Escort Missions Suck

[Russ Pitts]

Escort Missions Suck

"'Like death, taxes, and a reformed .38 Special playing the state fair circuit, they're something you just can't get away from," Says Richard Dansky of Ubisoft, a long time Clancy writer and designer, whose own escort missions can be found in the Ghost Recon installments Desert Siege and Island Thunder.

"'The player's failure gets predicated on something they can't control,' says Dansky, 'namely, the fact that the escortee has the self-preservation instincts of a cruller at a police precinct.'"

Russ Pitts speaks to the designers of escort missions about why escort missions suck so much ass.


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[Crooked Knight]

It's so goddamned true.

The other part of it, though, is that it is possible to make escort mission not suck - just don't lock the ally into AI control. I had a damned good time playing the (rare) escort missions in Shining Force III because you actually had full control over the peasants you had to save, and even though they were totally helpless in a fight you could still make them take the route that would actually keep them safe, and even send the hardier ones to draw enemy attacks and buy time for your actual fighters to beat the bad guys. With that twist, it was suddenly my fault, not the programmers', when they blundered straight into a slaughter, and that made a huge difference in my enjoyment of the levels. Maybe I'm being unfair to the mostly-real-time games that have to use escort missions by comparing them to something turn-based, but would it be that hard to allow us to set waypoints and the like for our defenseless wards?

 

[Theoban]

I've played one good escort mission I can at least think of.

That's from the Toxic Caves in Fallout 2. The guy you go to rescue (Smilie?) runs at the same pace as you, and can hold his own against any enemies you meet. He's not too strong, which of course would defeat the purpose of 'rescuing' him, but he doesn't die particularly easy nor get in the way of your guns.

Maybe this works down to the way the combat rolls work, or because of the turn based nature of combat in the game, but it's not a quest you dread particularly. (Except for the fact that you might not have Sulik yet and the Golden Gecko's do radiation poisoning.)

 

[Geoffrey42]

The only escort mission I don't completely hate is the one in Half Life 2: Episode 1, where you have to get all of the lightly armed resistance fighters to the train. It took me a couple tries, but since the escortees would run of their own volition, occasionally shoot back, and in general, all I had to do was clear the way, all was well. At one point, Alyx went into a coma (when I talked to tech support, it apparently had something to do with the save file becoming corrupt, and I just had to go back one to make the AI work again), but after that, smooth sailing.

Aside from that, no, I've never played a decent escort mission. Oh, how I hate thee, Meat Circus. *shudder*

 

[blackadvent]

I can only say that there's only one series that has made escort missions less of a pain.

-Half-Life, and even THAT'S a mixed bag. The scientists ranged from smart to 'Are you high'. The resistance (Half-Life 2) tended to get shot more often that I'd have liked. Alyx (Ep. 1) can actually fight back against attackers, and the resistance (Ep. 1) actually had tactical brains this time. And the Vorgunaut (Ep. 2) kicked so much ass with his attacks that you could actually save some ammo.

The more recent the Half-Life, the better the escort mission. But then there are two escort missions that still take the piss out of me.

-Fable. It's not that it's impossible, especially if you've buffed your character with the embarisingly overpowered 'Physical Shield' spell. But it's still annoying to listen to defenseless merchants with British accents ***** about how the Balverines are ripping out their innards and having it for lunch with their Earl Grey tea (sorry, couldn't resist).

-Final Fantasy VI. Tell me that escorting Banon down the rapids and past the octopus boss wasn't maddening. He targeted the dude EVERY TURN. And if he goes down, game friggin' over. It doesn't help that he has attacks that can hit your entire party for about 1/2 their total HP.

EDIT:

The only escort mission I don't completely hate is the one in Half Life 2: Episode 1, where you have to get all of the lightly armed resistance fighters to the train. It took me a couple tries, but since the escortees would run of their own volition, occasionally shoot back, and in general, all I had to do was clear the way, all was well. At one point, Alyx went into a coma (when I talked to tech support, it apparently had something to do with the save file becoming corrupt, and I just had to go back one to make the AI work again), but after that, smooth sailing.

Aside from that, no, I've never played a decent escort mission. Oh, how I hate thee, Meat Circus. *shudder*

Forgot that one. Goddamn, Olly. Is that rabbit covered with butter or something?!?

