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Cesl beacoup d'action when you are called in to co-ordinate the actions of a crack group of elite hostage saving dudes that smoke more embassies than Alex Higgins.

The action is split up into two phases. Phase one involves you positioning three snipers in predetermined positions around the embassy. It's now dark and Delta, Echo and Mike are each equipped with a nightsight However, they'll be no use unless they can get to their predetermined positions from where they can have a crack at any terrorist that is foolish enough to show themselves against a lighted window. But the terrorists have searchlights and so the snipers must run, duck, dive and make use of any dark corners in order not to be spotted. Once they're hit by a compromising beam of light, the dastards in the embassy will shoot at your men and if they hit them it's scratch one operative and you must get at least one sniper into a position before you can move on to stage two.

STAGE TWO

Now the going gets tough. You've got a least one marksman in position and you've loaded stage two. Three men have been dropped onto the top of the embassy and you must now take control of each in turn by hitting shift one to five and clear the building of terrorists. The three men on the roof must abseil down the walls and with careful timing, he will bash through a window and into the frey. You can put all three in if you like but you'll have to keep an eye on the status lights of each player so that you can get to them if they should be in danger.

Each man is shown on the plan view of each floor. Terrorists are also shown as they move around from room to room. You must work your way around the building, shoot terrorists, rescue hostages and keep all the members of your team alive. Once you've killed a green clad terrorist the hostages will tag along with you. They need to be dumped in the central room on the 3rd floor (the room with no windows) whilst you round up the rest of their nasty little friends.

Hostages has been out for over 18 months on other formats and was well overdue for release on the Spectrum where it should be well received. The graphics are good, although the flick screen turning on phase two gives the terrorists a bit of an edge and generally the game is highly playable, levels making it progressive, easy to get into and should have you up against it for some time!

Label: Infogrames Price: £9.99, £14.99 Reviewer: Garth Sumpter

A 'heavy' subject tackled admirably and right on target for all arcade/strategists