Escort Missions Suck

[Alan Au]

I can't decide which annoy me more: "escort" missions, or "defend the macguffin" missions. They're like tragic siblings in the family of insta-fail gameplay gimmicks. Don't even get me started on punitive stealth missions or the obligatory snipertown gauntlet, but I'll politely try to stay on topic.

Escort missions wouldn't be nearly as bad if the escortees just had some sense of self-preservation. I'd like to think that this is a mostly solvable problem, and maybe even a fun design exercise. For one thing, it'd be nice of your charges would be more defensive when injured. I mean, there's something to be said for "running away" instead of "charging ahead."

Defend the macguffin is more often than not just an overly complex version of whack-a-mole, except it's usually more like trying to whack wasps with a spoon.

- Alan

 

[hlan [deprecated]]

As soon as I hit the escort mission at the end of bioshock the first thing I did was pause it and consult gamefaqs. It's a good thing I found out that any harm or death inflicted upon my little sister had no effect on the game otherwise I would've been deterred from continuing.

 

[Gildedtongue]

Escourt missions can be fun (Oxymoron, but bear with me), if the AI was made that the escourtee would have the brains to fall back and hide from the baddies, rather than just amble on unintelligently. Take, for instance, Metal Gear Solid 3. You hand EVA a .45 calibre revolver and make sure she's doing fine, but she also tends to do things such as duck, or shoot enemies in the head. Of course, her stamina is constantly dropping because she apparently can't be bothered by actually putting on clothes, or simply zip up her jumpsuit (since "Naked" is the most stamina draining clothing option).

But most of the time escourt missions are akin to that of Robotech: Battlecry, or Rogue Squadron, where some moron plane lumbers at 5 inches an hour, totally without shields or weapons, and expect me to be everywhere, because the rest of my squad are all at the base getting syphilis from unprotected alien sex, and putting a halfbrick on the accelerator, and tying a rope on the flight stick to make it turn left constantly.

 

[stevesan]

so it seems like the consensus is that, escort missions can be done, but it's so hard that they usually suck. but designers like to use them to add variety...they figure, "oh you must be sick of tasting wine! how about some beer?" and they whip out a can of Bud Light.

i think escort missions are just one example of a general trend: instead of making a game that really rocks with a few game play mechanics, developers just pile on more in the name of "variety". vehicles, quick-response timers, stealth missions - these are tough to get right, but are they even necessary? ie. was it worth the time and money to get these new mechanics right (assuming you did it well - but as we know, that's often not the case, in which time and money was just wasted)?

maybe developers should try milking what they have already, by designing more interesting levels using the existing mechanics they've (hopefully) perfected. admittedly, such decisions are often out of the developer's control. some executive may just come in and go, "hey guys, a lotta games have vehicle segments - let's add a tank driving level." so there's some politics and negotiation to deal with as well.

but man..i do miss the old days of games like DOOM. variety wasn't given by new mechanics ("ok, now you're gonna drive a tank!"). it was given by clever, memorable level design, new weapons, new monsters, and new combinations of all those existing elements. DOOM had some very memorable levels (tricks and traps, phobos anomaly, etc.) - but i feel like with games these days...every level is just another "highly detailed, realistic environment." where'd the fun go?

 

[Elguappo]

Anyone remember the scientist in Doom 3? The entire escort mission was some gaunt SOB guiding you through a pitch black labyrinth of corridors while Imps pop out of nowhere and toss fireballs at your hapless compatriot. Would have been easy and maybe even fun (in terms of terror) if the dude had just followed you and gave directions, but NOoooooo! He had to lead with his "shoot me" lantern. You didn't have to keep him alive, which I think is a good direction to go with escorts, but I'm the type of bleeding heart idiot that Needs to keep every poor shmuck NPC alive, no matter how many times I have to go over the same section. (the suppression device in HL2 erked me something fierce)

 

[Heroic One]

Escort missions could be better if they only had the illusion of escorting. Like the people you're defending are actually invincible.

 

[Copter400]

I can't agree more. The only thing worse than escort missions are stealth missions.

If only more escortees were like Ashelin in the Jak series. There's a handful of missions where you need to protect her from enemies, but she doesn't just walk into the wall absent-mindedly. She jumps around, dodges, kills, holds her own, with only the slightest input from you.

