Poll: What's worse? Forced stealth or escort missions?

[semikolon]

Anyone remembers Spartan Total Warrior Archimedes escort mission on medium or harder?

Oh god, I REALLY EFFIN HATE THIS PART.
the game itself was great, sometimes a lil too hard, but still great.
but, this mission, ohmigosh, i really hate you for makin me remember it.
so yea, i'd take any bad forced stealth mission over escort missions any day.

 

[juraigamer]

Escort missions defiantly, I can't count how many times an allied mech has walked over a flipping truck in mechwarrior 4 and cost me cash or the whole mission.

 

[Akalistos]

Having been a gamer for most of my life, the two biggest downers in games for me are these two, I have no problems with games that actually involve sneaking as a main element but to put them in action games kinda sucks. and there is NO EXCUSE for escort mission, they are crap!

Stealth? The problem with those missions are choices. I just burrow Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow from a friend and played the first level. Can anyone tell me why this game is so highly regarded? Metal Gears Solid 2 on the other hand his way better. Why? Because of Choices. In SCPT, you are force to use stealth, even when you don't want to. It still satisfying to jump on a guard a smash the back of his head in. The problem come when you are spotted, it either end the mission or you get ganged and die. You are force to do what the voice told you. Step in the shadow, now step into the light... blah blah blah. It worst in action game. You are supposed to be able to outclass any group of final mob(i mean the overpower mob that you see before the end). Your supposed to kill monster three time your size. Now, your supposed to be scare of five mobs and die or restart when you can slice them seven way to Sunday? NO. I call bullsh*t. They take out that choice of either going stealth or gun blazing. Everyone hate that!

Escort Mission? Same problem. You hate that because you are force into doing it. It also considered a sin of video gaming. (I don't remember where i saw that.) The problem is that the failure of the escort end the game. They are some that don't (aka Fallout 3) but if you are to do the mission and want that reward, you'll reset the game... even i the game don't. I found it worst than stealth because now the Game Over trigger is in the hand of someone else. That A.I. isn't as overpowers, isn't as good a fighter and also often don't come armed. You have to protect it with your body and follow (or guide) it to the destination. Then, you face the ambushes. Now, you can't always give direction to the NPC, and that is if they gave you that options. Sometime, they will run after the enemies, ended up crowded and die. Sometime he will stand there doing nothing and die. Sometime he run aways and face other enemies while your busy and die. To me, the fact that the NPC deliberately asking for it turn the game into a Bug Bunny cartoon.


If you have the choice to let him die, you would let him die. If you would have the choice to go ARNOLD on enemies instead of hiding, you would jump in the fray. Being force to do something is never fun.

 

[the_tramp]

Escort missions as there's nothing I can do about it. Forced stealth I can practice and learn the enemies' movements whereas I can't reprogram a stupid AI.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

I'd say they have about the same level of potential horribleness. Wow, apparently "horribleness" is actually a word. Learn something new every day, I guess.

 

[Woodsey]

Escort missions easily.

The only good one I've ever played was in Crysis.

 

[GreatVladmir]

I don't care, if it's done right they can be fun, if done wrong they are rubbish, like you know everything in video games.

 

[Bloodeye]

Escort missions for sure. At least in forced stealth I'm not crippled by an ally with poor A.I. I remember finding Resident Evil 5 endlessly annoying for this reason. It almost felt like they'd made the game one giant escort mission.

 

[Beardon65]

Dear god, the Escort missions. I've yelled at the A.I. I was supposed to protect and actually killed them myself a few times. At least Stealth missions are actually (somewhat) fun. Wow, someone actually said they killed kittens. Whoever did it. Prepare for the scolding of your life.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Both of them are rubbish, but it's the forced game-change/AI that makes them both as bad as each other.

Although Team Fortress 2 shows how you can make Stealth AND Escort fun, make them action based instead of arbitrary puzzle based.

 

[psivamp]

Wow, someone actually said they killed kittens. Whoever did it. Prepare for the scolding of your life.

Now, did they mean 'killing kittens' or murdering small cats?

 

[TerribleAssassin]

Well, if it's AC, both work well in that, though stealth was a main factor.


