History Main / EscortMission

* ''SpyroTheDragon2'' had an infamously bad escort mission in the Fracture Hills level, wherein you escort a clearly-senile Alchemist to Hunter so the former can undo the stone block he encased Hunter's feet in. Unfortunately, he takes the longest, stupidest path through a field of unkillable enemies ... when if he turned left at the beginning, not only would he be safe, but he would reach his destination in a significant fraction of the time.

* In ''Videogame/{{LuigisMansionDarkkMoon}}, there are 4 levels in which you need to escort Toads to Pixelator screens. Each Toad has a phobia, and will refuse to go near certain things. The first one dislikes water, the second one is afraid of clocks/giant gears, the third one doesn't step on cracked ice, and the last ones (the final escort has you taking care of two toads at once) won't go near carnivorous plants, [[JustifiedTrope which any human being with a bit of sense would avoid.]] What stops their levels form being annoying is that a) They stay away from ghosts when you engage them (Ghosts will still use them as shields sometimes), b)They can get items for you, including gems and a clock rotor,(needed to open a door leading to the boss fight) [[Irony which is ironically]] collected by the Clock-o-phobic Toad, and c) You can suck them with the Poltergust, allowing you to carry them over their fears and even [[FastballSpecial USE THEM AS PROJECTILES]].

* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' appears to give you a partner character named Ellie, and unlike other {{Tagalong Kid}}s, she'll happily and helpfully assist player character Joel by distracting mooks and getting in and out of cover without being prompted. She will also actively change her behavior based on your playstyle, crouching down and hiding when you want to stealth and taking out her weapon when you want to go in guns blazing.

* In ''MassEffect2'', there is a sequence during the SuicideMission where you have to take a path full of seeker swarms. In order to not be attacked and captured by them, you have to pick a squadmate to keep a biotic barrier surrounding you and two other squadmates. If you pick the wrong escort, however, one of your team is taken by the swarms.

* ''SaintsRow2'' is generally pretty good with its escort missions, until "Corporate Meltdown" in the DLC, which demands that you protect a fragile nuclear waste truck from suicidal armored vans, rocket-launching mooks on rooftops, and attack copters. And you have to do it three times. [[FakeDifficulty And you can't save between two and three. And you're in a helicopter with slippery controls.]]

* In the SaintsRow series, a lot of missions are technically Escort mission since if your plot-critical homies die then the mission fails - however personnel can be revived after death instantly and without limit so long as 30 seconds have not passed since their death, and vehicular escorts are generally very durable.

* Escortees in ''{{Quake 4}}'' typically stand in the line of fire or bumrush Strogg squads, getting themselves shot to pieces, and don't stand a chance against [[LightningBruiser fast bruisers]] like Berserkers and Grunts.

* In Level 4 of ''{{Quake 4}}'', you escort a demolitions expert carrying explosives that will detonate if hit by weapons fire. "If these puppies go off, they'll take out you, me, and half this mountain." Later, you have to protect the same demolitionist from several waves of Grunts and [[DemonicSpiders Berserkers]] while he disarms landmines.

** There are a couple of point where one has to escort a human, but they realize how fragile they are and demand an armored transport to go anywhere, turning them into much more tolerable forced vehicle segments.
** One mission features you escorting a specialized pump vehicle; which has paper-thin armor and practically every infected rushes towards.
* ''[[SaGa Final Fantasy Legend's]]'' escort missions have, specifically, useful [=NPCs=] that completely help you through spells.

** That is, when he's not accidentally slashing you and throwing his fucking lightsaber at you.

''Instead of you escorting the NPC, [[InSovietRussiaTropeMocksYou the NPC escorts you]]. The bad news is: This usually means that ''YOU'' are the squishy bullet magnet in need of protection.''

* ''{{Wolfenstein}}'' has you sometimes come across prisoners whom you need to free. However, freeing the prisoners involves simply untying them; they then tell you that they'll find their own way to safety from there.

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* The Amoeba escort section in ''{{Metro 2033}}''; the previously invincible Captain can suddenly take damage, and while he can take a fair amount before being killed, you can neither see his health nor tell him to wait. As a result, he blindly walks forwards while the amoebas suicide rush him, and he waits until they're right in front of him before shooting them, so he always takes damage. What makes this escort mission even worse is that there are infinite amoebas unless you destroy their spawn points.