 

[roc ingersol]

/sigh

Isn't this entire article akin to saying "Video Games Stories Suck, so we should just stop trying"?

It's hardly the fault of 'story' or 'escort missions' in and of themselves. Anything done poorly sucks. A reasonable person doesn't order a McFish sandwich a dozen times and decide seafood is waste of time.

I mean, are you really ready to excuse (maybe even celebrate?) the complete lack of variety in gaming interaction, just because some developers don't put that much effort into doing it right? /boggle

Why not flip the argument and level those same arguments against 'fighting monsters':

When enemies get caught up on geometry we don't call for all kill quests to be removed because pathing is too hard.
When an enemy fails to defend itself intelligently, we don't call for all kill quests to be removed because AI is too hard.
When enemies have their attributes jacked-around to provide cheap 'difficulty' we don't call for all kill quests to be removed because balancing is too hard.

No, in all those situation we rightly call for the devs in question to get their shit together if they want our money. We don't just shrug and ask them to just make whack-a-mole next time.

As for 'save/load removes the emotional element': Are you serious? By that logic there's no emotional element to any gameplay session. So lets get rid of 'kill the big bad', 'clear the dungeon', 'find the magic sword' and 'rescue the princess' altogether -- after all, we can always reload till we complete those challenges.
While you're at it, you might as well get rid of every game this side of Chess and Tetris.

I started the article thinking you were merely throwing the Baby out with the Bathwater. As it turns out, you're just itchin to raze the entire house to spite the dirty little cretin.

 

[Zera]

Yeah i remember these bloody missions. Im pretty sure these can be improved, one way or another. We just have to find it.

 

[dmc0419]

I also have to add another great example of an escort mission: ICO. Now maybe it's because the whole game is designed around the concept of escorting Yorda around, or maybe because you are given some control over her, but ICO is probably the best experience I've had in a video game and the emotional attachment between the player and Yorda developed as you escort her through the game is the reason for that.

Also as far as memorable moments in games. I hardly remember any epic boss battles, or the first time I pull off some cool looking move, but I still remember *slight spoiler* a moment towards the end of ICO. When you are about to escape, but Yorda gets caught and as the draw bridge pulls you from her; I remember having this intense desire to jump across the growing gap to rescue her. I jumped without actually thinking, for all I knew it could have been impossible to save her, but that didn't matter. It is probably the only time in any game where I reacted purely on an emotional impulse. That whole moment was set up by having to escort her throughout the game. Obviously that game succeeded on many levels, it had great platformer elements, great audio and graphics and just overall great design but at its core it is an escort mission.

So then perhaps the issue is not that escort missions suck but perhaps it is that developers just tack them onto their game. Perhaps a developer puts them into the game not because they want to put in an escort mission, or that they visualize it as being important, but because some convention somewhere says they should. I don't know, but I know that an escort mission can work if properly executed.

 

[GrowlersAtSea]

With few exceptions, Escort Missions tend to be the bane of my gaming experience. The shining example that stands out to me though is Ico.

Ico is essentially one big escort mission. Yorda is pretty much defenseless from the mean things that lurk in Ico's wonderfully depicted world, but the game is also built with this in mind. You can help Yorda over obstacles and help her navigate troubles, you're given a nice warning when she's in danger, and generally things just don't feel like that much of a chore. But the game was built around this and for this, and as the editorial touches upon, making the AI and game mechanics function for an escort type mission isn't as easy as it sounds.

Half-Life 2 and it's subsequent episodes also do a decent job with this with Alyx. There are sequences in the games where you have to work with her, but she tends to follow you with some intelligence, and she isn't just a sitting duck. In Half Life 2 she was too strong though (invincible, from what I could tell, I let her be my bullet sponge and do most of the fighting when she was around, why waste my precious ammo). But this was tweaked in Episode I. She is quite strong, and her gun is potent, but she isn't invincible, as I was startled to learn in a dark garage as we were rushed by zombies and I decided that the out of the way corner was the most prudent place for me to be and left her in the darkness to fight off the hoard. You fail is she dies, and your job is to get her and yourself to a point, but she isn't just a lamb waiting to die or be tipped over, she's strong enough to take hits when you aren't sitting over her and can face off against enemies as well. You just have to strike a balance, so that the character isn't so weak that you have to hover over them, and they aren't so strong they can be used as your shield.

