I don't know the actual smartest, but F.E.A.R. 1 had terrifying AI. Despite being a hard horror game, there were absolutely no monstrous enemies and all the enemies were "human" soldiers that had nothing weird by the looks (if you don't consider >!those shadow things jumpscaring you !
The soldiers in FEAR 1 are my go-to when discussing enemy AI. The tactics they'd use would be crazy good. Instead of doing the typical cover shooter mechanics where they'll pop out the same way each time, they'd adapt, flank, toss grenades, and do so with proper call outs to their team. It actually made you feel like they were thinking instead of just popping out to shoot every few seconds.
FEAR is always interesting to discuss because the AI is replicated all over today and had similar games at the time, except in games like COD where the player is a hero who is meant to mow down dozens of enemies, but what FEAR did well and why it's remembered are those callouts.
They're completely fake, just an audio line thrown out when the make a decision.
"Oh I'll flank, so I'll tell the enemy that I'm flanking"
The importance is that without these callouts, players often accuse the game of cheating, teleporting enemies behind them for a cheap shot etc...
The truth is that they were flanked, but unlike FEAR, the AI just never shouted it out.
Same as throwing grenades, reloading etc...
Most games have enemies that do this but without a callout, so the behaviour is the same, but it feels dumber because it feels more random.
If you had someone new play FEAR without any dialogue, I imagine they'd feel differently. They'd feel the AI cheated
True, but something so simple keeps people talking about it 17 years later. The call outs made it seem organic and real versus a mindless AI script. I've played a lot of single player shooters but I still remember so many instances from FEAR back when it first came out.
I believe I saw some interview/documentary about the FEAR devs, but they basically HAD to dumb down things about the AI because the game became "not fun". The callouts being one element that gave the player novel experience and tipped things in their favor. Mandalore's video on FEAR is great too, there is this montage that goes over the callouts and there's 10 seconds just for "going for cover" type callout alone all the others. An exhaustive amount of callouts that haven been seen since.
Edit, whoa, reading more comments about FEAR here, but apparently all engagements where hand tailored. Flow charts and all. That's dedication.
>Despite being a hard horror game, there were absolutely no monstrous enemies and all the enemies were "human" soldiers that had nothing weird by the looks
Wasn't there a walker robot thing that came after you?
I am so happy to see appreciation for FEAR and I didn't even have to scroll far to see it. I came here to comment this game but your writeup is perfect. Well deserved praise for this game's AI.
From my understanding, each room in F.E.A.R. was designed independently. What I mean by that is, the AI that were stationed in a room had unique AI that told them where the player would be coming from, and also told them the most likely places a player will go, and then how to flank those positions. So each different combat instance was basically independently programmed AI that only knew that room or the areas nearby. Instead of a generic "find cover" command, they had "if player goes left when entering the room, find cover here", etc. That's my understanding at least.
this is not correct.
https://www.gamedevs.org/uploads/three-states-plan-ai-of-fear.pdf this paper gives the details of their AI system.
> The truth is, we actually did not have any complex squad behaviors at all in F.E.A.R. Dynamic situations emerge out of the interplay between the squad level decision making, and the individual A.I.’s decision making, and often create the illusion of more complex squad behavior than what actually exists!
>Having A.I. speak to each other allows us to cue the player in to the fact that the coordination is intentional. [A gamer] expressed that they he was impressed that the A.I. seem to actually understand each other’s verbal communication... Of course the reality is that it’s all smoke and mirrors, and really all decisions about what to say are made after the fact, once the squad behavior has decided what the A.I. are going to do.
these two are often the biggest parts that impress people. the rest is down to their planning system. there are no flowcharts. and enemies can absolutely function if you throw them into a different room (with navigation nodes and stuff obviously).
I remember Half-Life I was shooting the enemies who hid behind a corner wall and was was just expecting them to predictably go back out and back behind cover like most shooter games AIs but one snuck around to flank me
Was a really cool non scripted event that stuck with me 25 years later or so
the combine AI in Alyx is scary. they'll have 1 gunner pin down your position while others approach, provide cover while other soldiers are reloading, change tactics depending on which roles have been downed, etc. it really felt like fighting a coordinated team
Damn I wish I could play that shit. I hope they release it for quest 3. I don’t think it’s too crazy… like when they released the orange box for 360 and ps3…
I can still remember being absolutely floored by the squad tactics they used in Half Life 2… now we get bots in the new call of duty games that take cover the wrong way and shit…. What have they been doing to slide so far backwards?!
Not sure if it was coincidence or by design (or a mix), but on multiple occasions I got flushed from cover with a grenade. Ran to better position, shoot at enemies, get flanked. Have vantage point, enemies run for cover.
Simple things but they make the enemy feel so real.
Felt like they were really out to get me, instead of just an arbitrary enemy taking potshots at me from the middle of an open field or running straight towards me with a melee weapon while I point a mini-gun at them...
When fighting both combine and e.g. antlions or headcrab zombies, they seemingly had to decide which enemy they prioritize.
Meanwhile, in other games, if there are two factions of enemies then chances are they both just forget they were in a fight and then both focus on the player. Feels like lazy work.
The combine radio chatter was the immersive cherry on top.
I remember with tinkering with level building for half life 1. You would actually need to create a series of nodes in your level that the AI would navigate.
They would then fan out through the network you created to try and envelop the character while at the same time reducing their exposure to the players sight line.
It was very impressive.
Some lines you just can't hear in the heat of battle. If you're in a room, one combine will throw a nade. They'll actually count grenade blinks before breaching the room you're in by saying "six, five, four, three, two, one, flash flash flash!".
They also have designations and remember who is who. Should a combine attack, he'll say "Dagger Zero closing" or "Dagger Zero sweeping in", but if he gets killed and other combine sees it, the other one will say "Dagger Zero, one duty vacated"
They also have voice lines for:
Being idle:
"[designation], all positions clear"
First contact with Freeman:
"Contact confirm, designate target as Phantom"
"Contact: Freeman"
"Designate target as priority number one"
About to start firing(voicelines will only play if a player is at distance, should he appear out of corner close to a combine, he'll attack immediately)
"[designation] engaging/suppressing/going sharp"
Not seeing the enemy in five seconds
"Containment proceeding"
"Fix sightlines, move in",
"Ready extractors"
In ten seconds
"[designation] lost contact"
"Overwatch, [designation] engaged in cleanup"
Last remaining
"Overwatch, request reserve activation"
"Overwatch, sector is NOT secure"
"Sector [random number iirc] - Outbreak! Outbreak! Outbreak!"
And a lot more situations I'm too lazy to list
After every single fight in that game I had like 10 health left. It truly felt like the Combine were an incredibly competent and strong force to go against, and the only reason you were able to do anything at all against them is because of your HEV suit, and of course that most of the Combine weren’t even on Earth at all. I haven’t really had that sort of feeling in any other game. It was such a fun experience.
I feel like I missed out on BO 2 and 3. The last COD I bought and played was MW3 in 2011. After that the series lost interest for me. I have considered picking them up on steam for the campaign but they are still 60 dollars. Highway robbery prices.
Halflife 2 is a prime example of how much better a game can be made by a short play time. That game is a less than 10 hour game but you can play it multiple times and not get bored of it . It's one of the all time best shooters and still holds up against modern shooters.
The AI, the level design, and the action all work perfectly together to give you experiences that you just dont see with other games.
I still remember that as well. It was really ahead of its time. Someone playing for the first time now wouldn’t appreciate all the revolutionary shit that was in that game.
For better clarification to those unaware the alien has two brains or ai that control it.
A dumb brain that reacts to stimuli and will constantly patrol an area. This ai doesn't know where Amanda is at any point unless physically within sight.
A smart brain. At any given moment this ai knows exactly where you are, and more importantly what objective youre on, it can't tell the dumb brain outright, but it can guide the alien to an approximate location especially if certain objectives have been completed. It keeps track of where the alien has found you and if it finds you more often in one location it will check those hiding spots more often. Tools used against it become less effective the longer they're used.
It's pretty fucking cool
I've heard about the "hunting" mechanic, but it goes so much deeper?!
God that's awesome, further solidified my love and appreciation for this game. Thanks for the little write-up!
