Hostage: Rescue Mission
DOS - 1989
Also released on: Mac - Amiga - Amstrad CPC - Atari ST - BBC Micro - Commodore 64 - Electron - MSX - ZX Spectrum
Description of Hostage: Rescue Mission
Hostage: Rescue Mission is a fun game from Infogrames, published by Mindscape in the U.S.
As commander of an anti-terrorist squad somewhere in Europe, your job is to rescue U.S. Embassy officials who have been taken hostage by terrorists. The game begins with a neat introduction screen, from which you then select which difficulty you would like to play at, and which mission you want to play. The choice of missions is misleading, however, because the gameplay remains more or less the same regardless of what you choose.
The first part of your mission is to deploy your men in three marked positions around the embassy for a sniper position. Your operatives can run and duck, but that's all you'll need to avoid the searchlights. Once your snipers are in position, the scene switches to the building itself. Here, you must strategically place the remaining soldiers (positioned on the rooftop) around the top of the besieged embassy, ready to abseil down to enter through the windows below. Should any terrorists appear at the windows, you can use your marksmen to silently kill them. But you must learn to distinguish between the silhouettes of the innocents and those of the terrorists. The last stage of the game takes place inside the embassy itself, where you must search the three storeys for people to rescue, shooting any terrorists in sight.
The graphics are crisp and smoothly animated in EGA, and the keyboard-only controls are easy to learn and use. Despite boasting a unique premise and gameplay for its time, Hostage becomes a repetitive once the novelty wears off. This is because all the three stages are action-oriented with little variation in enemy types, etc. Had the game offered more variety a la MicroProse's underrated Covert Action, Hostage would be much more replayable and engaging.
As it stands, it is still a fun game that becomes boring after you see what the stages are like. Recommended, but not a Top Dog.
Review By HOTUD
External links
Captures and Snapshots
Comments and reviews
larry 2024-02-27 1 point
A true milestone in gaming industry which set the rules still being followed.
This game was one of the elements that defined being a kid in early 90's.
Robotas 2023-08-08 1 point
I played this on ZX Spectrum back in those days, and it was awesome. Now, for those who still have the PC floppy disks or ".img" files of them, you can run multi floppy disks if you use DOSBox Staging or DOSBox-X (it ONLY works on those two versions of dosbox), using this line in the dosbox.conf:
imgmount a "c:\cd\disk1.img" "c:\cd\disk2.img" -t floppy -ro
But remember, to play this game you still need the original manual to pass the initial password code.
PC 2019-11-21 -19 points
Do speak English PAULO? You certainly don't write it. There is a thing called spell check, it was also on the Amiga. But thanks for sharing, if that is what you are doing.
Dumy 2015-03-16 -7 points DOS version
HEY PAUL
YOU TWITCHY PUCK!
sorry, Continue? insider joke...Monkeeey!
Paulo José 2014-11-25 3 points DOS version
my firt play this game is i n may commodore amiga and remenber the playing in my bedroom , looking arond , here windows the terrorist appear , the light is appear the oportunit to shoting the terrorist...
Write a comment
Share your gamer memories, give useful links or comment anything you'd like. This game is no longer abandonware, we won't put it back online.
Buy Hostage: Rescue Mission
Hostage: Rescue Mission is available for a small price on the following website, and is no longer abandonware. You can read our online store guide.
Game Extras and Resources
Some of these file may not be included in the game stores. For Hostage: Rescue Mission, we have the following files:
Other Releases
Hostage: Rescue Mission was also released on the following systems:
Mac
- Year: 1989
- Publisher: Mindscape, Inc.
- Developer: Infogrames Europe SA
Amiga
- Year: 1988
- Publisher: Infogrames Europe SA, Mindscape, Inc.
- Developer: Infogrames Europe SA
Amstrad CPC
- Year: 1990
- Publisher: Infogrames Europe SA
- Developer: Infogrames Europe SA
Atari ST
- Year: 1988
- Publisher: Digital Integration Ltd., Infogrames Europe SA, Mindscape, Inc.
- Developer: Infogrames Europe SA
BBC Micro
- Year: 1990
- Publisher: Superior Interactive
- Developer: Infogrames Europe SA
Commodore 64
- Year: 1989
- Publisher: Byte Back, Infogrames Europe SA, Mindscape, Inc.
- Developer: Infogrames Europe SA
Electron
- Year: 1990
- Publisher: Superior Software Ltd.
- Developer: Infogrames Europe SA
MSX
- Year: 1990
- Publisher: Infogrames Europe SA
- Developer: Infogrames Europe SA
ZX Spectrum
- Year: 1990
- Publisher: Infogrames Europe SA
- Developer: Infogrames Europe SA
Similar games
Fellow retro gamers also downloaded these games: