Are there any games where YOU are being escorted? If not, how would we make a game like that good?

[scorptatious]

Escort missions are pretty much a staple in video games. And most of the time, they can be downright frustrating, with some notable exceptions. (For me it's ICO)

But I can't help but wonder:

Are there any games where you yourself are being escorted? How would one make a game like that fun? I'd imagine it would kinda be like a puzzle game in which you have to both support the guy protecting you and solve puzzles while he's defending you. You would also have to be frail in order to reinforce the idea that you are the one being protected instead of vice versa.

I'd imagine if done wrong, this kind of thing would be rather tedious and annoying, but if done right, it could provide a somewhat unique experience.

What say you fellow Escapists? Any examples of games where you're being escorted? And how would one make a game like that good and fun to play?

 

[FrozenLaughs]

That's a really good question. I can't think of a single game where you are being escorted actively.

The Starcraft series has always been kind of odd to me in this sense. The narrative to the story has always been that you are following the hero; Raynor, Mengsk, etc. The hero is leading an entire army across the galaxy, recruiting allies and fighting wars, guiding and defending his troops, including you.

Switch to the actual missions however, and suddenly they (if present) are just single units in a vast army at your control. Suddenly you are the hero leading an army, unlimited resources and manpower at your fingers.

This see-saw effect has always struck me as odd, but I'm not sure one would categorize it as Raynor "escorting" you?

 

[Tom_green_day]

Brutal Legend's RTS sections were this for me. Get a load of dudes and use them to protect me while I ruined their stage.

 

[Jamash]

Escort missions are pretty much a staple in video games. And most of the time, they can be downright frustrating, with some notable exceptions. (For me it's ICO)

But I can't help but wonder:

Are there any games where you yourself are the escort?

So far, all games with escort missions cast the player as the escort.

An escort is someone who escorts something or someone, not the object of that escort mission.

The person being escorted is an escortee, not the escort.

 

[Neverhoodian]

I suppose games like the Pikmin series and Overlord might fall under that, seeing as how you can't accomplish much without your minions to back you up. There's also B-17: The Mighty Eighth, where you fly bombers over occupied Europe in World War II. The best you can do if you fall under fighter attack is stay in formation, man the gun turrets and pray that your fighter escorts do something about it (assuming they have the range to stay with you). You can also fly bombers in War Thunder, though it's a crap shoot whether your teammates bother to protect you or not.

I can think of a few ideas for this off the top of my head. One is a medieval/fantasy setting where you are a traveling monarch or some other high ranking noble, and you have to organize caravans to protect you from bandits and the like. Another idea is a space sim like Wing Commander: Privateer or Freelancer, only you control a capital ship instead of a small freighter. When you run across trouble you have to scramble your on-board fighter squadrons to protect you. There could be all sorts of gameplay elements in both, such as upgrades to increase your escort's effectiveness and even help you defend yourself if the enemy gets through (you'd have to keep it balanced though, otherwise it defeats the purpose of having escorts in the first place). This would allow for more challenging missions as the game progresses, which would help keep things interesting.

 

[Gronk]

I usually play healers or buffers whenever i play mmos. So i usually feel like i'm being escorted everywhere.

Does that count?

 

[MoeMints]

Edit: Whoops, you meant the client of the escort, derp.

Well Tales of The Abyss starts off as that, though honestly I hate the cast.

 

[scorptatious]

Escort missions are pretty much a staple in video games. And most of the time, they can be downright frustrating, with some notable exceptions. (For me it's ICO)

But I can't help but wonder:

Are there any games where you yourself are the escort?

So far, all games with escort missions cast the player as the escort.

An escort is someone who escorts something or someone, not the object of that escort mission.

The person being escorted is an escortee, not the escort.

Really? My mistake then. Better edit the title.

 

[Evonisia]

In BioShock Infinite Elizabeth escorts you, seeing as how she supplies you with ammo, health and money and you're the one who will end the game should the protected dies.

 

[scorptatious]

In BioShock Infinite Elizabeth escorts you, seeing as how she supplies you with ammo, health and money and you're the one who will end the game should the protected dies.

Heh true. Seeing as how she can't die and enemies ignore her.

I guess you could say that they're keeping Comstock's daughter safe, but I kinda wish they would at least try to interact with her to some degree, like trying to take her away, or holding their fire if she happens to be in their line of sight.

 

[Evonisia]

In BioShock Infinite Elizabeth escorts you, seeing as how she supplies you with ammo, health and money and you're the one who will end the game should the protected dies.

Heh true. Seeing as how she can't die and enemies ignore her.

I guess you could say that they're keeping Comstock's daughter safe, but I kinda wish they would at least try to interact with her to some degree, like trying to take her away, or holding their fire if she happens to be in their line of sight.

We wouldn't want people disliking Elizabeth because they decided to pull a Resident Evil 4 on their female lead character, now would we?

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Based on the reviews and, critiques I've heard, watched and, read, I can see there being a good argument made for modern military shooters being games in which the game escorts you. Not only in the Call of Duty: Ghost episode of Zero Punctuation but it sounded like the Battlefield 3 episode too made it sound like the game would happily continue on without you if you, the player, decide to hang back too long or, in the wrong place.

