As I've been playing through AC Origins, there's a neat little mechanic that I've grown to appreciate more and more. I have no idea if this is the first game to use such a mechanic (probably not), but its the first time I've encountered it.

Like most open world games, you will find NPC's who give you quests spread out around the various locations. They are marked with an Icon over their heads. You can run up to them and start talking, and they'll start the quest.

Here's the cool twist, though. In most open world games, you talk to an NPC, they tell you about a quest, and you get a note in your Quest Log and/or a mark on the map telling you where to go in order to start the quest. But what AC Origins does differently is that the quest is activated the moment you talk to the NPC, even if you are already in the middle of another quest. A little Icon appears on screen telling you that you've activated a new quest, and you just hold the menu button if you'd like to track the new activity (ie make it your new active quest). If you ignore the prompt, the quest gets added to your quest log and you can return to it at any later time.

This sounds like it could be problematic, right? You're in the middle of a quest, then you talk to an NPC and start a new quest, interrupting the one you are already doing... except they've designed the quest system so that every single quest has built-in "checkpoints" that get saved as you go. So if I'm in the middle of a quest and I activate another quest, I can either abandon the current quest and pursue the new one, or ignore the new one and keep working on the current mission... either way, my progress in both quests gets saved where I leave them.

Its a great system that allows a nice free-flow of bouncing from one mission to another to another and back again as I explore each region or city, tackling whatever missions piqué my interest without feeling like I'm losing progress on other missions I may have already started. It also helps make the open world feel unified and organic, because starting a mission doesn't deactivate all the other stuff you might want to interact with.

Just thought it was a cool bit of open world design worth sharing. Has anyone else played any games that handle quests in a similar way?

or Maybe I am not understanding =P

The Witcher 3 has a similar quest thing. You can be on any quest doing anything then pick up another quest and it just stays with you. You can progress it without it being your active quest as well. Essentially all Quests are active always, but they are only tracked.

Or did I misunderstand?

or Maybe I am not understanding =P

The Witcher 3 has a similar quest thing. You can be on any quest doing anything then pick up another quest and it just stays with you. You can progress it without it being your active quest as well. Essentially all Quests are active always, but they are only tracked.

Or did I misunderstand?

That sounds more or less like what I’m talking about. I rarely play any true RPGs... mostly open world/action/rpg hybrids. Every game I’ve played has a more structured kind of quest system where you start a quest, and then that is your mission until you abandon it or complete it (and if you abandon it, you need to restart it from the beginning later on). I’ve seen plenty of games break up quests into multiple steps, which basically turns into a series of smaller missions, so you can complete 1 mission, then go do a part of a different quest, then go back and start the next step of the previous quest. But I haven’t come across a game where all quests are active all the time and you can seamlessly complete steps of several different quests all on the fly. It’s cool, I like it :)

This is basically the standard quest system in open world RPGs.

TheeChaos is right. That’s basically just how open world games work now, for the most part. Since Skyrim, at least. Horizon Zero Dawn did the same thing. I think the “Press Start to track this quest” is somewhat unique. Some games just automatically make the new quest the tracked, current quest, some just add them to the quest log. The Witcher 3 let you click the right thumb stick to track newly received quests.

TheeChaos is right. That’s basically just how open world games work now, for the most part. Since Skyrim, at least. Horizon Zero Dawn did the same thing. I think the “Press Start to track this quest” is somewhat unique. Some games just automatically make the new quest the tracked, current quest, some just add them to the quest log. The Witcher 3 let you click the right thumb stick to track newly received quests.

The thing about games like Horizon though is that the quests all take place in unique areas, so you’d have to go pretty far out of your way to start a new quest while in the middle of another one. But in AC Origins, I’d literally be on my way to kill a target in the middle of a city, then I’d see some guy in a cage being carted through town on the back of a carriage, and I’d free him and start a new quest. I don’t remember Horizon ever giving me the opportunity to change gears like that. Not saying it isn’t possible, but I’d need to treck several miles in the wrong direction to even find the opportunity to interrupt a quest.

TheeChaos is right. That’s basically just how open world games work now, for the most part. Since Skyrim, at least. Horizon Zero Dawn did the same thing. I think the “Press Start to track this quest” is somewhat unique. Some games just automatically make the new quest the tracked, current quest, some just add them to the quest log. The Witcher 3 let you click the right thumb stick to track newly received quests.

The thing about games like Horizon though is that the quests all take place in unique areas, so you’d have to go pretty far out of your way to start a new quest while in the middle of another one. But in AC Origins, I’d literally be on my way to kill a target in the middle of a city, then I’d see some guy in a cage being carted through town on the back of a carriage, and I’d free him and start a new quest. I don’t remember Horizon ever giving me the opportunity to change gears like that. Not saying it isn’t possible, but I’d need to treck several miles in the wrong direction to even find the opportunity to interrupt a quest.