With that said, on the other end of the spectrum, "The Control Room" in GoldenEye for the N64, particularly on 00 Agent stands out in my mind of a shining example of just how bad escort missions can be.

Natalia generally moves at her own pace, and doesn't care much for the danger that surrounds her. If a single enemy soldier has a shot, usually he will unload his AK-47 knock off into her and dispatch her in pretty short order; her pain sounds playing in rapid order, one for each hit she takes before she collapses dead in a manner of seconds. You navigate a series of corridors and decent sized rooms, but nothing that isn't impossible. Then comes for Natalia to use her computer abilities, near the end of the mission.

The only terminal she can use is in the middle of a very large room. There is a large monitor on one wall, so technically about 180 degrees are safe. But the other 180 degrees are filled with glass that you cannot see through until it's destroyed (but enemies will fire through at will) and if that weren't bad enough, it is two stories of windows. They pop out, give her a burst, and kill her. Ultimately it came down to spinning like a top trying to spot them and trying to remember where and when they appear.

GoldenEye had no in game save features or checkpoints, so once you failed, you started from the beginning all over again. An exercise in frustration and heartache, I remember it a full ten years later like it was yesterday.

Guard the convoy, rescue the child, save the professor, in whatever guise they are, the escort missions are usually not a change for the better. They do serve the purpose of a change of pace, and when done right can make the player feel like they aren't alone against the world, but more often than not they're just Adventures in Babysitting with more guns and less Albert Collins.

dmc0419 brought up Ico while I was rambling about GoldenEye but I completely agree with him/her.

 

[korosora]

I can only say that there's only one series that has made escort missions less of a pain.

-Half-Life, and even THAT'S a mixed bag. The scientists ranged from smart to 'Are you high'. The resistance (Half-Life 2) tended to get shot more often that I'd have liked. Alyx (Ep. 1) can actually fight back against attackers, and the resistance (Ep. 1) actually had tactical brains this time. And the Vorgunaut (Ep. 2) kicked so much ass with his attacks that you could actually save some ammo.

The more recent the Half-Life, the better the escort mission. But then there are two escort missions that still take the piss out of me.

-Fable. It's not that it's impossible, especially if you've buffed your character with the embarisingly overpowered 'Physical Shield' spell. But it's still annoying to listen to defenseless merchants with British accents ***** about how the Balverines are ripping out their innards and having it for lunch with their Earl Grey tea (sorry, couldn't resist).

-Final Fantasy VI. Tell me that escorting Banon down the rapids and past the octopus boss wasn't maddening. He targeted the dude EVERY TURN. And if he goes down, game friggin' over. It doesn't help that he has attacks that can hit your entire party for about 1/2 their total HP.

EDIT:

The only escort mission I don't completely hate is the one in Half Life 2: Episode 1, where you have to get all of the lightly armed resistance fighters to the train. It took me a couple tries, but since the escortees would run of their own volition, occasionally shoot back, and in general, all I had to do was clear the way, all was well. At one point, Alyx went into a coma (when I talked to tech support, it apparently had something to do with the save file becoming corrupt, and I just had to go back one to make the AI work again), but after that, smooth sailing.

Aside from that, no, I've never played a decent escort mission. Oh, how I hate thee, Meat Circus. *shudder*

Forgot that one. Goddamn, Olly. Is that rabbit covered with butter or something?!?

Wasn't Alyx invincible? Plus, if anything came near her, she had like instant kill moves that kicked ass. In fact, I played alot of HL2: Ep 1 just staring at her ass.

As for FFVI, are you kidding? that octopus was a pushover.

 

[Crooked Knight]

Ultros could be a pain, but wasn't Banon's free full-party healing more than a match for his damage? Hell, I'd even say the FFVI "escort" mission would be harder without the escortee.

 

[RPJesus]

What I liked about ICO is that Yorda actually moved away from the demonic aparations as opposed to standing idley by while they took her away.

 

[hooliganyouth]

Then there's "Dead Rising" the mack daddy of escort frustration. Thank goodness you can equip some characters with weapons but still having to drag someone by their hand through a horde of zombie? The amount of rage and profanity I directed at those characters was surprising even for me. I ended up leaving them to fend for themselves though I wish I could have killed them myself. Now I don't mind the fireman carry, that's okay.

"Kane & Lynch" had a decent escort mission in the nightclub but I didn't have to babysit at all.

