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8 games with disastrously botched rescue missions

They tried to save the day… they ended up making the hostages pay

Words: Dave Meikleham, GamesRadar UK

Operation ‘Save your family so you can
watch them get killed ten minutes later’

Failing to rescue anyone in: Manhunt

The mission

During his execution escapades, former death row inmate Cash, who’s being forced to kill people for a snuff movie, has to endure the most unwholesome zoo trip we can imagine. His family have been kidnapped and imprisoned in animal enclosures, and Cash is forced to silently slaughter an entire gang undetected to save them.

Where it goes wrong

Trusting that snuff film director Starkweather (who’s holding Cash’s family hostage) would leave his relatives alone after he’d freed them isn’t the best judgement call. Soon enough, the perverted purveyor of films (who probably robs pensioners in his spare time), kidnaps Cash’s family again. He then machetes them up real good and makes our antihero watch it on VCR. What a gent.

How the day could have been saved

Well, if Cash hadn’t lived his entire life as a murderous scumbag, he’d never have ended up on death row. In turn, he wouldn’t have been manipulated into the whole interactive snuff movie thing. We blame his upbringing. Stricter parents, who never let him play video games, would’ve stopped his life going down the toilet.


Above: If only James Earl had spent more time helping the elderly, maybe then he wouldn't have turned into a man-strangling sociopath


Operation ‘Unwittingly infect
your hostages with a killer virus'

Failing to rescue anyone in: Metal Gear Solid

The mission

Save Kenneth Baker, president of ArmsTech and Donald Anderson, the DARPA Chief. This is the mission Solid Snake, our surprisingly talkative killer, must complete as he infiltrates an Alaskan base full of evil terrorist no-gooders.

Where it goes wrong

Oh Snake, if only one of the million questions you ask your superiors during MGS had been ‘Did you inject me with a contagious pathogen that’s going to off the very people I’ve been sent to save?’


Above: A close-up view of Snake's FoxDie-infested bandanna. Ewwww.

Had he, then maybe he wouldn’t have accidentally bunked off old Ken and Donald (OK, technically the latter was baddie Decoy Octopus) with the FoxDie virus. We might also have been spared 6 hours worth of codec conversations.

How the day could have been saved

If Snake had been a massive baby and refused any injections during his mission briefing. Sure, among the myriad of shit pumped into his body he was given a variety of drugs that stopped him freezing in the Alaskan wilderness. But there’s nothing exposure to sub-zero temperatures can do that can’t be fixed by carrying a trusty pack of smokes.


Above: The definition of a man's, man's, man's, man's man.

July 30, 2009



The Top 7... Damsels You DON'T Want to Save
Screw chivalry! These ladies deserve distress



Gaming's most facepalm-worthy heroes
When the hero's mistakes end the world instead of saving it


The Top 7... Blue ball moments
The game may be over, but where's our happy ending?


 
55 Comments
Order Comments: Newest First | Oldest First
Rad_Bracket  - 7 months 19 days ago 
- Comment removed by Community
Reported
Rad_Bracket  - 7 months 19 days ago 
I always thought that Atlas had just made the wife and son up. I mean we never saw them.
TKTOWA  - 7 months 19 days ago 
I hate rescue missions. Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee did it the best.
DarkMatter032  - 7 months 19 days ago 
EarthWorm Jim!!! FTW!!!

Reminds me of the stage "For Pete's Sake", where you try to save the poor mutt's ass...
norid  - 7 months 19 days ago 
i figuerded Snake would be on here
DarkMatter032  - 7 months 19 days ago 
Earthworm Jim!!! FTW!!!
foxhound  - 7 months 19 days ago 
just send in those 4 lunatics from shi no numa in world at war for every rescue mission theres not many problems for nutters and an magic ox full of guns cant solve
Corsair89  - 7 months 19 days ago 
I hate rescue missions because you usually have to escort them out of whatever they needed rescue from.
nadrewod999  - 7 months 19 days ago 
WHERE IS CALL OF DUTY 4???????????
Am I the ONLY ONE WHO REMEMBERS how a SQUAD of TRAINED (wasn't it the British form of Marine?) couldn't shoot a GUY'S PISTOL out of his hand when the guy IS THEIR ONLY LEAD and is threatening TO FREAKING COMMIT SUICIDE? And if that wasn't enough, his suicide directly caused the launching of ICBM with NUCLEAR WARHEADS, WITH THEIR TARGET BEING THE ENTIRE FREAKING EAST COAST of the FREAKING US OF FREAKING A! If that wasn't qualified enough to make the list, but a random exploding bathysphere was, SOMEONE HERE NEEDS TO RELEARN what "HOSTAGE SITUATION" REALLY FUCKING MEANS!

P.S. Yes, I know that Caps means Yelling.

Capthca: threat; deborah
nadrewod999  - 7 months 19 days ago 
Sorry, I meant "Disastrously botched hostage situation". After all, the bathysphere might just be a case of a guy who really likes fireworks and getting what he wants in any way possible.

Capthca: Cornell juice
TRAVthe3RD  - 7 months 19 days ago 
lol i totally rejected the african villagers to save my buds :P

Captcha: not first :(
Wizrai  - 7 months 19 days ago 
Eww at FOXDIE bandana.
Terro  - 7 months 19 days ago 
I tried to save the African Villagers, but then I got all confused and wondered off, forgetting all about them.

Captcha: Summon Indian
XD
killerwhalen  - 7 months 19 days ago 
Lol, "I steal from my church collection plate!", great stuff.

recaptcha: karen behaving
The_Tingler  - 7 months 19 days ago 
I don't think the Bioshock ones actually exist in the game, do they? Isn't it all a ruse to make you sympathise with Atlas?
silvereye  - 7 months 19 days ago 
What about half life? You try and save the facility but in the end it gets nuked. Gordon never saves anyone, all the charachters who DID survive had to do it there own way, with very little help from Gprdon atall!!!!
JosefRaikov  - 7 months 19 days ago 
@ nadrewod999: Actually the SAS (Special Air Service) existed before the marines so it would actually be that the Marines are the American "form" of the SAS. "He Who Dares, Wins."
AMayer  - 7 months 19 days ago 
This article gave me gas.
monojono  - 7 months 19 days ago 
@nadrewod999

This article is about people attempting to rescue hostages and failing. A prisoner managing to kill himself doesnt really fit the bill. Think before your next rant.

p.s In real life, shooting guns out of peoples hands doesnt work.
boxmeizter  - 7 months 19 days ago 
shouldn't it be some spoiler alert thing in the start of the text? thanks alot GR for fu**ing up bioshock for me
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