Hostage Interaction - Grab, Takedown & Execution System (Mocap Animations)


🎮 Video Link : Video

🎮 Playable Demo : Demo

📄 Setup Guide & Documentation : Hostage Interaction Guide

Add a complete, ready-to-play hostage system to your third-person game. Walk up behind a character, grab it and use it as a human shield: walk and strafe with the hostage, aim and shoot over its shoulder, then decide its fate - push it away, let it go, execute it or break its neck. A silent knife takedown kills from behind without grabbing, and zombies can be grabbed and executed too.

Every interaction is driven by Unreal's own Contextual Animation scenes and Motion Warping, so taker and hostage always line up perfectly, from any approach angle. All 70 animations (120 FPS) were captured on a Vicon optical motion capture system and then cleaned by hand.

The whole system lives in one Blueprint component, BPC_HostageInteraction. Add it (plus three engine components) to your character, copy eight input events and make four small changes to your Anim Blueprint - the included step-by-step PDF guide shows every click on a fresh Third Person template, in about 10 minutes. The component creates everything else by itself: the grab range, the pistol in the hand, strafing while holding and its own input contexts, so your existing controls keep working.

The system is fully network replicated (server authoritative), works in single player and multiplayer, and is 100% Blueprint - no C++ and no code plugin.

🔥 Key Features:

Vicon Motion Capture: Recorded on a Vicon optical mocap system and hand-cleaned.

Grab From Behind: Contextual Animation scene + Motion Warping put both characters in place from any angle.

Human Shield Movement: Walk forward / backward (start / loop / stop) and strafe left / right with the hostage; both characters stay in step.

Aim & Shoot: ADS pose with a 15-pose aim offset, 4 fire variations and a reload while holding the hostage.

Kills: Execution and Break Neck for humans and zombies, plus a silent Knife Takedown from behind.

Let Go: Push the hostage away (human and zombie) or release it (human).

Human & Zombie Hostages: Separate hostage animation sets, chosen per character with one data asset (AnimSet).

One Component Setup: BPC_HostageInteraction handles the taker and the hostage; it adds its own grab range, pistol and input contexts.

Remappable Input: Enhanced Input actions and two mapping contexts (E, Q, RMB, LMB, C, V, F, R by default) - change keys in the assets or plug in your own.

Multiplayer Ready: Server-authoritative and replicated; every action can be called from the owning client.

Events: OnGrabbed, OnPushed, OnReleased and OnHostageKilled dispatchers for your AI, score or respawn logic.

Blueprint Only: Fully commented graphs, no C++, no code plugin.

Step-by-Step Guide: PDF with Quick Setup (8 steps with screenshots) and full documentation of every setting, function and animation.

📋 What's Inside:

Animation Sequences (70, 120 FPS): Taker locomotion & kills (15), Taker gun (9), Aim Offset poses (15), Human hostage (16), Zombie hostage (12), Demo patrol (3)

Anim Montages (22)

Contextual Anim Scenes (5): Grab, Push, Push (Zombie), Release, Takedown

Blend Spaces (3) + Aim Offset

Anim Blueprints: ABP_Hostage_Taker (linked anim layer), ABP_SimpleParent, ALI_BaseLocomotion interface

Data: 2 AnimSets (Human, Zombie), Gameplay Tag table, 8 Input Actions + 2 Input Mapping Contexts

Camera shakes for grab and push (only the acting player is shaken)

🎁 Bonus Content:

To help you prototype immediately, this pack includes:

1x Pistol Skeletal Mesh with materials and textures (shown in the taker's hand while holding)

1x Knife Static Mesh with materials (used by the takedown)

1x Playable demo character Blueprint with the full input setup

2x Demo target Blueprints (human and zombie) with patrol and respawn

2x Demo maps (Street_Level and Demo_Level) with a modular street environment

1x On-screen key guide and crosshair widgets

UE5 Skeleton: the standard Epic UE5 Skeleton, so the clips stay fully compatible with Manny, Quinn and MetaHuman retargeting via IK Rig.

Requires the engine plugins Contextual Animation, Gameplay Abilities and Motion Warping (included with Unreal Engine, enable them in Edit > Plugins).