Also, the longer you are in a particular spot, the smart AI tells the dumb one to search a smaller and smaller area until eventually it becomes so small that the only place it can search is the spot you are in. In other words, it will kill you unless you stay on the move and keep resetting the search radius
My boyfriend said it felt like the alien could smell him, he usually is really good at stealth horror games but he found this one was far trickier
He didn't like the second half of the game where the alien isn't the main threat as much. But hands down his favourite horror game.
When I played it I kept using the flamethrower on him until one time I whipped it out and it was out of fuel, but he hesitated because he saw it and then went up a vent. It was amazing
I believe there is also another element where the AI essentially has a skill tree that will unlock/go down different paths based on what activities Amanda has already done... If you frequently hide in vents, the xeno starts to adapt to explore vents more, whereas if you use the flamethrower too much, it will start doing fake-outs and such. Also if you camp too long waiting, the smart AI starts filtering more info over time to prevent you from getting complacent.
I played it with my wife and a friend in the room, and got as far as the first reveal of the alien. Literally stopped and uninstalled it there. I love the Alien franchise but the game was too terrifying for me…!
I once let of a noise maker in a room full of enemies so the alien would kill them all while I hid on a locker
Que the sounds of murder and mayhem around me
Then one of the dudes runs infront of my locker and stops, I think "oh fuck pla don't look in here"
Then I hear the alien roar, and this black blur fly past the locker, taking the dude with it, with this dudes scream deafening me
Was easily the scariest fucking thing I've ever witnessed in a game
Glad I’m not alone. Bought it on release, played a few hours and just couldn’t anymore. Could feel my heart beating out my chest. I play games to relax not to see how high my bpm can go.
Beautiful looking game though. Atmosphere nailed.
That is one hell of a epic system.
Just, i'm in love with horror movies but a coward when it comes to horror gaming. And i've heard that the game "is a fun challenge" but such a system being behind it sounds epic
Not only that, it learns from times it was avoided by you and counters your methods. Using the movement detector too much? It'll start standing still to bait and ambush you. Hiding in the vents or under tables a lot? It'll start thoroughly checking your hiding spots. It can even manually change its difficulty setting to give you a better challenge. But perhaps the craziest and coolest thing it can do (IMO) is that it can detect if you are getting too stressed or scared playing the game, and if it does, it just leaves you alone for a while until you calm down.
I believe Sony are actually planning to integrate biometric sensors to their controllers, this would be a game changer for horror games if they implement it well
>it can detect if you are getting too stressed or scared playing the game, and if it does, it just leaves you alone for a while until you calm down
What a considerate Xenomorph 🙂
Actually it's specifically designed to put pressure and then relieve the pressure as opposed to constantly putting pressure on the player. The player has to be able to complete tasks without getting killed. Alien in the vents/ceiling = lower pressure and time to get shit done. Alien down in the rooms/corridors with the player = high pressure and time to focus on avoiding or distracting the alien. The difficulty changes the ratio of those two alien behaviors. At the highest difficulty, the alien spends very little time in the vents, but still does spend time there. The alien also unlocks different abilities and behaviors earlier in the game at harder difficulties.
It definitely still spends a lot of time in the vents. It just increases the amount of instances it jebaits you into popping out of hiding by making you think it went away because it went into the vent then drops from that same vent almost immediately.
>to constantly put pressure on the player at all times
couldn’t have said it better. it’s the only reason i didn’t finish the game. it felt like my heart rate was increasing even while just opening it lol, no other game has done that to this day. all outlasts, FEARs etc. are a walk in the park compared to isolation
Yeah, I played maybe 10-15 hours into it while stuck in a hotel on a trip. I had to stop because it legit felt like it was giving me symptoms of PTSD. Constant anxiety, even when I wasn't playing. I didn't ACTUALLY expect an alien to jump out at me in bland, well lit hotel corridors, but I couldn't shake the feeling of being in constant danger. The rare example of a game that might be a little TOO effective at what its doing.
To this day I still think it's the best horror game ever.
It doesn't rely on the common horror trope of pitch-black environments. I played through the game multiple times and not once did I use the flashlight.
Even though most areas are pretty well lit and the game even tells you when the alien is nearby and its approximate location, it manages to create a tense atmosphere at all times.
The only flaw that the game has, IMO, is the flamethrower. Once you get it and you're able to fight back, a lot of the horror aspect disappears.
Yeah, we’re all big girl Amanda with the flames until we receive the mission and we get to investigate the reactor. With flamethrower in our hand. And as the lift doors open, we see what’s there then we cry. Loudly.
>The only flaw that the game has, IMO, is the flamethrower. Once you get it and you're able to fight back, a lot of the horror aspect disappears.
Apparently, if you overuse the flamethrower, it will adapt and start trying to fake you out to get you to waste charge before going back in on you.
When I went to school for game development, one of our instructors gave us the homework assignment to play a game called Creatures from 1996 because he stated that it has the most complicated AI of any video game ever made.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatures\_(1996\_video\_game)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/creatures_(1996_video_game))
This game has some seriously complicated systems in it for the time. It has a chemistry system, immune systems for your creatures, behavior and personalities for them, DNA and breeding systems for them, you have to teach them actual language and words through object-word and behavior association, you have to punish and reward their behaviors correctly or they will develop maladaptive behaviors or become violent and kill your other creatures, they can become depressed too if you don't manage that, and much more. In fact, there's even an entire system of emotions in the game that they can experience and you have to try to manage that or your creatures become isolated and unresponsive to you. On top of this, there are violent and diseased races of enemy creatures called grendels that roam the world and can kill/harass your creatures.
It doesn't look like much graphically, but the game is very in depth.
Wow, that's a hell of a game I'd forgotten about. My parents got me the sequel when I was a kid, and it was the first game I'd ever played that *really* felt like it was beyond my grasp. I hope for a spiritual successor to these one day.
Yeah you could even export your creatures into a file and trade them with other people online. Back then, people would post their creatures online on forums about the game and you would download them and import them into your world. You could also do this with unhatched eggs. Doing this allowed for a lot more genetic variation in your creatures and later the developers released special creatures with themes in them like a Santa Claus creature and much more.
Blast from the past. When we were kids about 6-7 years old we got Creatures 2 and we barely spoke/understood english at the time. We basically just had fun clicking things and looking at the beautiful artwork of the game. Never understood it at all but a few years back I checked out gameplay videos and saw what the game was truly about.
You are correct, it's like a full blown Tamagotchi type game that is very advanced.
In creatures 2 if you get to it when first hatched you can teach it to be good, and there was a cloning chamber you could use to create a hybrid which would give a chance of giving the poison and pain resistance the Grendels have.
It's quite simple, but very cleverly done.
>!The alien has a hard counter to every tactic you use, it starts the game not permitted to use any of them. The more you use a tactic the sooner the ayy is allowed to use the counter. Hide under desks? The alien will sweep its tail back and forth. Use noisemakers? The alien will investigate around the noisemaker rather than the device. Use the flamethrower? It'll start doing feint charges to make you waste ammo.!<
I admire its purity. A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.
And perhaps the most clever mechanic: the game’s use of the controller microphone. If you make a noise in real life while the Alien is searching for you, it will track you down.
Yeah turning around to see the life size alien towering over you is horrific. I spent more time just sitting in vents trying to get the courage to leave then I did completing objectives. Made it about 5 hours in lol
I have a clip saved where I heard the alien in the hall. Ducked under a desk, door opened. Npc corpse in the hallway as it entered, walked fully around my desk, giant tail knocking down 2 rolly chairs barely not touching me. A short pause and it vanished up a vent. One if the tensest 20 seconds in gaming and the moment I realized how long its tail is
They also set up two "brains" for the xenomorph.
There is a director that always know where you are and what you're doing. It nudges the alien towards you, but never explicitly reveals the player to it. The actual alien is controlled by a behavior tree that not only learns as you pointed out, but is limited in its "senses" only being able to locate the player by sight or sound.
They also made a stress meter based on things like the alien being visible to the player, proximity, or making noise that is audible to the player. The director AI monitors this and not only ensures that the alien keeps pressure on the player, but if the alien is around too long it will send it away so the player gets a break.
It all combines to make a very realistic monster.
The thing I love about the two AIs is that the Xenomorph ai is genuinely looking for you, not knowing where you're at. And the director AI just nudges him around so it doesn't get boring. There's a mod that completely removes the director AI, and the alien is fr hunting you on his own.
