History ShootTheHostage / Videogames

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', the first plot twist, and Delita's StartOfDarkness, includes a [[LaResistance resistance]] knight using his sister Teitra as a human shield at an abandoned fortress, mistaking her for one of the nobles. Argath, under order of Ramza's KnightTemplar brother Zalbaag, shoots ''Teitra'' first, and then puts another arrow into the knight [[WrongGenreSavvy while he's frozen in disbelief]]. This gets Delita mad enough to want to kill Argarth, and a ClimaxBoss battle ensues. She dies instantly, but the kidnapper actually survives, holed up in the arsenal, until after the battle where he ignites the powder stashes and blows the whole place to bits.

* Zoran Lazarevic, the BigBad of ''VideoGame/Uncharted2AmongThieves'', does this without hesitation, after giving an impassioned speech comparing himself to such "great men" as Hitler, Stalin, Genghis Khan, and Pol Pott, saying that "they had the will to do what other men would not."

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', the first plot twist, and Delita's StartOfDarkness, includes a [[LaResistance resistance]] knight using Teitra as a human shield at an abandoned fortress, mistaking her for one of the nobles. Argath, under order of Ramza's KnightTemplar brother Zalbag, shoots ''Teitra'' first, and then puts another arrow into the knight [[WrongGenreSavvy while he's frozen in disbelief]]. This gets Delita mad enough to want to kill him, and a ClimaxBoss battle ensues. She dies instantly, but the kidnapper actually survives, holed up in the arsenal, until after the battle where he ignites the powder stashes and blows the whole place to bits.

* Can be done optionally in the ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare3'' mission "Stronghold"; one of Makarov's men grabs a Czech POW and tries to take him hostage, but there's absolutely no penalty if Yuri (the player) decides to simply shoot through the prisoner to kill the thug. Captain Price even quips, "He never would have made it anyway...".

* ''Franchise/MetalGear'':

** The situation repeats itself in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'', this time with Screaming Mantis and Meryl (again).

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', a MadScientist is holding a young boy at gunpoint while gassing a bunch of kids to death. The boy tells Raiden to [[KillUsBoth kill them both]] and Raiden, in a moment of [[AxCrazy ax craziness]], complies and ''cleaves both of them in half.'' The boy survives and gets a cybernetic shoulder and arm, but still...

* Can be done optionally in the ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare3'' mission "Stronghold"; one of Makarov's men grabs a Czech POW and tries to take him hostage, but there's absolutely no penalty if Yuri (the player) decides to simply shoot through the prisoner to kill the thug. Captain Price even quips, "He never would have made it anyway...".

* {{Invoked}} in ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'''s post-Season 8 Federation tutorial. The PlayerCharacter's commanding officer Captain Masc P. Taggart is taken captive by a Klingon battlecruiser crew. He tells the PC to lock onto his combadge signal and open fire, though the Klingon captain stabs him to death right after that.

* ''[[VideoGame/GoldenEye1997 Goldeneye 64]]''. A valid way of solving the hostage situation on the train level. Shoot Natalya in the leg and she lurches forward and down in pain, leaving the general open to a lead surprise.
** Alternatively, you could just side-step enough so that she isn't in your way. The hostage-taker doesn't react in the slightest.
*** The above is because the game started out as an on-rails shooter, so the idea of moving around for a better shot wasn't part of the AI programming.

** This is actually [[{{Foreshadowing}} telegraphed beforehand]], as Argath openly states his displeasure for anyone not of "[[BlueBlood noble blood]]" right before Ramza kicks him off the team.