Escort missions could be much easier if they could be given commands - i.e. SOCOM. - stay, heel, run for your life.

I have to admit that once I got used to the controls and concept of "Ico" I didn't mind her at all. Oddly enough I started to really care about what happened to her.

Did any one here play the disaster game - the Tokyo earthquake/save the citizens game? Came out for the PS2 a couple of years ago (?)

 

[Force Feedback Codpiece]

Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I've had this on my mind.

Escort missions never work. Ever. I've never played a game that did it right (well, maybe Alyx in HL, that was relatively decent). Escort missions always frustrate me because nine out ten, the AI is simply too poor. They get stuck, they drown, they run in the opposite direction, they get themselves killed, they have annoying voice acting, they run too slow, etc etc... these missions suck!

In case any game developers are reading this: either learn to code proper AI, or never make escort missions again.

 

[Razzle Bathbone]

As others have said, ICO puts the lie to the "escort missions suck" myth. If ICO can do it, so can other games. The only question is whether or not the developers have the time, resources and will to get it right.

Escorting Ashley in Resident Evil 4 is also pretty fun. Ashley knows how to keep her head down when the bullets start flying, she struggles and yells when somebody manages to grab her, and she occasionally points out important (and not totally obvious) things during life-and-death situations.

 

[donquixote]

ICO

Now go back and rewrite that article taking care to remember that not everybody encounters 'escort missions' as a brief digression while playing yet another FPS or RPG.

 

[Darkong]

I've always thought that the vast majority of escort missions were just something that developers used to pad their games out a bit more, they're usually unbearable slogs dragging this NPC who is always ten times stupider than the lowest of the enemy AI's, through a particularly dangerous area. The simple solution would be to allow the player to issue some simple commands to them such as 'hide','run','fight' and so on.

 

[ccesarano]

Escorting Ashley in Resident Evil 4 is also pretty fun. Ashley knows how to keep her head down when the bullets start flying, she struggles and yells when somebody manages to grab her, and she occasionally points out important (and not totally obvious) things during life-and-death situations.

For a moment there I was going to say it must be a testament that no one ever considered Resident Evil 4 when discussing escort missions. While plenty of people have complained about her, the praise for the game is still high up there. I think Capcom did a fantastic job with Ashley, and part of the reason is because she has her very own A.I. In most games, you have to force an escort behind you or away from the enemy, but in RE4 Ashley remains behind you at all times. If you ever have to spin around to kill things, which is really easy to do in Resident Evil games, she'll just duck and you can bust up whatever is about to grab her. Of course, the enemies also give you plenty of time to save her, as they want to grab her and walk away as well. Let's not forget the upgradeable health and providing a few hiding spots as well.

The problem with how games handle escort missions is that they write up a quick A.I., shove it in a normal situation and just try and let things fly. As Resident Evil 4 and ICO both prove, if you actually put some real development time in to the A.I. of the NPC's being escorted, as well as how the enemies interact with them, already you can make them less of a hassle. Escort missions are also not that bad if they have the capability to fight for themselves, though this isn't always practical.

Dead Rising was also mentioned, but that's more of a mixture. Yeah, the worst are those girls that need you to hold their hand. The ones that piggy back I actually like since you can just push through zombies without being bothered, oddly enough. However, despite all the useless survivors you must escort, there are some guys that can kick some serious ass. The first time I played, I never realized that the wife of the survivor on the roof was also up there, so I ended up taking him through the mall with me. He lasted a good long time and held his own really well before dying. Guy knows how to swing a golf club.

In the case of Dead Rising, I feel that the switch up was necessary. After all, there are going to be people freaking out who just won't pick up a weapon, despite the situation.

 

[Katana314]

I suppose in retrospect, the number of times that Ashley's actions merited a "NO NO, YOU IDIOT!!!" was very small. Also, it was a good dev decision to have the zombies merely try to carry her away, as opposed to killing her.
And then of course, they admit that nothing's perfect by having her absent for about half of the game.

Even though there are some very successful attempts at escort missions, I think that generally games would do better without them.

 

[Chilango2]

Actually, where escorts missions tend to be at their worst is in MMORPG's where the perosn you msut escrot is often the questgiver, and when you fail, you msut wait 15 minutes, again, and again, and again, and..yes..so much rage.