Side quests can be amazing things that allow for extra adventures outside of main quests and often provide unique experiences. At least, that is what the best ones do. Yet, not every side quest is great.
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There are specific types of side quests that provide nothing but disappointment pretty much every time you see them in a game. This can be due to various reasons, ranging from their generic nature to the frustration they cause. Regardless of what is wrong with them, they seem to feature in most games, despite players’ protests. Here are some examples.
8 Fetch Quests
Feels Like Doing A Chore
There are plenty of different types of fetch quests, but the main principle is that you travel to one place, pick something up, and travel back. Several games can make this enjoyable by including a compelling reason for why you’re grabbing the item.
In most cases, though, they’re very dull and uninspired. It feels more like you’re doing a chore, especially if you have to travel far distances to reach the item you need. It gets even worse if you need to go to several different places to pick up various things.
7 Stealth Quests In Non-Stealth Games
Usually, They’re Poorly Designed
There are numerous excellent stealth games available that feature good stealth mechanics. This is because they’re specifically designed for this type of gameplay. However, when non-stealth games attempt to incorporate stealth elements, it rarely works out well.
So many action games have quests where you must suddenly avoid using weapons and instead start sneaking around enemies. It’s usually clunky and not well-designed, which leads to plenty of frustration. It’s made even worse if you aren’t allowed to be seen without failing the mission.
6 Bandit Camps
Generic Fights
Enemies in open-world games generally have camps or strongholds they reside in. And you’re often instructed to enter those places and kill them all. There isn’t much more to it than that, which is kind of the problem. They’re basic and often generic.
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They’re acceptable at the start of the game when you’re still getting used to the combat, as they give you a bit of practice. Later on, though, they lose their excitement. After all, they’re just an excuse for you to fight people without much rhyme or reason. As you can typically fight people in most other quests, the promise of battle doesn’t have much appeal.
5 Escort Quests
Walk Faster!!
While there are certainly some escort missions that are worse than others, not many of them are good. In these quests, you have to guide an NPC to a designated place. Typically, you have to defend them along the way from all the enemies you run into, as they usually either can’t fight or are not good at it.
Most of the time, the whole experience is very annoying since you keep having to stop because they’re being grabbed or killed. That slows things down already, but what makes the process even slower is the typical movement speed of the person you’re leading. Rarely are they quick.
4 Radiant Quests
Generic Quests That Will Never Go Away
Radiant quests are a type of mission that Bethesda games are known for having. They’re quests that the game randomly generates at different intervals. For example, in Fallout 4, you may suddenly get a quest to defend a settlement that’s under attack. The point of them is that they never end, meaning you always have something to do. The problem with them, though, is that they never end, meaning you always have something to do.
You can never fully clear a quest log because one of these will inevitably show up. So, they’re a completionist’s nightmare. What’s even worse is that because they’re randomly generated, not much care or thought goes into them, which makes them generic and often repetitive.
3 ‘Defend Something’ Quests
Constantly Failing Because Other People Aren’t Durable
Certain quests in games task you with defending something. Perhaps it’s a group of people, a base, a special item, or something else worth saving. Sometimes, this can be done in a narrative context, where you’re asked to defend a camp, but it isn’t actually possible for the camp to be destroyed. Those are fine.
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The ‘defend something’ quests that are terrible are those where the thing you’re protecting can actually be destroyed or killed. This is because, if that happens, you fail the quest, and nothing is more annoying than failing a quest because someone else died.
2 Collection Quests
Search Everywhere For These Things You Don’t Care About
There is a bit of a crossover between collection quests and escort ones. Yet, they are a little different. This is because in collection quests, there are usually a bunch of things you have to get, and the game doesn’t usually tell you exactly where to find them. The quest giver just asks you to acquire certain materials or plants, and you must go search the open world for them.
So, basically, all you do is search around places, looking for the required resources. It’s hardly the most exciting thing to do in a game. Also, these quests have a habit of being very long, as the quest giver rarely asks for everything in one go. Therefore, you return with some supplies and are then given another list of things they need.
1 Tailing Quests
They’re Unexciting And Slow
In real life, stalking is a horrible thing that you shouldn’t do, but for some reason, a bunch of developers think you would love to do it in the video game world. However, they don’t call it stalking. They call it a tailing mission, which is just a fancy word for stalking. Occasionally, you do this in a car, but it’s usually on foot.
All you do is follow your target to a designated location, typically while staying out of sight. The game can’t have the character you’re following move too quickly, or you will struggle to keep up. This makes the whole experience even more frustrating. They move at a snail’s pace and occasionally stop to talk to people. It always feels like it takes forever.
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10 Serious Games With Silly Side Quests
These games might be serious for the most part, but their side quests get a little silly.
