARK ... 89%

'Hostages is a brilliant game. It has outstanding graphics, sound and playability and offers the player a real challenge. Each section is well presented and they’re linked by animated sequences that adit that extra quality. Much of the game is in monochrome but not that you’d notice, as only a small area of the screen is used to play the game, the rest is taken up with colourful backdrops, the time and the names of the paratroopers. Variety abounds in Hostages: each stage is different and tests new skills as you play. You have to dodge spot lights and run in and out of buildings, move gun sights around the building shooting terrorists in windows (or are they hostages?), abseil down a wall and smash through windows. There’s also a 3D section running through the rooms in the Embassy, shooting terrorists and rescuing the hostages. I enjoyed every single minute of Hostages and I’m sure you will too. An excellent game.'