* FinalFight Streetwise has a one of the worst. First you must escort two people, one can only make one attack, able with a gun but his attack pattern is slow, the other cannot fight at all. During the escort you are ZergRush by mooks who offen seem to go after them first there are bombs thrown everywhere and the escorts share a life bar.

* In SniperEliteV2: At one point during the misson "Opernplatz," you have to save a defecting German scientist from execution, and cover him from your location so he can escape to where you are, by sniping every enemy (who are all unaware of you at the moment, by the way) between him and you. He's got a gun of his own, uses it fairly well, and knows when to take cover. It's surprisingly fun.

* In-universe in ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', the Spartans were told they'd receive a hacking escort for a mission. They immediately objected on the grounds that, civilian or elite soldier, they couldn't possibly keep up with a Spartan. Queue Cortana.

* ''StarCraft'' featured a brief "escort" segment of an early Terran mission, where you had to get through explored territory with a limited number of military units, [=SCVs=], and a unique unit that would result in failure if he died. On the other hand, it was pretty much done in the first thirty seconds.

** StarCraft2 finally has a mission in which you steal the SuperPrototype mecha Odin. The guy who does the actual stealing happens to destroy his com so he can't hear you anymore and decides to go for a walk... through the enemy bases. While this sounds like prime Escort Mission material, it's actually pretty fun since:

* Escort missions in the Pokemon Explorers don't seem too bad- until you realize that the NPC is ridiculously underleveled compared to you, your partner, ''and'' the NPCs in the dungeon you're venturing into. The real reason that this game is in this category, though is that if the NPC can't see you, it will often turn around and walk ''in the opposite direction'' and get immediately destroyed, costing you the mission and making you start ''all over again''. And, their IQ is usually lower than yours, so the NPC has an affinity for trying to attack through walls and walking right up to a sleeping Pokemon and waiting for it to wake up so it can attack it.

* Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together doesn't have many missions where failing to protect the escort is a Game Over, but there are a LOT of missions where a recruitable character will be a NPC starting near the enemies and you must protect it if you want to recruit it later. However, regardless of their strength, the NPCs will follow only one strategy: to see hwich enemy characters are in their range and attack the weakest of them. And there goes the SquishyWizard who happens to have no MP at the moment to try and hit that scary, heavily armored Terror Knight with his wooden stick because the Knight is the only enemy in his range (wich fills the "weakest enemy" quota).

** On the other hand, another mission forces you to escort [[LadyOfWar Agrias]], who can (and usually will) cut a bloody swath through a good chunk of the battlefield full of mooks solo, which is a lot more satisfying to play.

* Excortees in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' are mostly extremely slow. They run slower than you ''walk''. The inarguably most frustrating one is the escaped argonian slave in the middle of nowhere. As I said, he's in middle of nowhere, is ''really'' slow, and to make matters worse, you can't use transportation like teleportation or ships or stilstriders with him.

** Admittedly, it helps that the bots, while stupid about how they behave, have ''ridiculous'' aim and skill at taking down special infected at a distance. Let's face it, though. ''Left4Dead'' is one big 4-player online Mutual Escort Mission.

* In ''{{Allegiance}}'', a team-based multiplayer flight-sim/strategy hybrid, players must escort mission-critical spaceships such as bombers and troop transports -- not because the game has an artificial "requirement" for players to do so, but simply because it's a necessary tactic to beat any competent enemy team. Most ships needing escort are flown by actual human pilots, so ArtificialStupidity does not apply (though the old-fashioned ''natural'' sort still might). The only [=AI=]-controlled ships requiring escort are miners and constructors, and team commanders can keep an eye on them and order them around to counteract their suicidal tendencies.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X3: Terran Conflict]]'' sees random freighter pilots offer you missions to escort them to a station in the neighboring sector, often for a nice reward. The correct answer is "Hell, no." The freighters are built from wet newspapers, piloted by first-grade ArtificialStupidity, and attract RespawningEnemies like flies.