I don't think that's true. It doesn't even approach the same number as Origins, but Horizon isn't lacking for side quests, but they're not hard to find, especially in the Nora lands. Think about this sister looking for her outcast brother, or the the injured man looking for his daughter, who was off hunting the machine that had the spear her mother crafted. You could pretty easily run into little quests like that in the course of doing the main quest. Sure, it became a bit more rare as the game progressed and you went to more unique areas, but still not impossible. The area around Meridian is filled with quests you can pick up.

That said, it's also quite possible to mainline that game without really noticing many of the side quests, in a way that's distinctly not possible in Origins. Origins absolutely throws them at you by comparison.

TheeChaos is right. That’s basically just how open world games work now, for the most part. Since Skyrim, at least. Horizon Zero Dawn did the same thing. I think the “Press Start to track this quest” is somewhat unique. Some games just automatically make the new quest the tracked, current quest, some just add them to the quest log. The Witcher 3 let you click the right thumb stick to track newly received quests.

The thing about games like Horizon though is that the quests all take place in unique areas, so you’d have to go pretty far out of your way to start a new quest while in the middle of another one. But in AC Origins, I’d literally be on my way to kill a target in the middle of a city, then I’d see some guy in a cage being carted through town on the back of a carriage, and I’d free him and start a new quest. I don’t remember Horizon ever giving me the opportunity to change gears like that. Not saying it isn’t possible, but I’d need to treck several miles in the wrong direction to even find the opportunity to interrupt a quest.

I don't think that's true. It doesn't even approach the same number as Origins, but Horizon isn't lacking for side quests, but they're not hard to find, especially in the Nora lands. Think about this sister looking for her outcast brother, or the the injured man looking for his daughter, who was off hunting the machine that had the spear her mother crafted. You could pretty easily run into little quests like that in the course of doing the main quest. Sure, it became a bit more rare as the game progressed and you went to more unique areas, but still not impossible. The area around Meridian is filled with quests you can pick up.

That said, it's also quite possible to mainline that game without really noticing many of the side quests, in a way that's distinctly not possible in Origins. Origins absolutely throws them at you by comparison.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think we’re talking about the exact same thing. I need to double check, but if I remember correctly, those characters who give side quests literally don’t appear if you are mid-mission doing another quest. The quests in Horizon are very segmented. You talk to someone who gives you an objective, you go to an area to activate the objective, then you complete the objective, then the quest ends OR they tell you where to go to activate the next portion of the quest. While traveling to the point where you activate an objective, you can certainly run into NPCs who give out side quests. But once you activate an objective, I’m pretty sure you’re locked in to completing it, or quitting it. You can’t just walk away from it, leaving it suspended where it is, start a new quest, do a bunch of other stuff, then walk back and continue literally right where you left off. Am I wrong about that?

I could be wrong, but I don’t think we’re talking about the exact same thing. I need to double check, but if I remember correctly, those characters who give side quests literally don’t appear if you are mid-mission doing another quest. The quests in Horizon are very segmented. You talk to someone who gives you an objective, you go to an area to activate the objective, then you complete the objective, then the quest ends OR they tell you where to go to activate the next portion of the quest. While traveling to the point where you activate an objective, you can certainly run into NPCs who give out side quests. But once you activate an objective, I’m pretty sure you’re locked in to completing it, or quitting it. You can’t just walk away from it, leaving it suspended where it is, start a new quest, do a bunch of other stuff, then walk back and continue literally right where you left off. Am I wrong about that?

I think you are, but it’s been long enough since I’ve played that I could be wrong too. I feel like I always had a quest activated (because I always had the waypoints that you can’t get rid of, even if the HUD is completely off). A lot of the main quests take you to secluded areas with no NPCs, so you’re likely to just complete a whole string of objectives, but you’re not locked into doing so. The exception being when you go into some of the bunkers or whatever that only have one path through where you can just turn around and leave.

We need Korny to weigh in, he’s the Horizon expert around here.

HZD does have different "states" that the world is in. In some of the states, you don't see all the NPCs or certain quests aren't available. It does almost too good a job running you through in a very fluid, natural way, so you don't have to think much about that. It's there if you look for it though -- once you're to a certain point in the story you can pick up the extra quests whenever. There might even be a few that go away after you hit certain milestones (but I don't remember any).

HZD does have different "states" that the world is in. In some of the states, you don't see all the NPCs or certain quests aren't available. It does almost too good a job running you through in a very fluid, natural way, so you don't have to think much about that. It's there if you look for it though -- once you're to a certain point in the story you can pick up the extra quests whenever. There might even be a few that go away after you hit certain milestones (but I don't remember any).

I guess I never noticed what you're talking about.

I was trying to think of games that do and don't do that sort of thing.

