What are some of your most memorable quests, questlines, missions, or campaigns that you've experienced in games?

This isn't a "best of" list per se, as it's way too subjective depending upon what game genres you play as well as your preference in gameplay. RPGs, shooters, strategy, and immersive sims games can challenge the player with quests, questlines, missions, and campaigns that need to be completed. A single or series of challenges, obstacles, decisions that the player must make to continue, be it a non-combat or combat scenario. Some of these stick in our minds years after we've played the games, for whatever reason, and not necessarily on any established "best of" list.

Just off the top of my head, these are the quests that come to mind first when I think about the following games:

The Witcher 3, Bloody Baron Questline - It's technically more of The Search for Ciri (in Velen), as it's numerous quests all linked together, but to me, it all revolves around the Bloody Baron himself.
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Baldur's Gate 1, Minsc's quest to save Dynaheir - There are a lot of excellent quests in both BG 1 & BG 2, but the one that always comes to mind first is this quest. Low level party traveling across multiple unknown maps and assaulting/surviving the assault on the Gnoll stronghold.

Dragon Age Origins, The Battle of Denerim - I don't normally like final battles, but this one is long, covers several maps, and makes you ultilize every skill you and your party know. It's also got this cool scene where all the party members you don't take with you have a brief "goodbye" conversation.

Mass Effect 2, Shadow Broker's Lair (DLC) - There are a lot of excellent quests in both ME2 and ME3, but the one I always remember from ME2 is Lair of the Shadow Broker, as it brings back Liara and sends you on a long multi-location quest, culminating in what I though was the toughest battle in the game. Plus you get to romance Liara if she's your LI.

Skyrim, The Blessings of Nature - Skyrim, like most of Bethesda's games of a lot of non-memorable or repetitive quests, but this one has always stood out as unique when I think of Skyrim. It can be a long quest, depending upon how many times you get sidetracked with other quests on the way to Eldergleam Sanctuary, but I find that there's a real sense of satisfaction in replacing a dying tree with a sapling and watching grow throughout the game.
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Zloth

Community Contributor
My screenshots/videos influence my memories a bunch. A mission/quest/whatever is a lot more memorable when you have something to remember it by!

Bloody Baron would be on my list (that isn't a list), too. W3 also had a quest where you were judged by some monsters which I liked a lot.

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - the quest where you go into a painting. (W3 did that, too.)

X3:Terran Conflict - The HUB. You find an alien station that can control the gates between sectors. Getting it working, though, is expensive. REALLY expensive. The quest starts out easily enough, asking you for some things you can easily buy at an NPC factory or two. Then it starts asking for things where you'll need to buy from just about all the NPC factories you know about. By the end, you need to have your own space empire to manufacture all the microchips that the last step demands. Finishing that monster was so sweet, even if it doesn't make for exciting viewing.

Just Cause 3 - most altitude gained using a parachute challenge. If you use your grappling hook to pull yourself forward while your parachute is out, it acts a bit like a kite and makes you fly up. (The physics in Just Cause are a tad suspect.) The game keeps track of several records, including how high above you're starting point you can get using a parachute. I went from an ocean beach to the top of the highest mountain.

Saints Row 3 - Air Steelport. STAG is shipping in some new weapons. Boss wants to get on that plane and take it - by jumping out of another plane and smashing through the cockpit window! It doesn't quite work out as planned. Instead, well... I think I'll just show you. (Some naughty words.)
View: https://youtu.be/Nr9BgE3CR5o


P.S. W3, X3, JC3, SR3, and Oblivion is Elder Scrolls... four. Rats!
 
Most memorable by a long way is the additional Generals' Challenge mode of Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour. You play each of 9 Generals in sequence, taking on each of the other Generals in a unique mission for that pairing—so well over 50 unique missions in total. I spent a summer beating that on brutal difficulty.

Far Cry introduced me to Open World gaming, and there's one mission in it called 'Island' which encapsulates the appeal. You hop a number of islands, completing jobs in each to progress. Boating around, picking which beach to land on, climbing a hill for the vista, choosing how to approach each objective… yeah, hooked.