Then there are multiplayer shooters! If you grab the flag in CTF or any variation, who become to escort character! Of course you could just suck at online shooters like I do...when you are the lowest scoring person on a team I can't help but feel like an escort NPC.

 

[TheRiddler]

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption had a pretty sweet example. The mission where you team up with the Galactic Federation and storm into the mines on the Space Pirates' home planet in order to gain access to the seed. This is the one time in the series where Federation soldiers have assisted Samus, and it's awesome.

It's an escort level by formal definition, but not really, because while escort missions have become known as situations where you're dragging useless liabilities along with you, here you're pretty much participating in an attack that just happens to progress at your pace. Not only that, but the troopers you fight alongside are actually useful. They do a respectable job at combating the dozens of Space Pirates that you encounter along the way. This is, in my opinion, what an escort mission should be.

 

[The Enquirer]

There was a mission in Timesplitters Future Perfect where you escort a past or future version of yourself but I somehow doubt that's what your meant.

Basically all it would be is a mission where the attack happens at your own pace. Or you're pretty much on a timer to reach certain objectives. Which is basically what we already have in shooters.

 

[G-Force]

Any multiplayer game where you have to carry something important at the expense of losing the ability to fight back (Uncharted Idol, Capture the Flag modes, Payday 2)

 

[TelHybrid]

Every Call of Duty game's campaign. The sniper levels especially.

 

[MarsProbe]

Based on the reviews and, critiques I've heard, watched and, read, I can see there being a good argument made for modern military shooters being games in which the game escorts you. Not only in the Call of Duty: Ghost episode of Zero Punctuation but it sounded like the Battlefield 3 episode too made it sound like the game would happily continue on without you if you, the player, decide to hang back too long or, in the wrong place.

Then there are multiplayer shooters! If you grab the flag in CTF or any variation, who become to escort character! Of course you could just suck at online shooters like I do...when you are the lowest scoring person on a team I can't help but feel like an escort NPC.

The first thing that came to mind was also the modern military shooter. I recall being so frustrated at one point in the singleplayer of MW3 where you were tasked with tracking down the daughter of the Russian president before the bad guys got to her, of course. I remember getting to the point where she was on the roof (or at least a room that had became the roof of a building due to all the damage) so I charged past all the AI squadmates in order to get to the door we needed to break down. Of course, the game wasn't ready by that point, so I had to sit there and wait for the NPC whose sole job it was to break down the door, at which point our charge was already been loaded on the enemy chopper. If I recall correctly, the AI even had the nerve to tell me to hurry up, despite the fact I reached the destination first. I had packed in buying COD games by that point (only rented MW3) but things like would have only made the decision easier. Nobody wants to be the escortee in a game.

It would be somewhat like finally encountering the big bad at the end of a game, only to have one of your companions to kill him with a single gunshot, denying you not only the chance of a decent fight, but the chance to deliver the killing blow yourself. Sorry, something I read today reminded me of the end of Fable 2, so it was kind of bugging me again.

 

[shootthebandit]

I suppose the player would have to have some sort of valuable resource so they are still needed yet this resource has a glaring weakness so it needs to be escorted. A good example would be if you were in command of an artillery unit. You are very powerful yet you are vulnerable to infantry

I just had a weird idea where you play as a member of the press being escorted around a war zone and you have to report back on what you see however depending on the choices you make and how much you explore affects the outcome of not only the game but the war itself. Eg you might go into a room and see soldiers commiting war crimes yet you cant report it because you are being escorted by the military. You could also get yourself into the blurred lines of exposing secrets and putting people in more danger kinda like the recent leaks. Do you risk sending your character to prison or do you expose the truth also depending on what decisions you make you may actually blur the truth for yourself. This type of game could explore so many issues of modern war without giving the player a weapon and ironically the player has more impact on the outcome of the war

 

[DementedSheep]

It feels that way in parts Metro 2033 since most the people you travel with actually know where they are going, are better equipped and far more experienced than the guy your playing. Plus they have unlimited ammo in a game where ammo preservation is fairly important so it's better to hang back a bit. Apart from the little kid (obviously) and the amoeba area since the AI was stupid. However you are still fighting in that.

I can't think of any where you aren't also fighting as much as them though. It would be easy to do in something very story and dialogue driven like The Walking Dead.
A puzzle game where this was the case could be interesting. I'm not quite sure how it would come across in the actual mechanics in a less cinematic and dialogue based game though because watching an npc fight for while being able to contribute little would be boring and saddling the player with a NPC often ends up being annoying. Maybe if you have buffing, disabling and support skills or them fighting off enemies was essentially a timer on the some of the puzzles.

 

[scorptatious]

I just had a weird idea where you play as a member of the press being escorted around a war zone and you have to report back on what you see however depending on the choices you make and how much you explore affects the outcome of not only the game but the war itself. Eg you might go into a room and see soldiers commiting war crimes yet you cant report it because you are being escorted by the military. You could also get yourself into the blurred lines of exposing secrets and putting people in more danger kinda like the recent leaks. Do you risk sending your character to prison or do you expose the truth also depending on what decisions you make you may actually blur the truth for yourself. This type of game could explore so many issues of modern war without giving the player a weapon and ironically the player has more impact on the outcome of the war

I love this idea!

I can't help but think of Frank West from Dead Rising, and ironically, he's the one escorting people.