I'm not commenting on any of the others (in most cases due to lack of memory or lack of having played the game), but in both of these cases, while you could call them "escort missions", a more accurate description would be "carry missions" - while things are slightly different from if you just travelled on your own, you mostly move at your normal pace and perform your usual actions.

This is different from the kind of escort missions that people hate, where you are forced to protect a character that advances much more slowly than you do, forcing you to move around essentially at the whim of the game. Even those can be fun if the game is designed around it, though - it's when they're thrown in to try to flesh out a game that is otherwise inadequate that it becomes a problem.

So, escort missions that feature people that can be killed and not give you a Game Over aren't considered escort missions then? It is only escorting if you can fail it with a game over?

In Gears of War, your partners are that: partners. They help you out trying to achieve whatever objective you have to do. In Uncharted 2, for example, Elena is that: a partner, but she also becomes an escorting mission once Lazarevick shows up and you're tasked with helping her escape without getting killed. Uncharted 2 isn't a game based on a escort mission, but it resorts to it. That's the point I was trying to make, best games ever tend to use escort missions in one point or the other.

Joel's job is escorting Ellie. There's no other way of describing it; even if technically Ellie turns out to be a superior being to Joel, that doesn't void the fact that you (Joel) is tasked with escorting her.

I understand the point you make, and I agree with it. But even if there's different kinds of escort missions, these games still feature them. Obviously, a crappy AI that gets in the way and frustrates the gamer is horrible, but that didn't prevent Goldeneye from being one of the best shooters ever back when it came out.

They're not bad as long as they don't get in the way too much like Zelda in LTTP or designed around it like Mario World 2. I hated escorting EE around only for her to get Vamp'd but somehow I feel that the game was purposely designed around making that section frustrating and just flat out silly, I mean afterall MGS 2 is one giant mindscrew.

I don't believe it's the story mode that made people consider Goldeneye one of the best shooters ever at all.

Still, the game features a escort mission and people consider it one of the best shooters ever. It doesn't matter how the connection is done in A to B, but my point is that it happens. :)

I mean, nothing can be as frustrating as taking Yorda for a walk in ICO, but the game is a masterpiece. It's a split duality, Yorda is such a huge frustration to the player, and yet the game still manages to be something else.

I have mixed feelings for reasons outlined here.

Bad escort missions are frustrating due to dumb AI companion.

Good escort missions are fine due to either smart AI companion or invincible/invisible AI companion.

No one likes failing over and over again because their AI companion keeps dying because they get stuck on geometry or don't take cover or run or fight.

Speaking of Goldeneye, Perfect Dark did escort missions pretty well. You escort Dr. Caroll, you escort the President, you escort De Vries on the mission you play as a Skeddar...although the last one is more an abduction mission.

It's amazing how much simpler escorts become when enemies shoot at the player, not at the NPC.

Yes, it indeed is escorting, but you will never get a game over by failing to escort her. The only sections where Ellie really dies is when the player controls her.

Unable to fail at escorting doesn't make escorting something else :P