Escort Games

First and foremost I want to tell everyone who reads this to keep the victims and those who are without power due to Hurricane Sandy in your prayers. Now let's talk about escort games. For any who don't know an escort game is one in which the player is responsible for the well being of another character, usually a non player character (NPC). Many escort games have been used with great success. Thatgamecompany's Journey (to some degree) or Team Ico's Ico or Irrational Game's Bioshock 1 & 2, although admittedly that last one only had escort elements in it  rather than being a full fledged escort game. The escort game is usually an action RPG or a platform game. Enslaved is a good example of a game that encompasses all those genres with some success. Although the platforming is relatively simple there are certain points in which the game uses it with success.
The most important aspect of these games is developing a relationship with the person you're playing with whether it is another player or an NPC this can be challenging. Thatgamecompany I feel does this with the most success of the games listed. I have yet to play the game myself, but from my understanding there are many times where people have such profound experiences with their anonymous counterpart that they connect on a very deep level. Granted the other games are very powerful and beautiful games, but not solely because of the escort aspect.
Ico's puzzles and platforming require you to manipulate the environment in order to allow Ico and Jorda to both get to the next part of the game, to get Jorda to move along Ico must clear a path then call her to get her to move. Bioshock has you protect "little sisters" and have them return to safety on occasion.

The reason why I chose to talk about escort games this week is because I plan on making an escort game for my senior capstone. This is going to be one of several games I'm working on and I wanted to get feedback from people about what they thought I could do to create an emotional connection to the player's character and the escort both through gameplay and through story. Currently I have an overview for the story: In a futuristic society the social views are not as far along as we (the real world society) are used to. Women are viewed as prizes in war, and skill in combat is the only measure of a man's worth.
In the midst of a raid between your enemy nation you manage to capture a young beautiful woman and take her with you to your rendezvous point for extraction back to your home. Along the way you run into trouble. After a well fought battle you make a mad dash hoping to make it to your extraction in time with your prize. Unfortunately you are left behind. Your communication was destroyed in combat and you're stranded. Your only option is to make it home is to traverse the terrain in enemy territory. As the player travels with his captive, the woman proves to be quite intelligent and voices her opinion on the true horrors of war. The gameplay will allow you to respond to her opinions. If the player wants her to like them more or feels that she has a valid argument they can choose a non lethal play style. This makes combat more difficult, but the woman will be easier to manage. If the player chooses to disregard the woman they can fight with lethal force but the woman will be prone to run from the player's side. Along with worrying about their own health, if the woman is killed, or runs too far from the player the player looses.
I also wanted to make the story more interactive by creating scenes in between the combat that allow for player responses, similar to BioWare's Mass Effect series although probably not quite as advanced. I'm going to be updating how things go with this project, but I am open to constructive criticism and suggestions from anyone. Just leave a comment or email me.