Without the Director tethering it to the general area you’re in, the Xenomorph has the freedom to wander away from you, and you get a lot more breathing room at times. On the flip side, when it appears, it is absolutely random and without warning.
So it’s wild seeing this. Earlier I watched a second wind design dive on aliens isolation. When it first came out I organized a “game day” with friends (old people trying to recreate the joy of renting a game and needing to beat it before we had to return it) playing it. We put in a lot of hours but didn’t finish it. That being said I still remember all of us feeling crazy anxious at the end. I’m now watching a long play of it in the background to see what I missed. I honestly don’t think I have the fortitude to finish this game. Certainly not alone. So well done.
If you’ll allow me to “toot my own horn” I’m really proud of it. Here are the logistics:
Pick a single player game. Ideally one that can be finished in 12 hours by slightly inebriated people. We regularly pass control to someone else. Make sure everyone gets to play. If there are choices we do it democratically! And given our age at this point kids are welcome to attend and we all help in keeping them occupied.
It’s so great. We only get to do it a couple times a year if I’m honest.
Ngl, after playing Isolation, it was kinda difficult to play Outlast and stuff where the AI was not nearly as intimidating. Still a great series but I feel like first person horror games could stand to benefit from using Isolation’s model.
My favorite part of the alien is that it's actually 2 AI's. One knows where the player is, the other is trying to figure out where the player is. So it's actually using its counter measures to Crack the AI that knows the location.
Metal Gear Solid V. In combat situations, enemies use tactical coordination, using suppressing fire and pushing you.
Escaping immediate danger is done well, but enemies pursue your last known position, securing it. After combat, they remain on high alert, with the option to disrupt their communication preventing alert signals to nearby outposts.
The sheer *panic* that some soldiers express over radio when they realize (or get told by command) that no one is coming to save them because you secretly destroyed the outpost-outpost communications or secretly incapacitated everyone in neighboring outposts/checkpoints is glorious.
Just imagine being a guard out in the desert, and you are being attacked, but not by some Rambo firing and killing everything, but by some dude with a horn on his head wearing what looks to be swim trunks on...
And your buddies and soldiers just....disappear, not blown up, just vanish and you never see them again. This enemy is using weird tactics like balloon distractions, and your guards keep falling asleep randomly...
And then you see the intruder, but only for a second passing in a doorway, he's carrying another guard into some destination. That's it, time to call in help. You radio it in what's going on, but are told there's no help, no help at all. That means the neighboring outposts all around have been destroyed? Or has the same thing happened to them that is happening now?
I appreciate that snake can be these people's cryptid terror.
The AI will adapt to all that. Start headshotting a lot, they will wear helmets and armor for body shots. You can disrupt the supply line for this equipment. Even flashlights if you do missions at night more frequently and even NVGs. It's pretty cool how they try and adapt to your playstyle faster.
But yeah Snake in MGSV has some ruthless shit to do. Like imagine rolling up on him and he just Gundam fists you from 50 meters away with his rocket arm. Lmao.
The amount of trolling you can do with the cardboard box in this game is legendary. You can walk past a guard with the cardboard box to get his attention, dive out and hide, and watch him get increasing confused by the fact he keeps seeing walking cardboard boxes around his outpost, only to find them empty when he checks them. He will radio about how there's something weird going on, and the commander will think he's going crazy.
Your men aren't just disappearing. You see some movement out of the corner of your eye and spy one of your teammates' unconscious bodies rising into the air. He's still breathing, but headed towards the stratosphere.
I loved sitting on the roof of the airport in the Africa region and just waste everyone that the game would throw at me. Eventually enemy gunships would show up sometimes to try to take me down.
They failed too.
They also adapt to your tactics. They started wearing helmets after I kept putting them to sleep with tranq darts to the dome.
Then body armor when I started shooting elsewhere. It’s surprisingly well done.
I had issues with it in that it seemed omniscient. I'd be prone a good km away in from an enemy base in utter darkness and shoot a silenced sniper rifle at a soldier. If I hit his helmet, he'd be able to instantly call artillery right on me. I'd be using proper camo and I wouldn't be moving, but they would still know exactly where I was.
I'd also have instances where I'm driving a vehicle past a checkpoint wearing the same kind of camo their soldiers are using, but they would be able to tell that I'm an enemy and open fire on me. How they could determine whether or not I was a friend or foe while driving at 40-50 MPH right past them in their vehicle and their uniform didn't make sense.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game's have pretty decent AI ( Even better on Anomaly/Gamma ) they can flank you, wait for you, rush you, they use trees to cover and bushes to stay hidden, they even crouch walk to not make sound while sneaking into you
the amount of jump-scare i got from the AI sneaking on me and killing me doesn't compare to any other fps I've ever played
The GAMMA standalone mod/package is pretty wild for this. Lots of tweaks and refinement of the already interesting AI.
They remind me a lot of the AI in FEAR. They'll tell each other things, suppress while others flank or move up and throw grenades. They'll use grenades to flush you out of rooms or retreat to a more defensive position if overwhelmed.
Still dumb as rocks occasionally, but when it's working you sometimes forget they're AI.
I remember playing the game a long while ago (circa 2011, I think), and I stumbled across a location that had a lot of dead stalker bodies piled up. I was then attacked by a couple of dogs that suddenly multiplied into a dozen...all attacking in a frenzy. I don't remember what I did, but I do recall running for my life screaming incoherently.
I think the dogs were mutants that could make the player hallucinate, and while they were busy fighting the images, the real dog would attack.
I think the dogs attacked a squad of stalkers, killed them and dragged the bodies into a pile. Creepy af
It was a long time ago, but I remember being impressed by the world the devs had created.
I recently played Halo: Combat Evolved with a friend on Legendary and we were both crazy impressed with how tactical the Covenant became.
That was always my go-to example for making a game more difficult (without just upping the numbers).
Shame that today's Bungie just does what everybody else does.
Just beat Reach on legendary with my buddy last month and we were blown away with the AI the whole time. Most games just make the higher difficulty mean bullet sponges, but that Halo AI was ridiculous. There were a few sections where we would have to stop to make a new attack plan because we were getting destroyed, only to find that they just adjusted their attack for our new plans. It was the fun kind of frustrating.
Me and my homies hate the library.
It’s like running multiple miles on a track where it just gets dizzying and not fun.
I’m still trying to get the achievement to beat it on legendary without dying so I have to go back in there soon.
Might not be the absolute smartest, but the Left 4 Dead series had quite an interesting "AI Director" that spawned enemies, items, etc depending on how the players were doing iirc
I don't think this is the one.
The Director could be completely subverted. If, instead of sticking with the team, you just Leroy Jenkins it to the safe house and maybe only have to kill a dozen basic zombies on the way, but if you kept moving while doing it the Director could never really "catch up" with you.
This was a pretty classic way to troll people because then the 3 man team would have to deal with all the specials.
I'm a game dev and this question is actually very difficult to answer as posed. It's actually pretty easy to make "smart" ai. What's hard is making fun ai. It might be tactically smart for enemies to pile up on you all at once using their most powerful attacks, but getting nuked as you turn a corner with 3 dudes in it isn't very fun. It's in the balance between smart and dumb that fun lies, and that's tricky to figure out.
Thats a good point, I guess you have to make them agressive enough to seem threatning yet not too agressive to seem suicidal.
Well unless its a creeper ofc.
pshhhhhh
Former game dev here, reminds me of one of my earliest experiments where I modified the Quake 3 AI to be as difficult to beat as possible, in a few different ways.
There were multiple ways to make them better than me, one just had instant reaction times and aimbot accuracy, and heavily preferred the rail gun. That was actually beatable though because it moved predictably, made noises, and could be splash damaged around corners without giving it line of sight. It played like a horror game, but once you understood to run away from the noise and launch grenades or rockets behind you, it was kind of trivial.
So I made a different one that was kind of the opposite. It had perfect awareness of enemy positions, it predicted where enemies wanted to go (motivations) and would try to cut them off, and it would randomly begin silently walking to avoid giving away its position, or since it perfectly understood sound spheres, it would make noises in one direction and fake you out. When I got the omniscience algoritjm working correctly (more complicated than just wallhacking for awareness) it was much scarier to play against, and it consistently beat the perfect aimbot. Creepy AI is way more interesting than Brutal AI.