For ones that don't really let you switch between quests or take on a new quest mid mission I came up with:

• Batman: Arkham Asylum - I don't recall having the ability to choose between different objectives so much as there being the main story and then little always ongoing side quests like solving the Riddler challenges.
  
• Gravity Rush 2 - You pretty much do one story mission or side mission at a time and all the other mission markers are disabled until you complete what you are doing. I'm not even sure you can back out of a side mission if you don't like it or want to do something else...
  
• Destiny & Destiny 2 - You are pretty much either on Patrol or are on a Patrol Mission, Adventure, Strike, or Story Mission. You can back out and do something else but beyond checkpoints for Raids, mission state is rarely saved.
  
• Fable 2 & 3 - I think both of these were basically one mission at a time. Could probably switch missions whenever but I don't think you could start another mission while you were already on one.
  
• Assassins' Creed: Black Flag - Seems like you had to back out of a mission to get back to the open world where you could select a new mission.

But for games that do allow you to start and stop I came up with:

• All the Mass Effects. It is perhaps clearer in Andromeda where you can designate an actively tracked mission, but even in the original you could leave Novaria and go back to Feros most any time you wanted to do another piece of the various missions.
  
• Batman Arkham City and Knight - I know you could pick which mission to track in Knight, and it seems like there must have been some mission system for City or else how would you know where to go to encounter Bane or Mr. Freeze or any of the other side missions?
  
• Skyrim / Fallout 3 & 4 - Many many quests going at once and you could select one or more to be tracked on your compass.
  
• Witcher 3 - Can select a mission to track but all the other missions are there as well. Early in the game you are heading to an inn as part of the main story but pass by a deserter tied up on the road, for instance.
  
• Horizon: Zero Dawn - Certainly some quest givers can still exist in the world while you are on a mission. For instance, I was on my way to the snowy area with the skyscraper you climb to see the conversations about the robot swarms going out of control but I would pass the guy with the Focus I previously saved and he'd shout at me to help him save his family or some such thing.
  
• GTA IV - You could pick an active mission and I think you could even leave to do something else can come back with your mission progress saved or at least checkpointed.

I was trying to think of games that do and don't do that sort of thing.

For ones that don't really let you switch between quests or take on a new quest mid mission I came up with:

• Batman: Arkham Asylum - I don't recall having the ability to choose between different objectives so much as there being the main story and then little always ongoing side quests like solving the Riddler challenges.
  
• Gravity Rush 2 - You pretty much do one story mission or side mission at a time and all the other mission markers are disabled until you complete what you are doing. I'm not even sure you can back out of a side mission if you don't like it or want to do something else...
  
• Destiny & Destiny 2 - You are pretty much either on Patrol or are on a Patrol Mission, Adventure, Strike, or Story Mission. You can back out and do something else but beyond checkpoints for Raids, mission state is rarely saved.
  
• Fable 2 & 3 - I think both of these were basically one mission at a time. Could probably switch missions whenever but I don't think you could start another mission while you were already on one.
  
• Assassins' Creed: Black Flag - Seems like you had to back out of a mission to get back to the open world where you could select a new mission.

But for games that do allow you to start and stop I came up with:

• All the Mass Effects. It is perhaps clearer in Andromeda where you can designate an actively tracked mission, but even in the original you could leave Novaria and go back to Feros most any time you wanted to do another piece of the various missions.
  
• Batman Arkham City and Knight - I know you could pick which mission to track in Knight, and it seems like there must have been some mission system for City or else how would you know where to go to encounter Bane or Mr. Freeze or any of the other side missions?
  
• Skyrim / Fallout 3 & 4 - Many many quests going at once and you could select one or more to be tracked on your compass.
  
• Witcher 3 - Can select a mission to track but all the other missions are there as well. Early in the game you are heading to an inn as part of the main story but pass by a deserter tied up on the road, for instance.
  
• Horizon: Zero Dawn - Certainly some quest givers can still exist in the world while you are on a mission. For instance, I was on my way to the snowy area with the skyscraper you climb to see the conversations about the robot swarms going out of control but I would pass the guy with the Focus I previously saved and he'd shout at me to help him save his family or some such thing.
  
• GTA IV - You could pick an active mission and I think you could even leave to do something else can come back with your mission progress saved or at least checkpointed.

So I think I’ve failed in describing exactly how fluid the quests in AC Origins are, because what you’re talking about in games like HZD or GTA V is not the same. In GTA V for example, there are fail states beyond dying. If you’re supposed to be chasing your son down the highway, but you drive off and do something else entirely, you fail the mission and revert back to the start. The AC Origins equivelant would be if you were driving down the highway chasing your son, then you look down at the street below and see a robery in progress, so you jump off the highway and start the robery mission instead. And when you’re done, you drive back to the highway and your son is still there, just as you left him, and you pick up that chase again almost seamlessly.

Does that make sense? I really should record some videos lol