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From: candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: Game mechanics do you like?
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2025 20:10:05 -0000 (UTC)
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Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 15:15 this Thursday (GMT):
> On Wed, 15 Jan 2025 11:54:30 -0600, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 13 Jan 2025 16:14:39 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
>>Spalls Hurgenson wrote: 
>>
>>>Escort quests can be fun.
>>
>>No. NO! Bad Spalls, BAD! (*reaches for rolled up newspaper*)
>
> I know, I know. We've all had bad experiences. But that's just because
> those escort quests are badly done.
>
> But if they're done well, they're fun!
>
> I mean, "The Last of Us" and "Enslaved: Odyssey to the West" are
> basically both extended escort quests. The 2008 "Prince of Persia"
> (which is a lot better than most people remember) is another.
>
> The key is to not make the escortee so fucking useless and vulnerable
> as to squeeze all the fun out of the experience. If they are
> vulnerable, don't have them rush into combat. Give them good
> pathfinding so you aren't backtracking to get them unstuck. Make it so
> the player, not the escortee, is determining the pace and direction of
> the adventure. Give the escortee something to do other than simply
> whine at the player. 
>
> All this takes effort and creativity. But if done well, it works
> great. The NPC feels like a real companion, and not just a load that
> must be moved from point A to point B.


Hm.. the only game where I kinda? liked escort missions was PMD, since
you had the safety net of a billion get-out-of-jail-free revive seeds.

In general, they're pretty terrible though. /ESPECIALLY/ if the
checkpoints are sparse.
-- 
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom