The Top 10 Best Side Quests Ever

360 Magazine: Side Quest are fun, but which side quests are the best ever? Which side quests would make your side quest top 10? Here follows ours...

[Dailynch]

Lol, i forgot about most of these. The Skyrim and Oblivion ones really show just how fantastic Bethesda can be.

[gaffyh]

In Oblivion, I really liked the side quest where you go into the painting. That was an insane quest, and it completely changed how the game looked. They could have made an entire game like that

[TopDudeMan]

Yeah, that and every single dark brotherhood quest were awesome.

[StraightPath]

Bethesda is also responsible for making some boring mundane and repititive quests. If only there quest were all interesting but unforutunately not.

[ZombieNinjaPanda]

Only problem is 1 out of 10 side quests being good doesn't cut it. The rest are run here do this, kill this and done quests.

Hell even the bigger side quests were bad. The College for example was a pretty bad one. I'm not gonna spoil it, but for those who played it, they know what I'm talking about.

[StraightPath]

i thought the end of thieves guild was bad..you have to do boring tasks to get the guild back to its former glory...so far all guilds have been average. only one left is dark botherhood hope that doesnt dissapoint like all others.

[heroicjanitor]

Bethesda are awesome but Blitzball should really be in here imo :( My personal favourite.

[DaveX360]

Someone sexed up Jack. I just don't get it.

[bacano]

Agreed, Jack was the only character I left to die in the end. Anyway, Subject zero is probably the best mision in ME2. I was high when played it and I really loved videogames that day. The ambientation, the dialogs, the sounds... the decision you must take. Everything is great in that quest. I played the rest of the game on weed, but honestly I found it boring and with bad graphics. The ending was crappy. Jack side quest still is the part I remember best.

[Hazmat13]

my fav was the side quest in Fallout 3 with the family in the fallout shelter. with that cool fatman.
is this list exclusive to mass effect cause to be honest i didnt look at the list. lol
ok chill brah. lol

[jimmins]

Does the title of this list suggest it's all bout Mass Effect? perhaps if you click the link and just scroll through it you might be in a position to comment?

[SOD_Delta]

Oblivions Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood missions were great.

I also like Yakuzas side-missions. Some of them are just plain funny.

[krazykombatant]

LOL jack for ME2 side quest?! GAYY!

[LtSkittles]

I like Jack. =/

[SephirothX21]

How is it gay exactly?

[krazykombatant]

Jack was probably the worst character in the whole game. Sooo damn bipolar.. I would have prefered to have seen garrus or grunts side quest.

[jrbeerman11]

it is if your femshep i guess

[MagicAccent]

*spoilers for ME3*

Jack is a dude.

[celtics345]

My personal favorite is from Fallout 3. The one in Andale, when you discover there a bunch of cannibals. That was awesome!

[LtSkittles]

That was the only sidequest in FO3 that disturbed me so much.

[jrbeerman11]

coincidentally the cannibal sidequest in Fallout New Vegas (ill be vague and just say its near strip) is one of my favorites.

[Megaman_nerd]

The gold chocobo side-quest of FFVII. It's good because is not only addicting and fun but after you get it you're gonna have access to some of the most powerful items in the game so it was all worth it. ;)

[MagicAccent]

Haha, so fricken funny

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[JsonHenry]

One that will always stick out in my mind is in Fallout 2 where you arm wrestle a mutant. If you lose you wake up naked with a used condom in your inventory complaining about your butt hurting. You go around the room looking for your stuff and you find blow up dolls and the like while gathering your things, hahahaha.

[mistajeff]

man, i loved those games. it really felt like you stumbled across situations, rather than triggering quests. none of that "this person doesn't show up until you talk to this person" BS. the junktown one in fallout 1 stands out in my mind-- you roll into town, the sheriff complains about the casino boss illegally running the town. so i strolled straight into the casino, right into his back office, and shot him in the head. i come back to the sheriff expecting a "hey, thanks for helping us! here's your reward!" like you'd get in most modern games with good-choice-or-evil-choice quests-- instead, i get a "what the shit are you thinking? you cant just roll into town and blow this guy away, we needed you to wear a wire to gather evidence so we could prosecute him. leave town and never come back". i really think that the lack of voice acting allowed the writing to truly shine through-- it's hard to get used to when you're used to modern RPGs, but there's an extraordinary wealth of narrative content in the old-school text dialog that wasn't held back by voice acting budgets. planescape torment is a perfect example of this. the amount of dialog in that game is unreal.

[rayzorn]

nice. a stroll down memory lane.

the first 2 fallouts where great games. i played them thru contless times. now your making me want to go back it has been at least 5 years plus. and i never got to planescape but i hear its great also. might have to pick it up. i loved the boulders gates and icewind dales and i hear its alot like those but with more story.