Red Alert final Soviet mission is a beauty, invading England from France and dealing with Allied cruisers, destroyers ad gunboats while trying to gather resources in pre-mined fields under the watchful eye of Allied raiding parties.

Civ6 has a unique leader who I found great fun to play. Kupe the Maori starts at sea, which as far as I know is unique in all Civ games. Play a Terra map and land him in the New World and have a continent to yourself. Not all 'plain sailing' mind you, as the Bbarbs proliferate like rabbits.
 
I liked Baiting the Trap in Oblivion for some reason.
When you get the tablet in Skyrim. Just a good intro of what's to come in the game if you've never played it before and follow the story off the bat.
The missions for the USS Constitution in Fallout 4. I always loved those guys.
Die Robot in Outerworlds. I just found it wacky and it really let me know what kind of game I was getting into. Also wished it became a companion on the ship.
GTA 5 The Third way. God this game has some great missions and I actually loved the story, but man what a "ending" to me. I couldn't pick anything other then this route. I loved each character in the game and no way I was picking anything else.
Saints Row 3, most of the missions lol.
 
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - the quest where you go into a painting. (W3 did that, too.)

That was the first one that came to mind for me too. Also Sheogorath's quest in Oblivion where it starts raining burning dogs.

In Skyrim I think A Night To Remember is the most memorable one for me.

In Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars it was the Havoc mission, where you just get a single commando. I'm terrible at multitasking in RTS games, so it was really nice to be able to focus on just one unit.

A lot of the quests in Black & White are iconic, but my favourite is probably helping out the sailors:

View: https://youtu.be/q0x4Kw_y4fg


I think my favorite of all time is probably the Thieves Guild storyline in Skyrim.
I liked the Thieves Guild storyline in Oblivion better, especially with the reward you get at the end.
 
Oh, I forgot about Half Life 2, some really memorable missions in that.

'We don't go there anymore'.
Ravenholm was brilliant atmosphere, and the zombies were more than just monsters, they had a sad quality to them.

The one where you're fleeing along a canal in a boat, and suddenly you shoot out of the front of this big dam—easily 100' up, and you 'sail' thru the air and land in the little lake far below, followed by a chopper dropping mines in front of you as you continue fleeing. One for the adrenalin for sure!

I also remember the atmosphere in the mission where you have to climb high in a bridge for some reason. The wind whistling, the structure swaying, the metal creaking… they did such an outstanding job with it all.
 
The "getting to your contact in Balmora quest" in Morrowind. The quest itself is pretty straightforward, but for me getting to Balmora from Seyda Neen is one of my fondest memories. Navigating in almost pitch darkness with only a small torch, hearing the ambiance around you of animals and whatnot, not being sure what will be around the next corner. I really felt like an adventurer going into the unknown and that is a feeling I can't say I have experienced a lot of in later games with the exceptions of Dark Souls and Elden Ring as some really good examples.
 
I liked the Thieves Guild storyline in Oblivion better, especially with the reward you get at the end.
I played Oblivion after Skyrim. It seemed very dated, and I wasn't getting into the story, so I ditched it pretty quickly. So I never got the chance to play the Thieves Guild on there. It never even crossed my mind that it probably had a storyline like that, too.
 
Oh, I forgot about Half Life 2, some really memorable missions in that.

'We don't go there anymore'.
Ravenholme was brilliant atmosphere, and the zombies were more than just monsters, they had a sad quality to them.

The one where you're fleeing along a canal in a boat, and suddenly you shoot out of the front of this big dam—easily 100' up, and you 'sail' thru the air and land in the little lake far below, followed by a chopper dropping mines in front of you as you continue fleeing. One for the adrenalin for sure!

