A Quick Glance at NPC Companions

Gosh, it's been quite a while since I updated. Sorry about that, been pretty busy!

Elizabeth, your constant companion in Bioshock Infinite

Ever since completing the recently released, beautiful Bioshock Infinite on hard mode with my wife, (What? Yes, I'm married now!) I had been giving some pretty heavy thought to a particular mechanic that is used sparingly in games; and for generally good reasons. This mechanic, of course, is the NPC companion; a computer-controlled character that the player frequently, and directly interacts with in the game, either in narrative, or gameplay, or both.

Ever the bane of the player, the NPC companion/escort AI usually manages to be annoying, intrusive, creepy, useless, or a complete liability to have around. They break immersion by failing to interact with the character or break into uncanny valley territory. For this reason, and the difficulty in countering all of this, having NPC companions as a central gameplay mechanic is unusual, and usually very hit or miss.

Would you call Wheatley an NPC companion?

At least she didn't tell me to listen

As a reminder, when I think of the term NPC companion, I'm usually thinking about mechanics revolving around computer-controlled characters that follow you around in actual gameplay, either to support you; or for you to defend. For instance, I would not think of Wheatley from Portal 2 so much as an NPC companion as much as an NPC character, even though he was brilliantly written, and you do interact directly with him in the game for brief moments. However, all of his dialogue and movement is completely scripted and timed, and you generally interact with him indirectly. In the same vein, I wouldn't call Navi or Midna from Zelda NPC companions, regardless of them hanging around the player the entire time. Even though they were their own characters; functionally, they served more as an extension of the main character.

Escorting Ashley Graham through RE4.

More classical examples of an NPC companion would be the computer-controlled Helpers from Kirby Superstar, Ashley Graham and Sheva from Resident Evil 4/5, etc. (An obvious hallmark in NPC companions would be Alyx Vance from HL2, but more on that later.) Others might include your AI Teammates in Left 4 Dead or Mass Effect.

Unintentional bloodshed with Oblivion/Skyrim companions.

Looking back over the past 15 years or so, there have been a decent library of games that featured NPC companions as a feature, although rarely as a central mechanic. Many of them were terrible, most of them were workable, and a few of them were pretty good.

Hand-holding in Ico as a gameplay mechanic

One game that might get overlooked would be Konami's Ico, where the main mechanic of the game was for the player has to hold an aloof and otherworldly girl named Yorda's hand and guide her to safety. Ico is a fantastic game for several reasons, but the very human, almost intimate act of guiding somebody by the hand and defending them from harm was an excellent way for players to form an emotional bond with two characters that are otherwise completely silent. Although her entire function is essentially that of an helpless and mute escortee; guiding Yorda around Ico's world felt more real and immersive than the majority of games that use NPC companions as a core mechanic.

Not pictured: me murdering Boomer

I remember years ago, playing the original SOCOM for the PS2, where you had to order around AI teammates with voice commands. Eventually, I started each mission by shooting my personal NPC companion, Boomer, in the head, until he was dead. My in-game avatar would mark this grisly murder by yelling 'MAN DOWN! MAN DOWN!!' into the radio. But I had no regrets. Boomer would no longer throw grenades directly at a wall to have them bounce back and kill us both. While the other two teammates were useful and could work on their own, he would tag around me, give away my position, get killed, and was more liability than ally.

 But when playing Bioshock Infinite, I noticed something: I didn't hate Elizabeth. In fact, I actually enjoyed having her around as both a gameplay and narrative mechanic, in addition to being an interesting character. But what design choices made her different from Boomer? (With respect to the difference in game genres) Here are a few key differences:

-While she didn't actively participate in the fierce gun battles, Elizabeth would still provide a vital supportive role by throwing much-needed money, ammo and restoration items at the player. She also gave the player the ability to summon allies, turrets or cover. She would even lockpick locked doors for the player, giving access to new areas, point out items that the player might have missed, and even revive the player when he died.
From a gameplay and narrative perspective, this was a great design choice. Elizabeth provides such useful support, that when you get separated, you feel the sting of her not being there. It is considerably easier to force players into creating an emotional bond with an NPC through gameplay than it is through a narrative. Had Elizabeth not provided concrete, measurable gameplay support, the sting would not have been as noticeable.