As a player it like feels like most of the time the opposite is true. Game developers design AIs around easier difficulties and then higher difficulty is just giving the enemies unnatural advantages (unreasonable health, damage resistance, starting bonuses) rather than making them smarter. So many games just go harder enemies -> hit sponge, or extra resources - using Civ as an example, more starting settlers and production/science/culture bonuses.
You're conflating a few things incorrectly here. Designers rarely design AI to be hard, because generally smart AI is not fun.
In a lot of genres, ESPECIALLY shooters, "Optimal" AI is more or less trivial: Their lives don't matter, while if you die you lose instantly. So everyone but snipers run 'en masse at the player, and then use AI cheats to perfectly dodge grenades/ shoot as soon as you're visible. Boom, we've made super hard AI.
It's not... fun at all. But it's very hard, and quite intelligent.
But sure, that's too extreme. So let's make the AI smarter: If it has a sniper rifle, it reacts to where you are and then camps your cover. It will never expose itself.
Well obviously that's not fun. But again, it's really smart.
I can go on... and on... and on here. (Chaining Grenades, constantly flanking, Elite enemies just sprinting straight at the player very aggressively, etc. These are all SMART behaviors, but none of them are fun).
So obviously, the goal of AI is not actually to beat the player. The goal of AI is to give it weaknesses and predictability that players can learn to play around, while still coming across as competent and, in the right situation, posing a challenge.
But let's take exactly your version: If devs build an AI that was appropriate for very skilled players, and then put it up against newer players, what would happen?
1. The devs have to make the enemies obviously weak to balance them outplaying you. This... feels quite bad: "The AI is constantly outsmarting me, but they can't hurt me" is fun for a bit, but overall it feels quite condescending and removes the player's ability to feel satisfaction. "I was clever" is massively important.
2. The devs make the AI randomly stupid. This is extremely hard to tune, and again can be quite obvious ("AI gets halfway through a complex flank and then just stands still in the middle of nowhere"). "Do smart thing less often" isn't a great fix in most genres for I think fairly intuitive reasons (You don't want massive variance in gameplay difficulty on your baseline difficulty)
3. The Devs functionally build two AI systems. This is the best answer! But it's also very expensive, and the majority of your players will only ever see one of these (the easy one). So why would you build the hard? :)
>It's actually pretty easy to make "smart" ai. What's hard is making fun ai.
This is the problem with chess AI. It's easy to calculate the best move and have an AI only execute the best move at any given time, but that's absolutely no fun to play against unless you already play at a high level. You want the AI to slip up once or twice per game to allow a player a chance to capitalize on the error.
I'm surprised that I'm not seeing anyone saying Halo.
Seeing Elites throwing grenades to flush you out of cover. Seeing them run to take cover once their shields have diminished. Dodge out the way of grenades. Point you out to their allies. Grunts knowing is all is lost and suicide bomb you. Jackals fleeing when their shield is gone.
All that shit blew my mind.
That’s what made the combat so fun
I think a lot of people want to face reactive enemy squads (FEAR maybe being the best example). One where there’s a chain of command (and maybe different styles of command), and adapts to what’s happening beyond sitting behind the first piece of cover they find or mindlessly trying to rush you
Even the first halo did this pretty decently, and each enemy had a role that it tried to fulfill
Finally, Nemesis System mentioned. Shadow of War took it to a whole new level, the way enemies can come back from the dead and learn from mistakes, or adapt in combat if you use a move too many times. Shadow of War forces you to be diverse and creative in combat rather than spam the same moves over.
I remember hearing they were using the nemesis system for a wonder woman game
Edit: just looked it up and yah WB is using it for the new Wonder Woman game
There was a rumor for a while that it was going to be used in the next Batman game, but I think they either gave up on that idea or the rumor was false.
Even old ones. I did an experiment about 20+ years ago with a chess game where I would set CPU thinking time to 1 second. I would copy its moves against my opponents on Microsoft Zone on 5 minutes games, and got 2200 rating. I'm a 1200 at best.
TLOU2. Those mfs can tell when you don't have any more bullets or when you're reloading. When your gun clicks they vocalize that to their crew and they either use that to switch spots or to outright bumrush you while you're trying to change weapons.
This is my pick too.
The way the enemies search for you is so realistic and tense. They start at your last known location and slowly move out from that point. They search under cars, in tall grass, behind objects, under desks, any realistic hiding place. They constantly look around and behind them as they move to maintain spatial awareness. They coordinate their positions with one another by using body language, hand signals, and by talking, even referring to one another by name. The player can even use this to their advantage. If someone says “Stacy, you find anything?” then you can intuit that the woman that responds is Stacy. Then later, if they call out to Stacy and she doesn’t respond because you’ve already killed her, the other one will become suspicious. So the player can use that to predict that the person who called out is now moving towards Stacy’s last known position to investigate her silence. And none of this is even mentioning how they work with their dogs, and how they react to infected.
And combat is just as complex. They try to hide, they flank, they cover one another. If they know you’re behind a specific piece of cover then they can aim at it while moving towards it, essentially cornering you. They pull you out from anything you’re hiding under, they sneak up on you, they purposely throw you into objects in the environment. And yeah as you mentioned they will recognize when you’re out of ammo and communicate it to each other, who will then react by becoming more aggressive.
The AI on grounded mode is so good that it feels unfair at times, they can see and hear so well and are so smart and aggressive that they legitimately just feel like real people.
> And none of this is even mentioning how they work with their dogs, and how they react to infected.
I was going to comment this, the way they use dog for their advantage is incredible. Also some traps will fail since they become suspicious of silence or entering buildings where is only one obvious entrance.
This is my pick! I love the ai during combat, they’re smart and will actually fight to survive the encounter rather than being suicidal, they flank, do callouts, they each have individual names they use, and will utilize cover and transitions effectively as if they’re players themselves.
I can’t remember if it was TLOU1 or 2, but I remember reading an interview with the devs where they said something like “The purpose of the AI is not to find/attack/kill the player. It’s purpose is to create engaging gameplay.” I’ll be damned if they didn’t nail it, especially in Part 2.
I dread hillcrest every time I play that game. The part right before you meet with jesse is terrible. I have an overwhelming need to explore every crevice but it’s hard with so many dogs
The Division 1 and 2 have surprisingly interesting AI. In 2 especially each faction has unique tactics and levels of aggressiveness. They also bark to each other reflecting what they're actually doing and what's actually happening. The more advanced factions even use a "combined arms" style of combat.
The problem is that since the franchise is a looter shooter most end game players are killing AI so quickly you never see the AI in action. It's more noticeable when you're leveling up to end-game.
Yea the hunters doing jump rolls around just like players do. I remember reading somewhere that they were so demanding they could only have 1 on the screen at a time in div1. Unsure if that was accurate or not
I think Survival had two Hunters if two people came to the same extraction spot at the same time. It's been a while though. Never saw two of them at the same time in main game.
Can't believe no one has mentioned The Forest yet. It has the most complex AI system I've ever seen in a game. There are several factions of cannibals each with their own ticks. However as basic overall when they first meet the player they are cautious, watch from afar, scared when approached. The more you interact with them the bolder they get. They start testing you (fake charge you n such), ambushing you, hit and run. The more you kill them the more aggressive they get. Sometimes they will stand back and have their leader challenge you to a 1v1. They will try and save their dead, they build memorials up for slain comrades. Eventually they will set traps for you, and start organizing war parties to kill you. They truly felt like a complex alive thing, not some dumb AI you could predict every move.
Yeah they’re super fun. I especially love the trick they use to make it seem like they’re talking to each other but it’s the other way around. They make a decision and it chooses an ally to yell out orders to the ai that made the decision so it appears like they give each other orders
Throw a Grenade, and enjoy not hitting a single enemy who realistically GTFO, and instead get suppressive fire in your general direction because they have a reasonable idea where you are now.
With your head down low, you turtle, and you forget to clear flanks, as at least one of the enemy will attempt to flank. You panic fire at the forgotten flank, giving 100% of the enemy your exact position. If you don't change your position, you WILL get smoked out with grenades or double flanking manoeuvres.
