1986 Electric Dreams Software (UK)
by David Shea, Mark Eyles and Nigel Brownjohn
Hijack is a very entertaining game.
You control the leader of a government hijack division, and you have to track down the terrorists who hijacked a military vehicle and then negotiate with them.
To help you with this there are several characters, the CIA, the FBI (seen on the top of the screen) with whom you have to work with to finished your job.
The game is full of twists and turns and lots of interesting situations and funny dialogues.
In the beginning while you are exploring the games different aspects it can became a bit tedious, but once you get into the flow you find yourself intrigued.
Not so sure about our character and the employees who populate the building, they all look like women in pants and are all alike. It wouldn't have cost so much to draw, for instance, a different head on just our character.
by David Shea, Mark Eyles, Nigel Brownjohn
This is a graphic adventure in which, as a prominent member of the Hijack Division, you have to defeat a terrorist group who hijacked a schoolbus. This does not contemp?late furious action sequences, but only walking around two dozens of offices, distributed over several storeys, giving orders to your employees, each with his or her specific role and job in the Division. To succeed you need to develop a strategy against the terrorists, and to implement it efficiently you'll have to develop or mantain a good relationship with the elements and sectors of your team, and with the President, the only character above you in the hierarchy.
?You need your team to be cohesive and efficient. If they're not loyal to you, your efforts won't work.
A good part of the game is controlled through icons and menus. There's an icon at the bottom left showing an interesting item you're passing by to, an icon at the bottom right showing what object you're carrying, windows that open when you examine one of these objects or documents, and even some menus with a Windows-like pointer. The heads of the characters are permanently displayed at the top of the screen in two rows, and become white when they're in the room. When this happens, you can push a key to move the selection arrow, until it's under the right head, and press the fire button: a menu appears, where you can select the kind of order you want to issue, which are specific to the individual and his task.
You can order your secretary to find an employee for you, order the military advisor to deploy troops, or the diplomat advisor to deploy diplomats, or the CIA guy to investigate the identity and the goals of the terrorist group, or even the FBI guy to interrogate your employees, and many other things.
The only character you can't command is the President, which you can only try to beg for financial, military or political support - which he will systematically deny - or a deadline extension, or the access to the helicopter that will carry you to the terrorist, for the final negotiation. These verbal exchanges are visualized by [blocky] balloons.
The content is mature, the gameplay is intriguing, but most of the time you just wander around the offices just waiting for something to happen.
4/5
