Hi all,
I'm looking for games in FPS /3rd person,over the shoulder. That feature taking prisoners/ handcuffing or any kind of control that the player character can inact on NPCs (not scripted). But has been included as an optional action rather than something which is a core combat mechanic of the game.

Basically im looking for ideas and ways of implementation, for a feature to use in a multiplayer game, that rather than putting another player straight to death state through combat, you have the option to take them prisoner or tie them up.
Something which would give the winning player in a fight a way to control another player that is beneficial to the victor of a fight, so not just putting the defeated player in an fully incapacitated state (as im trying to create a constant state of immersion with a character rather than the defeated player looking at a re-spawn timer)
So the defeated player can do limited actions and still make choices. Most of all for the victor to use the prisoner to their benefit in someway, such as a controllable meat shield which i have seen before, but this limits the prisoners interaction too much.

My thoughts is to have some kind of leash on the prisoner, and the winner to able to whip the prisoner in one direction and if they dont move they can whip hard to deliver damage until they comply with direction order.

Thanks for any info/ ideas / tips

IIRC in the HITMAN PC genre you could sedate NPC's and garote them with wire.

Maybe in some of them Special Ops Counter Terrorist games you have the option to tie people up.

In Medal of Honor PC you can axe and knife the enemy players.

Perhaps this question would be better suited to a FPS game forum where you would get better FPS player feedback.

Moving to Game Design.

Well the only game I can think of is Infamous.

It's not exactly how you describe it, but in the game you can cuff a knocked down enemy (who is still breathing) to the ground with some sorta electrical binding.

Also there are some tasks that let you zap some prisoners so they move forward. The more you zap the faster they go. If you zap to much they die. To complete the task you have to keep 1 or 2 alive.

I hope this helps.

Well the only game I can think of is Infamous.

It's not exactly how you describe it, but in the game you can cuff a knocked down enemy (who is still breathing) to the ground with some sorta electrical binding.

Also there are some tasks that let you zap some prisoners so they move forward. The more you zap the faster they go. If you zap to much they die. To complete the task you have to keep 1 or 2 alive.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the tips guys!

Much appreciated, will check them out.

I think you can actually do this in Fallout 3. There's a part in the game where you can do a quest to rescue a bunch of children from a slaver camp. When you get there, you actually have the option of joining them rather than raiding the camp and saving everyone. If you join them, they give you these collars you can put on people that will explode if they disobey you or go somewhere they aren't supposed to.

Although it's possible I'm wrong on that, but I don't think so.

Red Dead Redemption. Allowed you to hogtie people and carry them around. There were a couple of missions where it was necessary, but for the most part it was just a tool to play around with. There was an achievement for hogtying someone and leaving them on the train tracks...

Take a look at swat 4, you can choose to handcuff others. The basic idea is to use powerful non-lethal weapons like a taser to stun the enemy for a few seconds enough time to apply handcuffs. The basic balance idea (why should I use a non-lethal weapon in MP?) is, that this non-lethal weapons are more or less one-hit-stun weapons which are incredible effictive vs. single enemies at close range, but less effective vs larger groups of enemies or enemies who are far away.

True Crime: Streets of L.A. had this feature, as I recall. There was a very clumsy "mode" system that let you switch between running, shooting and punching modes, and if you used a punching mode to neutralize a bad guy, there was a contextual command to cuff them on the ground. You couldn't do anything with them, you just left them there for someone else to collect, but I think it was possible to roll up with the siren blaring, get out of the car, flash your badge, have the bad guys surrender, and cuff them without any actual fighting taking place.

Another less direct example could be EvE Online, where many players (myself included) enjoy "ransoming", where electronic warfare is used to disable and hold a target ship. Once they're locked down, you invite them to a chat, discuss terms, exchange money and release them. It's one of the more satisfying victories in the game, in my opinion, when I outwit or outfly a guy so thoroughly that he'll pay me to go away without having to take the fight to the now-inevitable end scenario. Sometimes you have to kill his ship and ransom his escape pod, but it's still pretty agreeable to me. Way better than scavenging a wreck and selling his parts for scrap.


This sort of gameplay feature, where conflicts can be managed and resolved with appeals to authority and threats of violence, appeals mightily to me, and I've always enjoyed threads about it here and elsewhere. I hope you're investigating it in order to use it effectively and well, and I hope to see it more often.