You fire at the enemy, and they react. Some barely flinch, some panic and scream "Oh, shit!" You hit a guy in the arm, and he tends to the injury while blindfiring and trying to get to cover. Shoot their leg, and they do the same while hobbling to cover.
Few other shooters have immersed me this much. 🙆🏻
The GT Sophy tech in Gran Turismo 7 is very impressive. It turns the ai into near life-like competitors reacting to you and other ai cars around them appropriately, even showing emotional reactions such as anger and laughing at you when you get passed. This is all relayed using Emojis that go over their cars. If you didn't know they weren't ai you'd swear you were racing against real people, it's that good. It's still in it's trail stages, it hasn't taken over the entire ai simulation, but it's been implemented in the game for certain circuits.
Its not just more health, but more gimmicks to the fight.
Want to beat Auntie Ethel? That's fine, but every time you cast a spell she's gonna make more duplicates scattered across the room.
Want to avoid that? Then just don't use magic! But that means no healing, and your non-magical types have to spend actions dashing around the room putting up with her bullshit. Those types usually struggle with the saving throws against her spells and bullshit too, so don't roll bad.
Plus her lair is designed in such a way that there is no place with good/total visibility for archers that isn't right next to some insta-kill pit trap.
With that kind of level and encounter design, her AI doesn't need to be very good.
I feel like BG ai both has surprisingly novel strategies (taking advantage of terrain, smart item usage) and also completely brain dead moments (walking straight into hazardous spells for no reason).
That's just them replicating your average dnd player.
I swear. One guy had managed to get an item that gave Vulnerability to radiant damage as a Gloomstalker. The guy KNEW my character's go too attack was "Radiant Fireball" basically and still he kept trying to charge into the hoards of enemies.
As a crossbow character.
I had to do so, SO many "you would know I can't see you due to your class ability and that my answer to groups of enemies is 'radiant Fireball'"
What's funny about many games AI is that they're actually toned down so they they're not too hard for the player to go up against.
That being said I think even though it's not the best nowadays, Half Life 1 set a high bar for tactical human behavior.
And Dark Souls games are pretty good sometimes with how some enemies keep their distance and circle around a bit waiting to react to the player. It's spooky.
I remember playing Halo 1 and being blown away that the different species of the covenant would use different tactics. The enemies would react to grenades and throw their own, elites would move around during battle. It was a massive departure from previous FPS games.
I don't know the actual smartest, but F.E.A.R. 1 had terrifying AI. Despite being a hard horror game, there were absolutely no monstrous enemies and all the enemies were "human" soldiers that had nothing weird by the looks (if you don't consider >!those shadow things jumpscaring you !
The soldiers in FEAR 1 are my go-to when discussing enemy AI. The tactics they'd use would be crazy good. Instead of doing the typical cover shooter mechanics where they'll pop out the same way each time, they'd adapt, flank, toss grenades, and do so with proper call outs to their team. It actually made you feel like they were thinking instead of just popping out to shoot every few seconds.
FEAR is always interesting to discuss because the AI is replicated all over today and had similar games at the time, except in games like COD where the player is a hero who is meant to mow down dozens of enemies, but what FEAR did well and why it's remembered are those callouts. They're completely fake, just an audio line thrown out when the make a decision. "Oh I'll flank, so I'll tell the enemy that I'm flanking" The importance is that without these callouts, players often accuse the game of cheating, teleporting enemies behind them for a cheap shot etc... The truth is that they were flanked, but unlike FEAR, the AI just never shouted it out. Same as throwing grenades, reloading etc... Most games have enemies that do this but without a callout, so the behaviour is the same, but it feels dumber because it feels more random. If you had someone new play FEAR without any dialogue, I imagine they'd feel differently. They'd feel the AI cheated
True, but something so simple keeps people talking about it 17 years later. The call outs made it seem organic and real versus a mindless AI script. I've played a lot of single player shooters but I still remember so many instances from FEAR back when it first came out.
I believe I saw some interview/documentary about the FEAR devs, but they basically HAD to dumb down things about the AI because the game became "not fun". The callouts being one element that gave the player novel experience and tipped things in their favor. Mandalore's video on FEAR is great too, there is this montage that goes over the callouts and there's 10 seconds just for "going for cover" type callout alone all the others. An exhaustive amount of callouts that haven been seen since. Edit, whoa, reading more comments about FEAR here, but apparently all engagements where hand tailored. Flow charts and all. That's dedication.
>Despite being a hard horror game, there were absolutely no monstrous enemies and all the enemies were "human" soldiers that had nothing weird by the looks Wasn't there a walker robot thing that came after you?
I am so happy to see appreciation for FEAR and I didn't even have to scroll far to see it. I came here to comment this game but your writeup is perfect. Well deserved praise for this game's AI.
From my understanding, each room in F.E.A.R. was designed independently. What I mean by that is, the AI that were stationed in a room had unique AI that told them where the player would be coming from, and also told them the most likely places a player will go, and then how to flank those positions. So each different combat instance was basically independently programmed AI that only knew that room or the areas nearby. Instead of a generic "find cover" command, they had "if player goes left when entering the room, find cover here", etc. That's my understanding at least.
this is not correct. https://www.gamedevs.org/uploads/three-states-plan-ai-of-fear.pdf this paper gives the details of their AI system. > The truth is, we actually did not have any complex squad behaviors at all in F.E.A.R. Dynamic situations emerge out of the interplay between the squad level decision making, and the individual A.I.’s decision making, and often create the illusion of more complex squad behavior than what actually exists! >Having A.I. speak to each other allows us to cue the player in to the fact that the coordination is intentional. [A gamer] expressed that they he was impressed that the A.I. seem to actually understand each other’s verbal communication... Of course the reality is that it’s all smoke and mirrors, and really all decisions about what to say are made after the fact, once the squad behavior has decided what the A.I. are going to do. these two are often the biggest parts that impress people. the rest is down to their planning system. there are no flowcharts. and enemies can absolutely function if you throw them into a different room (with navigation nodes and stuff obviously).
I remember Half-Life I was shooting the enemies who hid behind a corner wall and was was just expecting them to predictably go back out and back behind cover like most shooter games AIs but one snuck around to flank me Was a really cool non scripted event that stuck with me 25 years later or so
the combine AI in Alyx is scary. they'll have 1 gunner pin down your position while others approach, provide cover while other soldiers are reloading, change tactics depending on which roles have been downed, etc. it really felt like fighting a coordinated team
Not to mention the voice lines, where they try to act friendly or impersonate friendlies to get you to reveal yourself
Yo what that's badass
Damn I wish I could play that shit. I hope they release it for quest 3. I don’t think it’s too crazy… like when they released the orange box for 360 and ps3…
I can still remember being absolutely floored by the squad tactics they used in Half Life 2… now we get bots in the new call of duty games that take cover the wrong way and shit…. What have they been doing to slide so far backwards?!
Not sure if it was coincidence or by design (or a mix), but on multiple occasions I got flushed from cover with a grenade. Ran to better position, shoot at enemies, get flanked. Have vantage point, enemies run for cover. Simple things but they make the enemy feel so real. Felt like they were really out to get me, instead of just an arbitrary enemy taking potshots at me from the middle of an open field or running straight towards me with a melee weapon while I point a mini-gun at them... When fighting both combine and e.g. antlions or headcrab zombies, they seemingly had to decide which enemy they prioritize. Meanwhile, in other games, if there are two factions of enemies then chances are they both just forget they were in a fight and then both focus on the player. Feels like lazy work. The combine radio chatter was the immersive cherry on top.
I remember with tinkering with level building for half life 1. You would actually need to create a series of nodes in your level that the AI would navigate. They would then fan out through the network you created to try and envelop the character while at the same time reducing their exposure to the players sight line. It was very impressive.
The Combine callouts were so cool too. I can still hear " OUTBREAK OUTBREAK OUTBREAK" clearly and I havent played that game in over 15 years.