 

[Girlysprite]

What's even worse- if the ones you are escorting think they can handle the monsters, but they can't.
There are some escort missions in Oblivion. God, those are painful.
The most shining example of it is a mission where i have to guide a couple of soldiers out oblivion. They rushed at every monster in sight like a 12 year old adhd kid, making it impossible for me to protect them. And to make things even worse...they died quick, and when I joined the front line to fight I could accidentally hit them with my sword, making them hostile at me.

In the end I found a cheatcode to shut down ALL AI, so that the characters only followed me, and no one engaged in combat. Monsters not and soldiers not. Hell, only that allowed me to finish that side quest.

 

[Nukelear]

I think we have forgotten the best escort level in a game ever. This is different to ICO in that the game was not designed around an escort quest but one of its levels was an escort.

And the game is...

Portal.

Have we all forgotten about our friend the companion cube so soon? Did you put it in the Aperture Science Emergency Intelligence Incinerator and forget about it?

The reason that I liked the Portal take on an escort quest is because they took out the bad parts of it. Most escort NPCs are stupid and charge at enemys, Portal solved this by making the escortee directly under the control of the player. Escort levels are usually a way to give the player an extra edge or set of abilities they would not normally have in order to complete a task. Most games use this as an excuse to throw a nearly impossible challenge at the player which just makes it suck even more when the NPC charges into the fray. The companion cube facilitated several tasks that the player could not accomplish with just the portal gun but those tasks were not made so hard that it required multiple attempts in order to learn enemy placements or anything like that.

Portal is a good example of why escorts don't have to follow the normal formulas and don't even have to be particularly hard to be enjoyable. Even from an emotional attachment standpoint how many people hesitated or tried to look for a way to keep their companion cube?

"Although the euthanizing process is remarkably painful, 8 out of 10 Aperture Science engineers believe that the companion cube is most likely incapable of feeling much pain."

 

[laikenf]

Wow I remember beeing completely turned off in Resident Evil 4 by that escort mission with the girl. So much that I really stoped playing it until I got the wii version. I realized that the mission wasn't that hard, but I just can't stand escort missions, I wouldn't put a game down for this but it still kind of irritates me.

 

[Katana314]

Um...I dunno. I wouldn't count Portal so much because not only is the cube directly under your control, it's invincible. Actually, I would say that since players had used cubes beforehand enough, it wasn't even really breaking the formula too much. But it did provide a nice nostalgic value.

 

[lemming52]

I still cry at night. Im haunted by my lovable companion cube being slowly roasted. Im waiting till valve bring the plushie out, then we can finally be re-united and we can snuggle.

 

[Ex Omni]

Escort missions can work, especially when they're NOT escort missions.

Putting your life on the line to save someone else "is really cool in war movies," says McGann, "but never translates well into videogames. Escorts attempt, and fail, to touch at the heart of sacrifice, protection and even love, in putting someone else's wellbeing in front of your own, but with saves and loads what really is the emotional investment there, beyond frustration when they die and you fail over and over again?"

Probably the very best example I can think of of this being executed perfectly in a game is a section in Rainbow Six: Vegas. A family of civilians are separated, each covering behind small benches as terrorist fire explodes around them. They cry for help, frightened and suffering. With each bullet I impaled into the terrorists, I felt elated, heroic. And as the family reunited together, thanking me for saving their lives, I simply walked on with my team, silent with the knowledge of what a great heroic act I had just accomplished.

The only real problem with traditional escort missions is poor NPC AI. It's amazing we haven't gone beyond that by now, but for now I'll take clever innovation like what I just described from R6:V.

 

[Esmoreit]

What's even worse- if the ones you are escorting think they can handle the monsters, but they can't.
There are some escort missions in Oblivion. God, those are painful.
The most shining example of it is a mission where i have to guide a couple of soldiers out oblivion. They rushed at every monster in sight like a 12 year old adhd kid, making it impossible for me to protect them. And to make things even worse...they died quick, and when I joined the front line to fight I could accidentally hit them with my sword, making them hostile at me.

In the end I found a cheatcode to shut down ALL AI, so that the characters only followed me, and no one engaged in combat. Monsters not and soldiers not. Hell, only that allowed me to finish that side quest.

When starting to read the first posts in this thread, oblivion immidiatly sprung to mind. For exactly the same reasons. Some NPC's went well... you can easily tell them to stand still in a spot. I'd clear the dungeon, retrieve them later and be on my marry way.

Not so much when you have to escort dipshits. You recognize them because they have weapons. I carry an enchanted Ebony longsword. You fling around Steel... Let me do it!