[mistajeff]

honestly, i've never finished planescape because it's huge. it feels like EVERY single person you can talk to has a unique dialogue tree. as in, every single NPC you see wandering around. and it is like BG and ID, but honestly, i recommend playing it and not even investing in any combat-related attributes. i dumped everything into intelligence and charisma. instead of like more modern RPGs, successful dialog checks will get you MORE dialog, and let you dig deeper into the conversation, as opposed to just quickly rewarding you with a key/puzzle piece/money/whatever and shuffling you on to the next objective. the sheer amount of writing is really mind-boggling. in some conversations, you're presented with upwards of a dozen dialog choices. you get the option to talk your way out of situations more than in other games, and if you die, it's not exactly a big deal. your character dying is part of the narrative. you can even make bets in taverns and let people kill you, then come back and they'll owe you money. grab it on GOG, i'm sure it's on their holiday sale.

[YoungKingDoran]

ahh memories!!!

that happened to ME TOO!
crazy how we all share so many.

[wedgie]

I know in the article he said the DA2 one is not a side quest... I get it. But to me the same can be applied to ME2. It felt like there were only 3 real missions and the rest of game and gathering the team was just a laundry list of side quests.

[jrbeerman11]

I will say that the game was segmented quite a bit. But the story was ABOUT gathering the team so ill meet you halfway.

Also every character had a sidequest of their own, and a good amount of them were better than the recruiting ones.

and if your trying to get the good ending? then you could technically call these part of main story.

[shodan74]

Tremendous list. Brought back some great memories. I've enjoyed a lot of welcome diversions in open-world games and RPGs over the years, but I'd say the Dark Brotherhood quests in both Oblivion and Skyrim are probably my favourite.

[MoreRPG]

"Power of the atom"is better than "Superhuman gambit"
and the purification quest from Oblivion's Dark Brotherhood is a great quest too

[kma2k]

I really enjoyed the last quest for the theives guild in oblivion. Felt like a oceans 11 mideval times :)

[admiralthrawn87]

quests in RPG's are getting really boring lately. Not much innovation besides go to point x and retrieve y. Talk to X,Y,Z. Find object X. Kill 12X.

I think it has to do with the idea of a quest objective. Questing in RPG's need to find a more seamless way of having us achieve goals.

[Sidewinder-]

Bunch of modern stuff with the token inclusion of ff7 so writer thinks he down with it...

GOOD SIDE-QUESTS:

- The Shadow Thieves side-quest in Baldurs Gate 2.

- Smuggler's side-quest in Deus Ex. (Cus you're like "WTF is this place!? WHO are these guys?!")

- The Picto Box quest in Zelda: Windwaker.

[nondescript]

I loved the picto box stuff in Wind Waker, in fact I need to go replay that game again now.

But give the guy a break, since when does a list modern stuff = rubbish? It's just what he's played and liked.

[Sidewinder-]

Forgive my cynicism heehee.

[tigertron]

Subject Zero is nothing compared to the Lair of the Shadow Broker.

[jrbeerman11]

agreed, shadow broker was one of the best add on single player DLCs i have ever played.

Although my love for ME2 may make me biased.

those may be omitted otherwise Shivering Isles would have to be mentioned.

[mistajeff]

shadow broker was the best. i also liked kasumi's quest, it broke the mold of the typical land-and-shoot quests from the rest of the game. a lot of those atypical quests stand out in my mind, like stopping the assassination on the citadel, or rooting out morinth in the night club.

[tigertron]

Definatly. Kasumi's mission was very good. It was great for my shepard to go to a high class party and retake Kenji's box.

I hope ME3 has more of these missions and it isn't just all battles.

[rayzorn]

i enjoyed shadow broker more then the whole game and i did everyones side quest things. if they coulda made all of me2 like shadow broker i woulda liked it alot more.

[roadkillers]

Some good ones on that list. I completely forgot about the Red Dead Redemption one but it was funnier when you beat the mission with John. Btw they forgot to put in every side quest for Arkham City. They all seemed like a part of the main story

[tiffac008]

Isn't Kratos doing Aphrodite in God of War 3 a side quest too? X)

[ReservoirDog316]

Haha, RDR ones should've been higher and more frequent on the list. I never saw the ending of some of those coming.

There I was being a good guy picking flowers for a lady and....that happens.

Love RDR.

[PickAShoe]

I used to play the side quest just like you, then I took an arrow to the knee.

[ikral]

Just finished Jack sidequest, I was playing ME2 for 1st time just now, and Fallout 3 is last game I finished. Oblivion is prolly next one, shame on me for not playing it yet. RPG winter it is (ME2 is not much of a RPG, I know).

[granthinds]

I usually prefer just going through the main story, but since ME2, I've realized the value in RANKING UP AND TANKING UP for the final fight!

[CultOfPersonality]

My favorite quest was the Kasumi on mass effect 2! loved that side quest!