The horror of escort missions

[S1500]

Any game that involves an "escort mission" is usually dread for me. It's up to you, the one with the firepower, to safely escort a person/vehicle/whatever that has no firepower, from point A to B while antagonists try to attack what you are escorting.

 

So what are the best/worst escort missions in games? All I know is that I usually fail no matter what the game, etc is. Usually it's multiple attackers going after your target, and you have to pick one, than the others to save the day.

 

Thankfully in Fallout 3, escorts seem to be optional. For fun I followed the kids from Paradise Falls to Little Lamplight for fun. We had quite a few random encounters, including 2 Super Mutants. The kids are immortal,so no risk. I also escorted my dad across the wasteland to Rivet City, and he took some oddball routes. I accidentally killed a wasteland medic caught in the crossfire, which netted me a whopping 27 stimpaks!

[MetalSlime23]

There was an escort mission in Jak and Daxter 2. It wasn't too bad, but I agree that escort missions usually suck.

[Reaperman]

I hate the ones in combat space simulators. the wing commander, x-wing, and colony wars series come to mind, but they all have them. There's always some squadron of ships way out there lobbing *HUGE* torpedos that need intercepted and if you go out to take them down another squadron appears on the other side *way* out and you're stuck in an empty corner of space 3 minutes from the ships you're protecting.

[kroogur]

There are a few in World of Warcraft , they are interesting but my one beef is the individual being escorted w..a...l..k..s... very ..s...l..o...w..l..y..

at least when you get attacked they usually help fight.

[KrazyKaiju]

The escort level in Starfox 64 where you had to defend the Great Fox was the worst for me. I could never beat that level without at least one missile getting through.

[bdog_147]

I hated the escort missions in State of Emergency. That game had a lot of those if I remember. That game sucked.

[DaytonaUSA]

The first Rogue Squadron annoyed me when it came to escort missions. That is, until a few years later when I got the N64 version, which made it infinitely easier to play the game .

[BydoEmpire]

I few that I actually liked were the escort missions in Bioshock and RE4. Neither felt overbearing or overly difficult.

[Hyper_Eye]

There are a few in World of Warcraft , they are interesting but my one beef is the individual being escorted w..a...l..k..s... very ..s...l..o...w..l..y..

at least when you get attacked they usually help fight.

 

They walk at walking speed which I agree is very slow. But you can set a key to put you into walk mode (I believe it is '/' by default) and then use auto-walk (num lock by default) and then they aren't as bad. It is annoying to move and stop, move and stop, move and stop.

[+DamonicFury]

I hate the ones in combat space simulators. the wing commander, x-wing, and colony wars series come to mind, but they all have them. There's always some squadron of ships way out there lobbing *HUGE* torpedos that need intercepted and if you go out to take them down another squadron appears on the other side *way* out and you're stuck in an empty corner of space 3 minutes from the ships you're protecting.

 

I love these kind of games, but yes, escort missions can make them enormously frustrating! Anyone who's played X-Wing probably will always remember that vicious mission where you have to defend a Nebulon-B against two sets of Tie Bombers that are coming from opposing directions. Took me a long, frustrating time to figure out how to beat that one! I had to admire the cunning of the mission design for that one.

[liveinabin]

I don't mind it when they're fairly short, like in Rogue Leader and some of the Ace Combats. Adds some depth to the proceedings and it's often fun to be the 'White Knight' to ships in distress. I particularly like the Ison Corridor level in Rogue Leader.

[Video]

There's one at the end of Bioshock, luckily it's not a big deal depending on how many of the little girls you rescued (but I still lost one, damnit)

 

Keys, in the first Halo, damnit, he's going to die anyways, and the responce I assume would be the same either way, to steal the memory chip from him anduse it yourself (of course, they couldn't have the second keys "rescue" if they did that, I suppose)

 

The ones I hate the most are like Rogue Squadren (the cube one) The second level, even on easy I couldn't get past it, finely said to hell with it and chunked it in the corner never to be played again. Whey the hell, second mission man, and befor that, other than ass controlls, it was shapeing up to e be a good game actually.

 

There's a twosided one on Mech Assualt on X-box that isn't to bad, on the easier settings, but that's because there are set spawn points and once you know where they are you can take the fighte to the badguys, rather than the other way around. That's IMO a refreshing change for protect missions. And mid mission you get to drive the mech There's also several "protect the dropship" ones, and I'm sorry, but the dropship, even crippled would flatten any legions of mechs sent after it (it would be like useing a cruiser to protect a battleship from other cruisers IRL)

 

Starfox adventures for the cube had one where you had to protect some eggs, and honestly, it didn't seem that important either way, but again, a required friggin mission.

 

But FPS games just suck ass, you always have some ahole that doesn't know squat, is I think intentionally mentally crippled compared to the rest of the already crappy AI, so they randomely run out and get shotup, and you seem to have the longest stretch anywhere in the game without a checkpoint, healthup, or ammo, so that's even worse, so when they die, you get to play the whole section all over.

 

Comeon, it's bad enough I gotta protect myself in some obscene cases, but to have some dippy crappy dude that serves no purpose at all (literally unfortunately quiet often)

Edited February 9, 2009 by Video

[PressureCooker2600]

I hated the escort missions in State of Emergency. That game had a lot of those if I remember. That game sucked.

 

That's the first game I thought of when I saw this thread.

 

Awesome game..........hard-as-hell escort missions.