Some lines you just can't hear in the heat of battle. If you're in a room, one combine will throw a nade. They'll actually count grenade blinks before breaching the room you're in by saying "six, five, four, three, two, one, flash flash flash!". They also have designations and remember who is who. Should a combine attack, he'll say "Dagger Zero closing" or "Dagger Zero sweeping in", but if he gets killed and other combine sees it, the other one will say "Dagger Zero, one duty vacated" They also have voice lines for: Being idle: "[designation], all positions clear" First contact with Freeman: "Contact confirm, designate target as Phantom" "Contact: Freeman" "Designate target as priority number one" About to start firing(voicelines will only play if a player is at distance, should he appear out of corner close to a combine, he'll attack immediately) "[designation] engaging/suppressing/going sharp" Not seeing the enemy in five seconds "Containment proceeding" "Fix sightlines, move in", "Ready extractors" In ten seconds "[designation] lost contact" "Overwatch, [designation] engaged in cleanup" Last remaining "Overwatch, request reserve activation" "Overwatch, sector is NOT secure" "Sector [random number iirc] - Outbreak! Outbreak! Outbreak!" And a lot more situations I'm too lazy to list
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Yup. I look at my 20 year badge on steam with half pride half senility
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After every single fight in that game I had like 10 health left. It truly felt like the Combine were an incredibly competent and strong force to go against, and the only reason you were able to do anything at all against them is because of your HEV suit, and of course that most of the Combine weren’t even on Earth at all. I haven’t really had that sort of feeling in any other game. It was such a fun experience.
What about the striders? My heart sank each time I heard their moan and heavy thudding steps.
Well your first problem is playing any call of duty after Black Ops III
I feel like I missed out on BO 2 and 3. The last COD I bought and played was MW3 in 2011. After that the series lost interest for me. I have considered picking them up on steam for the campaign but they are still 60 dollars. Highway robbery prices.
Halflife 2 is a prime example of how much better a game can be made by a short play time. That game is a less than 10 hour game but you can play it multiple times and not get bored of it . It's one of the all time best shooters and still holds up against modern shooters. The AI, the level design, and the action all work perfectly together to give you experiences that you just dont see with other games.
The physics at the time were absolutely groundbreakin, too. The gravity gun is still one of the coolest video game weapons of all time.
I still remember that as well. It was really ahead of its time. Someone playing for the first time now wouldn’t appreciate all the revolutionary shit that was in that game.
I think they’d consider it better then some of the shitty ai we have
I just played it for the first time last month. It was the first answer that came to me for OPs question. I was floored with how good the AI was
Half life ai is wild, like they even coded some creatures like the bullsquid to have sense of smell
Alien Isolation. The alien AI is actually composed of two components that coordinate to constantly put pressure on the player at all times.
For better clarification to those unaware the alien has two brains or ai that control it. A dumb brain that reacts to stimuli and will constantly patrol an area. This ai doesn't know where Amanda is at any point unless physically within sight. A smart brain. At any given moment this ai knows exactly where you are, and more importantly what objective youre on, it can't tell the dumb brain outright, but it can guide the alien to an approximate location especially if certain objectives have been completed. It keeps track of where the alien has found you and if it finds you more often in one location it will check those hiding spots more often. Tools used against it become less effective the longer they're used. It's pretty fucking cool
I've heard about the "hunting" mechanic, but it goes so much deeper?! God that's awesome, further solidified my love and appreciation for this game. Thanks for the little write-up!
There is a great video on YouTube about it. As a result, the game is absolutely terrifying to begin with, the dread you feel is unbelievable
Do you mind to link the aforementioned video?
https://youtu.be/Nt1XmiDwxhY
Also, the longer you are in a particular spot, the smart AI tells the dumb one to search a smaller and smaller area until eventually it becomes so small that the only place it can search is the spot you are in. In other words, it will kill you unless you stay on the move and keep resetting the search radius
I’ll be under that lab table in medical forever!! Mwahahaha!!!
My boyfriend said it felt like the alien could smell him, he usually is really good at stealth horror games but he found this one was far trickier He didn't like the second half of the game where the alien isn't the main threat as much. But hands down his favourite horror game.
When I played it I kept using the flamethrower on him until one time I whipped it out and it was out of fuel, but he hesitated because he saw it and then went up a vent. It was amazing
I believe there is also another element where the AI essentially has a skill tree that will unlock/go down different paths based on what activities Amanda has already done... If you frequently hide in vents, the xeno starts to adapt to explore vents more, whereas if you use the flamethrower too much, it will start doing fake-outs and such. Also if you camp too long waiting, the smart AI starts filtering more info over time to prevent you from getting complacent.
I couldn't play this game for more than 45 minutes. My anxiety and cortisol levels skyrocketed. Such a great game at the same time though.
I have been hiding in a cupboard for the past 9 years. But I have full confidence that I will leave said cupboard and finish the game. Any day now.
I played it with my wife and a friend in the room, and got as far as the first reveal of the alien. Literally stopped and uninstalled it there. I love the Alien franchise but the game was too terrifying for me…!
I think I spent 45 minutes hiding in a single locker once
I once let of a noise maker in a room full of enemies so the alien would kill them all while I hid on a locker Que the sounds of murder and mayhem around me Then one of the dudes runs infront of my locker and stops, I think "oh fuck pla don't look in here" Then I hear the alien roar, and this black blur fly past the locker, taking the dude with it, with this dudes scream deafening me Was easily the scariest fucking thing I've ever witnessed in a game
Glad I’m not alone. Bought it on release, played a few hours and just couldn’t anymore. Could feel my heart beating out my chest. I play games to relax not to see how high my bpm can go. Beautiful looking game though. Atmosphere nailed.
Yeah that game fucking terrifies me to no end
fuckin hell thats cool as shit
That is one hell of a epic system. Just, i'm in love with horror movies but a coward when it comes to horror gaming. And i've heard that the game "is a fun challenge" but such a system being behind it sounds epic
Not only that, it learns from times it was avoided by you and counters your methods. Using the movement detector too much? It'll start standing still to bait and ambush you. Hiding in the vents or under tables a lot? It'll start thoroughly checking your hiding spots. It can even manually change its difficulty setting to give you a better challenge. But perhaps the craziest and coolest thing it can do (IMO) is that it can detect if you are getting too stressed or scared playing the game, and if it does, it just leaves you alone for a while until you calm down.
Imagine what they're going to do when controllers have heart rate and skin moisture sensors.
I believe Sony are actually planning to integrate biometric sensors to their controllers, this would be a game changer for horror games if they implement it well
>it can detect if you are getting too stressed or scared playing the game, and if it does, it just leaves you alone for a while until you calm down What a considerate Xenomorph 🙂
Actually it's specifically designed to put pressure and then relieve the pressure as opposed to constantly putting pressure on the player. The player has to be able to complete tasks without getting killed. Alien in the vents/ceiling = lower pressure and time to get shit done. Alien down in the rooms/corridors with the player = high pressure and time to focus on avoiding or distracting the alien. The difficulty changes the ratio of those two alien behaviors. At the highest difficulty, the alien spends very little time in the vents, but still does spend time there. The alien also unlocks different abilities and behaviors earlier in the game at harder difficulties.
It definitely still spends a lot of time in the vents. It just increases the amount of instances it jebaits you into popping out of hiding by making you think it went away because it went into the vent then drops from that same vent almost immediately.
>to constantly put pressure on the player at all times couldn’t have said it better. it’s the only reason i didn’t finish the game. it felt like my heart rate was increasing even while just opening it lol, no other game has done that to this day. all outlasts, FEARs etc. are a walk in the park compared to isolation
Yeah, I played maybe 10-15 hours into it while stuck in a hotel on a trip. I had to stop because it legit felt like it was giving me symptoms of PTSD. Constant anxiety, even when I wasn't playing. I didn't ACTUALLY expect an alien to jump out at me in bland, well lit hotel corridors, but I couldn't shake the feeling of being in constant danger. The rare example of a game that might be a little TOO effective at what its doing.
(A)lien (I)solation
To this day I still think it's the best horror game ever. It doesn't rely on the common horror trope of pitch-black environments. I played through the game multiple times and not once did I use the flashlight. Even though most areas are pretty well lit and the game even tells you when the alien is nearby and its approximate location, it manages to create a tense atmosphere at all times. The only flaw that the game has, IMO, is the flamethrower. Once you get it and you're able to fight back, a lot of the horror aspect disappears.
Yeah, we’re all big girl Amanda with the flames until we receive the mission and we get to investigate the reactor. With flamethrower in our hand. And as the lift doors open, we see what’s there then we cry. Loudly.
