Erkki

Escort & Stalking missions: did any game ever do them well?

Recommended Posts

I found the escort-y objectives in X-Com: EU to be pretty tense, which was presumably the aim. So, well done in that regard.

I think the important part of this, and one that should probably be looked at by other developers, is that losing the escortee is only a mission failstate, not a game failstate. It's strange that it seems like overall the stakes are lower (because the game continues), but you feel dramatically more responsible for the person's welfare because you know you won't just pop back to your last checkpoint.

I guess to that extent, the escort parts in the Dead Rising games were similarly effective, except that the games themselves didn't really make me care about what happened.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think Dead Rising is another pretty great example. (Its save system, much maligned for having only a few locations to checkpoint at, i feel lent a certain degree of finality to the outcome of your actions.) I've always felt that the difference between enjoying the hell out of Dead Rising and really hating it, is whether or not you could look at the survivor rescue missions as optional. If you can deal with them being kind of fucked from the start, then you can appreciate Dead Rising as this game where you're having to make difficult choices on a tight deadline. I mean, that dude you were trying to bring back to the safe room just got swarmed by zombies, is it worth spending the time trying to save him? The biggest obstacle in Dead Rising is not the horde of zombies or the psycho survivors, it's actually the clock, and making the choice to leave somebody behind because you're on a tight deadline is kind of an awesome one to have to make. (Then once you've learned the campaign, the drops, and have leveled up your character, you get to have the experience of completely nailing things on a new game plus.)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

When my college roommate first started playing Oblivion, there was a stalking mission where you had to follow certain NPCs around the merchant district in Imperial City for some paranoid Bosmer. I left for class around eleven and came back for dinner at four to find him still following people. Apparently he was being so careful in his pursuit that he wasn't hitting the triggers for the quests to checkpoint and complete. Five hours! It blows my mind.

This is by way of saying that I can only think of escort quests that failed to piss me off, rather than that I actually enjoyed.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I loved that bit in Oblivion, it felt like such a cool demonstration of the radiant AI. Too bad the rest of the quests didn't have that level of stalky stuff. I believe there's one other in Skingrad.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now