I was actually relieved when I first encountered the Duke's son and his friends in the Oblivion gate and they mentioned that the best strategy was to stay behind me. Great idea.
Next thing I know, the guys rush into an archer as soon as he is visible. Two out of three miss the archer and run straight into the lava...

5 FUCKING TIMES

 

[Russ Pitts]

CoD 4 actually had some really impressive team AI. The whole game was basically an extended "follow" variation of the escort mission, but it worked extremely well.

I still wish someone would invent team AI that understands fucking field of fire, though. I'm shooting at someone. If you walk in front of my gun, that someone will be you. Don't so it. Just don't do it.

 

[Ex Omni]

Well, Oblivion isn't a problem because you can just slide the difficulty bar down to naught whenever you run into a poorly designed section you'd like to skip over.

CoD 4 actually had some really impressive team AI. The whole game was basically an extended "follow" variation of the escort mission, but it worked extremely well.

That's kind of the signature "CoD" style of game design since the original. Of course, you still manage to "take point" whenever there's an actually dangerous section of game-play coming up.

 

[Andrew Armstrong]

I need to try CoD 4, when I get time.

Escort missions generally are unfun when the player can kill the people they are protecting, or more likely then not they die regardless.

Some escort ones mentioned (Episode 1, the escorting civilians for instance) work well.

I'd actually like to see AI coming around and being good enough to escort a player. Usually it's the escortee which needs the better AI - and the player being that role would be a nice twist, as long as the protector is good enough (or numerous enough) although it does put them in the passenger seat instead of the drivers seat.

 

[Esmoreit]

I need to try CoD 4, when I get time.

Escort missions generally are unfun when the player can kill the people they are protecting, or more likely then not they die regardless.

Some escort ones mentioned (Episode 1, the escorting civilians for instance) work well.

I'd actually like to see AI coming around and being good enough to escort a player. Usually it's the escortee which needs the better AI - and the player being that role would be a nice twist, as long as the protector is good enough (or numerous enough) although it does put them in the passenger seat instead of the drivers seat.

I think it would work well in some survival horror game. Imagine it. You have been playing with poor AI all you're life, then suddenly in the midst of fighting of ghouls, zombies, etc, you are left without weaponry. You're only chance is following some marine/priest/farmer with his trusty boomstick and I sure as hell would get a little unsettled...

 

[The Irrelevant Gamer]

I loathe escort missions to the extent that if there is an optional quest, or job in a game that involves escorting someone through something dangerous I will not take it even if the reward is the godly sword of ass kicking.

Of course they can be done well (like almost any convention in gaming) as people pointing to games like Half Life 2, and ICO point out, but the point of the article seems to be that more often than not escort missions are shoehorned into a game simply to break up the shoot everything that moves gameplay. Yes I know I used the word point way too many times in that sentence. I'm off my game today.

So in effect most developers when they use an escort mission are just trading one gaming cliche that has through incessant use been polished to a mirror shine for another that is slightly busted, covered with cobwebs, and stays in the attic like an old board game until you are desperate enough for a change to try it. As evidence for this assertion I ask you to think about how many games getting killing enemies wrong compared to how many get escort missions wrong, and by wrong I mean not fun. This means developers will have to work extra hard to make escort missions work, but when they resort to them simply for lack of any other ideas it is unlikely that kind of effort will go into them, and thus we get shitty escort missions.

So developers, please for God's sake don't just throw in an escort mission to break up the monotony of your game. You're only replacing the monotony with frustration when you do that. And hey who said killing everything in sight for hours on end is a bad thing anyway? Look at how popular it is.

 

[phooks]

I must agree that most all escort missions I've played have taken a certain degree of fun away from the game while I curse violently at the stupidity of the AI escortee. Falble, oblivion, and a few MMOs IICR.

But what can be done? I am aware that Fable 2 is going in a great direction with escorts, but that's just one idea, one design (an original one, to boot).

Who else in the industry is trying to make an escort mission that not only is fun for the player, but also isn't just "move helpless NPC A to location B while killing enemies X, Y and Z".

I will include that if you are trying to get an objective that moves AWAY from killing monsters, saving maidens and whatever else the main plot of the game is, then maybe the design just isn't interesting enough within itself to be a viable entertainment form.


On another note, I absolutely LOVED every mission in Joan of Arc, escort or not. Who can say no to escorting the King of France while he whacks some English knights with his huge mace on horseback?