Description
You awake in prison, without the memory of who you are, where you are and why you are imprisoned. In the corner of your cell you find a briefcase computer, which gives you the control over a unit of four droids. Now you must use these droids to find yourself, and free yourself.

Captive has a sci-fi setting, but resembles more a fantasy RPGs with robots and droids. With the help of the droids you explore tech-dungeons and seek information, [destroy the bases] which leads to the next planet(s) on a path.

The movement and fighting is similar to games like Eye of the Beholder, but you can buy droid parts in shops beside the usual weapons and items. The droids haven't levels like in "normal" role-playing games; you must buy upgrades for the different parts of the droids, which make them stronger and faster. You can also buy a variety of chips, which allow the droids to see in darkness, invert the gravity or simple to shield a little period of time.

65 thousand levels Antony Crowther [designer] used an algorithm that generates each planet and base, including its inhabitants, using a single numerical "seed" on the game disk - a trick which enabled him to have 65,535 levels in the game without having to store the details of each level individually (only one base is "active" in any given saved game, since each base must be "destroyed" before moving on).

Title
The game was known as "Federation War" while in development, but a reader of ACE magazine came up with the name Captive in a competition.

Ending
After completing the game, the game (because of a certain event that will not be spoiled at this point) continues and you basically start again - however, the entire game world, including all maps, will be randomly re-generated.

Amiga Atari ST PC