But if it's like, shh, we're in a black tunnel, but we can't do the main genre of the game, then I'm annoyed!

 

[BlackStar42]

I like Escort jobs. It's easy money and some of my clients are pretty nice du...

Oh, escort missions! Y-yeah those...suck.

>.>
<.<

Oh, I see what you did there.

 

[JdaS]

You really should've included a "Both" option. The way I see it: Escort missions in games where the A.I. is as thick as the wall he's trying to walk through and stealth missions in games where the A.I. can "see" through the wall you're taking cover against.

 

[t_rexaur]

Definitely Escort Missions. Forced Stealth is a bit bit annoying but you can at least rely on your own skills.

Escorts can be hilariously bad though. World of Warcraft was full of them and I hated most of them because the AI was horrible. Here is an example: You've just started the quest to free a Blood Elf sailor from Northwatch Hold. The quest involves helping him along his predetermined path through the base, then through the pirates outside the base.

BE: "Thank you for rescuing me. Now come on, we need to get out of this base quickly".

Said BE then proceeds to WALK AT A LEISURELY PACE with no regards to stealth. Hell, he'll rush to attack guards who haven't even aggro'd to us yet, all the while screaming: "Help! Northwatch Guardsman coming right at us!"

It was hilariously bad and almost every escort quest is like this. There was one good one though, helping a shaman explore some tunnels infested with Naga (evil fish people). The moment she saw one she'd run at them and chain lightning them in the face taking off like 60-70% of their health. Sometimes I wondered why I even needed to help her.

 

[eclipsed_chemistry]

Yeah, they're both pretty bad, if, for no other reason (and people have brought up some very good points on why both are terrible) than the fact that both can only be done by trial-and-error, memorization of enemies, movements, and the level itself and more often than not, results in way too many "GAME OVER...RESTARTING CHECKPOINT" screens than anyone cares to remember.

 

[Not-here-anymore]

Escort missions. The bloody escort missions. It's like the AI goes out of it's way to commit suicide.

IAWTC.

OT:Escorting missions. Just cause most of them time, the person you're supposed to be escorting has no brain, and dies in the stupidest way. Then you have to start all over again.
At least in stealth missions, when you fail, it's your fault. You can't control the bloody brainless AI in escort missions! -.-
And then there're games like Batman Arkham Asylum, who perfectly blends stealth and combat together so seamlessly that I still grouch about it only having ONE forced stealth mission.

I'm pretty sure it had 2 - the one where you have to rescue Commissioner Gordon from Harley Quinn, and there's one in the botanical gardens quite late in the game. Although the second one's not that long. I just wish it had some kind of 'light-meter' to tell you how visible you are, so you could just hide in dark corners on the ground floor and make the goons shit themselves that way.

But yeah, escort missions are a hassle. Especially since, if you really want to, you can just sprint the course, deal only with enemies in your path, and probably beat the level by luck more quickly than if you were to actually walk slowly with your helpless companion

 

[SoulChaserJ]

I think Dead Rising did it worse.

I couldn't agree more. Dead Rising by far had the worst escort missions ever. Considering how easy it was for the escortee to be horded or god forbid you give them a gun(and catch 90% of their bullets in your own head). Hell they couldn't even properly get in the jeep after you murder the convicts. Bottom line escort missions suck because the person(s) you're escorting should probably be dead anyway.

 

[Wraithspine]

I think forced stealth can be ok when it is implemented well. When it seems counter intuitive to the rest of the game and you "lose the game" as soon as you are spotted. That sucks.

But by a HUGE margin I think escort missions are horrible. I want to move on but the person wants to stand and whimper. I think running into a monster's mouth would be a bad idea, they seem to like the idea of taking a holiday in the monster's gullet. You see guards, they see nothing and get their face blasted to pieces and the game punishes YOU for the game designer's crappy programming.

I cannot think of one game that I could say "I enjoyed that escort quest." Well one that didn't involve escort girls...

 

[Save us.A7X]

That's like asking if you'd rather be castrated or stabbed in the face. One might be marginally better than the other but overall there both horrible.