I also remember the atmosphere in the mission where you have to climb high in a bridge for some reason. The wind whistling, the structure swaying, the metal creaking… they did such an outstanding job with it all.
Half Life 2 is still the best "shooter" I've ever played, and had some memorable missions, or chapters(?) that had a pacing and balance that very few games have been able to emulate. The Ravenholme chapter was always my favorite with its horror-like suspense and atmosphere. I'll always remember standing atop that building and watching/hearing those gutters shake as zombies climbed to the top.

That bridge mission was part of the Highway 17 chapter I think, where you had to cross over, avoiding snipers, and disable a force field. I liked that one, as well as Nova Prospekt in the old prison. I remember scrambling to set up turrets to defend against waves of those little "eyebot" things, with Alex constantly reminding me to, "Get those turrets setup, Gordon!"
 
Half Life 2 is still the best "shooter" I've ever played, and had some memorable missions, or chapters(?) that had a pacing and balance that very few games have been able to emulate. The Ravenholme chapter was always my favorite with its horror-like suspense and atmosphere. I'll always remember standing atop that building and watching/hearing those gutters shake as zombies climbed to the top.
I absolutely loved HL2 right up until the Ravenholm level. Seeing how I'm a chicken, and I hate horror stuff, that part drove me to quitting. :)
 
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I hate horror stuff
Oh me too—tag a game as 'horror' and I move on. But Ravenholm was mild—nothing else horrible apart from the zombies and headcrabs. Plus you have Father Grigori 'tending to his flock', and you get to use saw blades in the gravity gun! Definitely worth getting thru, to experience the rest of the game.

Shame they cancelled the Arkane spinoff game based in Ravenholm, with Father Grigori as the protagonist.
 

Zloth

Community Contributor
A lot of the quests in Black & White are iconic, but my favourite is probably helping out the sailors:
Not the best mission. Definitely the best delivery of mission objectives!

Honestly, I think I could spend most of a day listing off favorites...

Dishonored 2 had a couple of them - the Clockwork Mansion with all its walls and floors moving around. There was also one where you could pop between the past and present that was pretty fun.

City of Heroes had a bunch of great ones. Let's just pick To Save 1000 Worlds. It's a high level series of missions where you travel to several alternate dimensions: the world overrun by undead, overrun by werewolves, overrun by hydra men, ruled by the Clockwork King, ruled by Nemesis... you get to see a whole bunch of your old foes and what might have happened, had you not stopped them.
 
I don't recall if I've posted about this in the past, but my favorite quest of all time is from The Witcher 3 expansion Hearts of Stone. The quest, Dead Man's Party, is when you are tasked with showing Olgierd's dead brother, Vlodimir, the time of his life. The quest is hilarious, as Vlodimir as Geralt can offend people and say some hilarious ****. The whole time, I'm simultaneously laughing but cringing as Geralt and it was just a funny and immersive experience. Admittedly, it's hard for me to rightly explain this because it's a rather personal pick. It is one of my favorite gaming moments ever, in large part because I've played all three games and have read all the books, so I feel very connected to Geralt as a character. I thought that living vicariously through Geralt and him through Vlodimir was a brilliant - and often very funny - experience.
 
I don't recall if I've posted about this in the past, but my favorite quest of all time is from The Witcher 3 expansion Hearts of Stone. The quest, Dead Man's Party, is when you are tasked with showing Olgierd's dead brother, Vlodimir, the time of his life. The quest is hilarious, as Vlodimir as Geralt can offend people and say some hilarious ****. The whole time, I'm simultaneously laughing but cringing as Geralt and it was just a funny and immersive experience. Admittedly, it's hard for me to rightly explain this because it's a rather personal pick. It is one of my favorite gaming moments ever, in large part because I've played all three games and have read all the books, so I feel very connected to Geralt as a character. I thought that living vicariously through Geralt and him through Vlodimir was a brilliant - and often very funny - experience.
Playing the Next-Gen version on Steam now and I'm really looking forward to playing the Hearts of Stone, as well as Blood & Wine expansions. I played W3 on GOG back around the original release and before the expansions existed, so I haven't experienced any of those quests yet.
 

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