-Elizabeth would not be harmed in battles, instead hiding behind cover, away from the battle.
This design choice prevented the entire game from being a dreaded babysitting escort mission, which would essentially cripple the player's gameplay experience and the developer's ability to create a large variety of combat situations. Elizabeth would even yelp out an apology if she's briefly in your way during a fight.

 

-Elizabeth constantly interacted with the environment and other NPCs.
I can't count the number of times I would see Elizabeth out of the corner of my eye doing something interesting. Eavesdropping on conversations, enjoying the view, playing with her hands, reacting to dialogue, curiously observing signs and painting and wincing at dead bodies. Elizabeth's clothes became torn and she would switch outfits throughout the game. Notably, Elizabeth would not always follow you, but instead take the lead and run ahead when something interested her. Overall, the game did a pretty excellent job at immersing Elizabeth, and the player by extension, into the game's world.

-Relevance to the Game Narrative and having a Emotional Bond
Of course, these facts would not matter if the player did not establish an emotional link to Elizabeth through the narrative and some pretty excellent acting. Elizabeth is designed to be an immensely likable character that is easily empathized with. It's no coincidence that many have been comparing her look and mannerisms to that of Disney Princesses, which serves as a stark contrast with the flat-toned, realist Booker. The player shares the majority of cutscenes in the game with her, and indeed, the plots revolves almost entirely around her. In other games with NPC companions, would you feel as touched by their death as much as Elizabeth or Alyx Vance's?

Alyx Vance from HL2 was a revolutionary development for NPCs.

Overall, I personally think that Elizabeth is the first really big step forward NPC companions since Alyx Vance in Half Life 2 back in 2004. While certainly not the revolutionary feat that Alyx was, Elizabeth is rather a very impressive evolution of Alyx's concept and design.

I'd argue that some of Alyx's flaws were even averted with Elizabeth; Valve had the narrative and emotional link with Alyx, but she did not often actually fight or interact directly with the player except for some short segments (although this was remedied somewhat in EP1-2). She was a companion from a narrative point of view, but not necessarily from a gameplay side. Alyx would not comment on her surroundings unless it was a directly scripted cutscene, or support the player directly; she could fight and get damaged, but the vast majority of the work was done by the player. In a way, Alyx primarily served as the voice for the mute Gordon Freeman while being a strong, independent character of her own. Granted, HL2 was revolutionary mainly for the scripted real-time cutscenes, and Alyx was, in some ways, simply an extension of it.

That's not to say that Elizabeth was perfect, however. Although very rarely in the game, I think there were sections that could have been changed to improve immersion. For example, at one point in the game, Elizabeth is upset with Booker and wants nothing to do with him. But not 20 feet away is a locked door, and Elizabeth cheerily agrees to open the door for you, despite her apparent distaste for you! Would it not have been more interesting and immersive for the level designer to place a door there for the sheer purpose of having Elizabeth refuse to open it for you? Or a small dialogue where Booker tries to convince her to open it up for him? Luckily, these small breaks in immersion were rare and never enough to actually take me out of the game; but I think they could have been built upon for a richer, more believable experience.

 In conclusion, I really think the key point to all this is that making a good NPC companion within a game requires these things:

-Contributes positively to the Gameplay through support or additional mechanics
-Contributes to the Narrative
-Immersive and creates an Emotional Bond

Some games hit all three of these marks very high, some of the games hit only one or two. This doesn't mean that they're bad games of course; some of what they lack may be adding to the charm of the game itself.

I plan to add an NPC companion (aside from summonable allies) for a short stretch of Dead Gear; but nothing too revolutionary, simply an ally to help you dish out the pain!

-Alex