Few things irritate me more than fetch missions. In fact, the act of fetching isn’t the problem; the implementation is what bothers me. Take my recent play through of Dragon Age: Origins, for example. I spent almost two hours completing a single mission.
In order to get an individual to help me, the quest giver demanded that I go and retrieve someone for them. I obliged, ignorant to the fact that it would take so long. Not only was the challenge unacceptably long, the environment where the mission took place was repetitive. I ended the whole endeavor annoyed and ultimately quit out of the game.
It’s a shame that Dragon Age is so annoying because the story seems like something I would enjoy. I’ve tried multiple times to play the game and each attempt ends with me becoming disgusted. In the two days since quitting for the final time, I’ve been thinking about fetch missions and how to implement them. In those two days, I’ve come to the realization that a lot of mission types annoy me. As always, I’ve devised a list of things I think all missions should do, so as not to annoy the player. Here it is:
-
Length: This may be the most important part. I don’t want to spend hours on one mission only to reach a lengthy boss fight at the end. How about keeping everything to a manageable length?
-
Repetition: A mission should not take place in an area where everything looks the same. When playing through the mission I explained above, I felt as though I was going in circles. Because everything looked identical, I quickly lost interest in my surroundings and what I was doing.
-
Relevance: Anything I do on a side mission should have some bearing on the game. I think Oblivion and Mass Effect do this really well. Throughout the world, the developers reference side missions I have completed or can complete. I may stumble upon a note that indicates a later side quests while on a main quest mission. It helps to fill out the universe, and it makes the world more believable.
-
Importance: I’m fine with side missions not changing the course of the main quest line. But what about when a side mission doesn’t advance anything at all? If I complete a quest for a particular race of people, I expect to learn something new about them, or I expect them to feel differently about me depending on what I do.
If an in-game community asks me to recover a book that contains information on their ancestors, which has been lost for ages, I expect to know what's in it. I should encounter relics, trinkets, and a host of other things that educate me about their people. Instead, I’m often led down a path directly to my objective. The developers haven't delivered any story. I spent the entire time fighting bad guys. This happens all the time, and it’s disheartening.
- Diversify: A mission shouldn’t be solely about fighting enemies: add some puzzle elements or a bit of platforming. For example, Assassin's Creed has numerous missions that force you to use your brain to reach the end instead of fighting through waves of bad guys.
Maybe one day a game will get missions right. I would welcome a game that forces me to negotiate puzzles and platforming scenes to progress. Does a game like this exist? Do you know of a shooter or RPG that utilizes platforming and puzzles?
