Practical Game Design

Hostage

A Hostage (even better if it's a friend or a lover) is a great narrative device to twist things around. Rescuing a hostage can change the pace of a story and even twist the gameplay. Just think about how different a shooting game becomes when the objective shift from Eliminate all the enemies to Save the hostages. Players may have to change their strategy and play more carefully, as a stray shot or misplaced grenade can result in a critical failure. Hostage rescue is such an interesting gameplay scenario that some games have been designed exclusively around it, such as Rainbow Six and Hostages.