Fetch Quests, Escort Missions... anything else?
Wherein Hooded examines a few of the less-beloved quest and mission types in gaming. Kitch Fests While not overtly maligned, they're often treated as so necessary and essential that a given MMO will likely base its whole quest structure on this old trope. But I think you only hear this term when people hate a given task; when there's a good story element behind fetching something, it doesn't fe...
Kitch Fests
While not overtly maligned, they're often treated as so necessary and essential that a given MMO will likely base its whole quest structure on this old trope. But I think you only hear this term when people hate a given task; when there's a good story element behind fetching something, it doesn't feel so "fetchy." I think the bigger issue is one of context; if it's obviously there as busy work, it's going to feel like busy work, and fetch quests are extra annoying the way some Metroidvania games can be; once you get the thing, you have to do some backtracking. Some games get around this by letting you teleport back, if you managed to set things up properly, but you're often left wondering why this task was so important to them when they asked some random shlub to pick it up for them, sight unseen?
Worst Fetch Quest:
Rather than name a specific game here, I'm going to say that in general, games that use fetch quests often make the mistake of assuming that gamers like fetch quests or expect them, such that they can just be dumped in there in the most basic manner possible and this should be sufficient. So much potential in a quest is lost when it FEELS like a quest rather than a Quest. I mean, I've said this before, but technically speaking, the knights of the round table were on a freaking fetch quest, but things felt a bit more epic because each knight was tested during their journey, each one ran into unexpected things along the way, and the focal point itself would renew the entire kingdom. It was important, it was filled with side-events that weren't distractions so much as actual tests (in the theological sense). By comparison, most fetch quests seem utterly pointless. The word Q/quest now seems to have two meanings in English because of this.
Best Fetch Quest:
This is probably one of the more mundane fetch quests, but during a story mission in Morrowind, I found myself captivated not so much by the quest itself, which was pretty mundane, but the sights and strangeness that I had to retrieve the thing from. An ashlander chieftan asked me to recover an item from his tribe's ancestral tombs. In there were the preserved corpses of the ancestors, strange funereal arrangements, interesting loot, and altogether unique architecture, with game assets I hadn't seen before. The quest STRUCTURE was the same as the thousands that went before it, but the change in atmosphere made it much more special.
Possible Improvements:
I've pretty much telegraphed this already, but fetch quests themselves aren't bad. It's how they're presented, and what they mean, that's the real test of a fetch quest's value. Simple ones early on help players learn the ropes, sure, but every fetch quest you give a player diminished their relationship to the game. They should be few, involved, and in some way significant. You don't have to save the kingdom every time, but things have to matter. And if the player character has a personal stake in it, all the better.
Escort-go
I have had interesting escort missions. It sucks when your escort doesn't try very hard to survive, and I'm guessing that's the major complaint: whenever you not only have to watch your own ass, but look after someone else who isn't very good at the job on top of that, you'll likely become intimately acquainted with quickload before too long.
But when the AI was NOT that bad, or it cheated a bit to put most of the heat on me and not the person I was protecting, things went OK, and it actually made me a bit proud of myself.
Main Issue: who you're escorting can't be a dumbass, there needs to be a point to the escortee, and peril can't be heaped on the escortee, otherwise the game's focus is taken too far away from the player and you feel a bit helpless if you lose.
Worst Escort Mission:
Dubious honor goes to a quest in the usually awesome Gladius, a sorta turn-based tactical RPG from under-appreciated Lucasarts. There is a mission that works fine if you do it right away, but if you happen to take the quest and then hold off until you return to the region, you will have to save someone who is still the level they were when they were first supposed to be rescued, but now her pursuers are scaled in level to match you. They all surround her almost instantly, and are so strong, often with some rather unfair headgear, that by the time you get to her, she's toast. I did manage to beat the assailants ONCE through very aggressive positioning and character choice, such that I managed to, in the hours that went by, keep enough attention away from her to slowly whittle down the enemy and succeed. I lost my beloved puma thing in the process, and when the quest was finished, it didn't give me the reward it was supposed to; I'm guessing they never expected a weirdo like me to try the quest that late in the game. Fucked up.
Best Escort Mission:
You know what, I don't think I remember any. There are certainly a lot of problems with how these are made, but it's often a problem because there isn't a game BUILT around being a guard. Usually you get an escort mission slapped on there, so the game that is normally directed solely at you the player now has to balance attention between guard and target. The best escort mission has yet to be made, but damn it, I think it can be.
Anyone want to fill in the blank with their own ideas, here? I'm hard pressed to think of something off the top of my head, but I'm wondering if the definition can be pretty broad. Is Ico annoying in that regard? I remember successful ones to be rewarding, like in TIE Fighter, Wing Commander, or maybe Red Baron, but quite often failing those too many times meant frustration. Is it just a question of personal success or failure, or something more going on here?
Possible Improvements:
If the game is built around escort missions, it will likely be better just because you actually force the designers to concentrate on the problems inherent in this, the most hated of mission types. What does the target do when facing varying levels of hostility? Should they run to you right off the bat, defend themselves, use special abilities that are a limited resource only when things look bad? How much should the character know just through alert notices, and how much should they seek out on their own? What sorts of abilities does the player character have to immediately protect the target from a swarm, and what can they do to affect enemy attention (aggro)? The further in this goes, I think the cooler such a design concept could be. It could even make fun of all the guard cliches we've accumulated over the decades of games that took guards for granted. Sheeesh, I want to see this happen some day.
Anyone have a fun fetch quest or escort mission that bucks the trend? Examples of worsts, bests, or potential improvements are of course welcome.