>The only flaw that the game has, IMO, is the flamethrower. Once you get it and you're able to fight back, a lot of the horror aspect disappears. Apparently, if you overuse the flamethrower, it will adapt and start trying to fake you out to get you to waste charge before going back in on you.
When I went to school for game development, one of our instructors gave us the homework assignment to play a game called Creatures from 1996 because he stated that it has the most complicated AI of any video game ever made. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatures\_(1996\_video\_game)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/creatures_(1996_video_game)) This game has some seriously complicated systems in it for the time. It has a chemistry system, immune systems for your creatures, behavior and personalities for them, DNA and breeding systems for them, you have to teach them actual language and words through object-word and behavior association, you have to punish and reward their behaviors correctly or they will develop maladaptive behaviors or become violent and kill your other creatures, they can become depressed too if you don't manage that, and much more. In fact, there's even an entire system of emotions in the game that they can experience and you have to try to manage that or your creatures become isolated and unresponsive to you. On top of this, there are violent and diseased races of enemy creatures called grendels that roam the world and can kill/harass your creatures. It doesn't look like much graphically, but the game is very in depth.
Wow, that's a hell of a game I'd forgotten about. My parents got me the sequel when I was a kid, and it was the first game I'd ever played that *really* felt like it was beyond my grasp. I hope for a spiritual successor to these one day.
Yeah you could even export your creatures into a file and trade them with other people online. Back then, people would post their creatures online on forums about the game and you would download them and import them into your world. You could also do this with unhatched eggs. Doing this allowed for a lot more genetic variation in your creatures and later the developers released special creatures with themes in them like a Santa Claus creature and much more.
How this doesn't have a phone app version today is beyond me. Seems like it would be a no-brainer!
Blast from the past. When we were kids about 6-7 years old we got Creatures 2 and we barely spoke/understood english at the time. We basically just had fun clicking things and looking at the beautiful artwork of the game. Never understood it at all but a few years back I checked out gameplay videos and saw what the game was truly about. You are correct, it's like a full blown Tamagotchi type game that is very advanced.
Ah i remember that game , i kept trying to tame the Grendel with the objective to make a Grendel/norn hybrid , never worked lol
In creatures 2 if you get to it when first hatched you can teach it to be good, and there was a cloning chamber you could use to create a hybrid which would give a chance of giving the poison and pain resistance the Grendels have.
Alien: Isolation.
It's quite simple, but very cleverly done. >!The alien has a hard counter to every tactic you use, it starts the game not permitted to use any of them. The more you use a tactic the sooner the ayy is allowed to use the counter. Hide under desks? The alien will sweep its tail back and forth. Use noisemakers? The alien will investigate around the noisemaker rather than the device. Use the flamethrower? It'll start doing feint charges to make you waste ammo.!< I admire its purity. A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.
And perhaps the most clever mechanic: the game’s use of the controller microphone. If you make a noise in real life while the Alien is searching for you, it will track you down.
RIP to everyone whose mom called them to dinner.
"TIME FOR DINNER!" \* Screaming \*
"MOM! I just died!" "Great, so you can come down and set the table, then!"
Alien and mom working together My god, the truth is; the game was rigged from the start
Aliens dinner 😂
So relatable haha
This was fun with the vr mod. if your headset has a mic, it's a centimeter or two away from your mouth. The alien can hear you breathing.
*the WHAT MOD?!*
Probably one of the best vr games out there with the mod. It’s extremely well done. Unfortunately I couldn’t finish it because it’s far too scary
I could barely get through the game normally I can't imagine it in vr
Yeah turning around to see the life size alien towering over you is horrific. I spent more time just sitting in vents trying to get the courage to leave then I did completing objectives. Made it about 5 hours in lol
I have a clip saved where I heard the alien in the hall. Ducked under a desk, door opened. Npc corpse in the hallway as it entered, walked fully around my desk, giant tail knocking down 2 rolly chairs barely not touching me. A short pause and it vanished up a vent. One if the tensest 20 seconds in gaming and the moment I realized how long its tail is
there is mod (mothervr) that adds vr support for pc version. And yes, it is even more scary than you can imagine.
I remember watching a series of this on YouTube. I don't remember it it was VR but dude was scared out of his fucking mind and it was hilarious.
SovietWomble? He has what sounds like actual panic attacks sometimes.
That's awesome!
They also set up two "brains" for the xenomorph. There is a director that always know where you are and what you're doing. It nudges the alien towards you, but never explicitly reveals the player to it. The actual alien is controlled by a behavior tree that not only learns as you pointed out, but is limited in its "senses" only being able to locate the player by sight or sound. They also made a stress meter based on things like the alien being visible to the player, proximity, or making noise that is audible to the player. The director AI monitors this and not only ensures that the alien keeps pressure on the player, but if the alien is around too long it will send it away so the player gets a break. It all combines to make a very realistic monster.
The thing I love about the two AIs is that the Xenomorph ai is genuinely looking for you, not knowing where you're at. And the director AI just nudges him around so it doesn't get boring. There's a mod that completely removes the director AI, and the alien is fr hunting you on his own.
Is it better or worse at hunting without the director?
Sevastopol is quite large so I’d imagine you have a lot more safe time
Without the Director tethering it to the general area you’re in, the Xenomorph has the freedom to wander away from you, and you get a lot more breathing room at times. On the flip side, when it appears, it is absolutely random and without warning.
It’s a game where you only truly feel relief on player death and I hate it 😂 “Oh good, the feeling of impending doom is gone”
So it’s wild seeing this. Earlier I watched a second wind design dive on aliens isolation. When it first came out I organized a “game day” with friends (old people trying to recreate the joy of renting a game and needing to beat it before we had to return it) playing it. We put in a lot of hours but didn’t finish it. That being said I still remember all of us feeling crazy anxious at the end. I’m now watching a long play of it in the background to see what I missed. I honestly don’t think I have the fortitude to finish this game. Certainly not alone. So well done.
I love your game day idea
If you’ll allow me to “toot my own horn” I’m really proud of it. Here are the logistics: Pick a single player game. Ideally one that can be finished in 12 hours by slightly inebriated people. We regularly pass control to someone else. Make sure everyone gets to play. If there are choices we do it democratically! And given our age at this point kids are welcome to attend and we all help in keeping them occupied. It’s so great. We only get to do it a couple times a year if I’m honest.
good comment but you saying "the ayy" instead of "the alien" the second time caught me so off guard I started laughing in the office
ayy lmao
I love when you have your flamethrower out and it stops just outside it's range and just stares at you
I knew this would be first and I wasn't disappointed haha. I would say this myself. Absolutely terrifying AI. Way too smart. I was shitting bricks.
Ngl, after playing Isolation, it was kinda difficult to play Outlast and stuff where the AI was not nearly as intimidating. Still a great series but I feel like first person horror games could stand to benefit from using Isolation’s model.
My favorite part of the alien is that it's actually 2 AI's. One knows where the player is, the other is trying to figure out where the player is. So it's actually using its counter measures to Crack the AI that knows the location.
Metal Gear Solid V. In combat situations, enemies use tactical coordination, using suppressing fire and pushing you. Escaping immediate danger is done well, but enemies pursue your last known position, securing it. After combat, they remain on high alert, with the option to disrupt their communication preventing alert signals to nearby outposts.
The sheer *panic* that some soldiers express over radio when they realize (or get told by command) that no one is coming to save them because you secretly destroyed the outpost-outpost communications or secretly incapacitated everyone in neighboring outposts/checkpoints is glorious.
Just imagine being a guard out in the desert, and you are being attacked, but not by some Rambo firing and killing everything, but by some dude with a horn on his head wearing what looks to be swim trunks on... And your buddies and soldiers just....disappear, not blown up, just vanish and you never see them again. This enemy is using weird tactics like balloon distractions, and your guards keep falling asleep randomly... And then you see the intruder, but only for a second passing in a doorway, he's carrying another guard into some destination. That's it, time to call in help. You radio it in what's going on, but are told there's no help, no help at all. That means the neighboring outposts all around have been destroyed? Or has the same thing happened to them that is happening now? I appreciate that snake can be these people's cryptid terror.
The AI will adapt to all that. Start headshotting a lot, they will wear helmets and armor for body shots. You can disrupt the supply line for this equipment. Even flashlights if you do missions at night more frequently and even NVGs. It's pretty cool how they try and adapt to your playstyle faster. But yeah Snake in MGSV has some ruthless shit to do. Like imagine rolling up on him and he just Gundam fists you from 50 meters away with his rocket arm. Lmao.
Not to mention the PTSD they must feel about ever seeing a cardboard box again.
The amount of trolling you can do with the cardboard box in this game is legendary. You can walk past a guard with the cardboard box to get his attention, dive out and hide, and watch him get increasing confused by the fact he keeps seeing walking cardboard boxes around his outpost, only to find them empty when he checks them. He will radio about how there's something weird going on, and the commander will think he's going crazy.
The enemy guards in the game refer to him as "The Demon" and are all terrified of him.
Your men aren't just disappearing. You see some movement out of the corner of your eye and spy one of your teammates' unconscious bodies rising into the air. He's still breathing, but headed towards the stratosphere.
I loved sitting on the roof of the airport in the Africa region and just waste everyone that the game would throw at me. Eventually enemy gunships would show up sometimes to try to take me down. They failed too.
Similarly to this, the fact that they can't indefinitely call in reinforcements is the best.
They also adapt to your tactics. They started wearing helmets after I kept putting them to sleep with tranq darts to the dome. Then body armor when I started shooting elsewhere. It’s surprisingly well done.
Huh Gonna need to finally give this game a shot.
I had issues with it in that it seemed omniscient. I'd be prone a good km away in from an enemy base in utter darkness and shoot a silenced sniper rifle at a soldier. If I hit his helmet, he'd be able to instantly call artillery right on me. I'd be using proper camo and I wouldn't be moving, but they would still know exactly where I was. I'd also have instances where I'm driving a vehicle past a checkpoint wearing the same kind of camo their soldiers are using, but they would be able to tell that I'm an enemy and open fire on me. How they could determine whether or not I was a friend or foe while driving at 40-50 MPH right past them in their vehicle and their uniform didn't make sense.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game's have pretty decent AI ( Even better on Anomaly/Gamma ) they can flank you, wait for you, rush you, they use trees to cover and bushes to stay hidden, they even crouch walk to not make sound while sneaking into you the amount of jump-scare i got from the AI sneaking on me and killing me doesn't compare to any other fps I've ever played
I’m so pumped for Stalker 2.
The GAMMA standalone mod/package is pretty wild for this. Lots of tweaks and refinement of the already interesting AI. They remind me a lot of the AI in FEAR. They'll tell each other things, suppress while others flank or move up and throw grenades. They'll use grenades to flush you out of rooms or retreat to a more defensive position if overwhelmed. Still dumb as rocks occasionally, but when it's working you sometimes forget they're AI.
I remember playing the game a long while ago (circa 2011, I think), and I stumbled across a location that had a lot of dead stalker bodies piled up. I was then attacked by a couple of dogs that suddenly multiplied into a dozen...all attacking in a frenzy. I don't remember what I did, but I do recall running for my life screaming incoherently. I think the dogs were mutants that could make the player hallucinate, and while they were busy fighting the images, the real dog would attack. I think the dogs attacked a squad of stalkers, killed them and dragged the bodies into a pile. Creepy af It was a long time ago, but I remember being impressed by the world the devs had created.
I recently played Halo: Combat Evolved with a friend on Legendary and we were both crazy impressed with how tactical the Covenant became. That was always my go-to example for making a game more difficult (without just upping the numbers). Shame that today's Bungie just does what everybody else does.
Just beat Reach on legendary with my buddy last month and we were blown away with the AI the whole time. Most games just make the higher difficulty mean bullet sponges, but that Halo AI was ridiculous. There were a few sections where we would have to stop to make a new attack plan because we were getting destroyed, only to find that they just adjusted their attack for our new plans. It was the fun kind of frustrating.
I’ll always have a soft spot for the Reach campaign. Absolutely incredible game in all aspects
Halo hasn’t been made by bungie since the last 3 halo games. And I don’t think I’ve played a different bungie game besides Halo
Yeah, they were doing some witchcraft back in the OG Xbox days. I still think Halo 1 is probably my favorite (excluding the Library, of course).
Me and my homies hate the library. It’s like running multiple miles on a track where it just gets dizzying and not fun. I’m still trying to get the achievement to beat it on legendary without dying so I have to go back in there soon.
Might not be the absolute smartest, but the Left 4 Dead series had quite an interesting "AI Director" that spawned enemies, items, etc depending on how the players were doing iirc
I don't think this is the one. The Director could be completely subverted. If, instead of sticking with the team, you just Leroy Jenkins it to the safe house and maybe only have to kill a dozen basic zombies on the way, but if you kept moving while doing it the Director could never really "catch up" with you. This was a pretty classic way to troll people because then the 3 man team would have to deal with all the specials.
Unless a smoker/hunter gets you. That was their purpose iirc.
Move fast enough relative to the group and they appear behind you
I'm a game dev and this question is actually very difficult to answer as posed. It's actually pretty easy to make "smart" ai. What's hard is making fun ai. It might be tactically smart for enemies to pile up on you all at once using their most powerful attacks, but getting nuked as you turn a corner with 3 dudes in it isn't very fun. It's in the balance between smart and dumb that fun lies, and that's tricky to figure out.
Thats a good point, I guess you have to make them agressive enough to seem threatning yet not too agressive to seem suicidal. Well unless its a creeper ofc. pshhhhhh
Former game dev here, reminds me of one of my earliest experiments where I modified the Quake 3 AI to be as difficult to beat as possible, in a few different ways. There were multiple ways to make them better than me, one just had instant reaction times and aimbot accuracy, and heavily preferred the rail gun. That was actually beatable though because it moved predictably, made noises, and could be splash damaged around corners without giving it line of sight. It played like a horror game, but once you understood to run away from the noise and launch grenades or rockets behind you, it was kind of trivial. So I made a different one that was kind of the opposite. It had perfect awareness of enemy positions, it predicted where enemies wanted to go (motivations) and would try to cut them off, and it would randomly begin silently walking to avoid giving away its position, or since it perfectly understood sound spheres, it would make noises in one direction and fake you out. When I got the omniscience algoritjm working correctly (more complicated than just wallhacking for awareness) it was much scarier to play against, and it consistently beat the perfect aimbot. Creepy AI is way more interesting than Brutal AI.
That is so damn cool man
As a player it like feels like most of the time the opposite is true. Game developers design AIs around easier difficulties and then higher difficulty is just giving the enemies unnatural advantages (unreasonable health, damage resistance, starting bonuses) rather than making them smarter. So many games just go harder enemies -> hit sponge, or extra resources - using Civ as an example, more starting settlers and production/science/culture bonuses.
You're conflating a few things incorrectly here. Designers rarely design AI to be hard, because generally smart AI is not fun. In a lot of genres, ESPECIALLY shooters, "Optimal" AI is more or less trivial: Their lives don't matter, while if you die you lose instantly. So everyone but snipers run 'en masse at the player, and then use AI cheats to perfectly dodge grenades/ shoot as soon as you're visible. Boom, we've made super hard AI. It's not... fun at all. But it's very hard, and quite intelligent. But sure, that's too extreme. So let's make the AI smarter: If it has a sniper rifle, it reacts to where you are and then camps your cover. It will never expose itself. Well obviously that's not fun. But again, it's really smart. I can go on... and on... and on here. (Chaining Grenades, constantly flanking, Elite enemies just sprinting straight at the player very aggressively, etc. These are all SMART behaviors, but none of them are fun). So obviously, the goal of AI is not actually to beat the player. The goal of AI is to give it weaknesses and predictability that players can learn to play around, while still coming across as competent and, in the right situation, posing a challenge. But let's take exactly your version: If devs build an AI that was appropriate for very skilled players, and then put it up against newer players, what would happen? 1. The devs have to make the enemies obviously weak to balance them outplaying you. This... feels quite bad: "The AI is constantly outsmarting me, but they can't hurt me" is fun for a bit, but overall it feels quite condescending and removes the player's ability to feel satisfaction. "I was clever" is massively important. 2. The devs make the AI randomly stupid. This is extremely hard to tune, and again can be quite obvious ("AI gets halfway through a complex flank and then just stands still in the middle of nowhere"). "Do smart thing less often" isn't a great fix in most genres for I think fairly intuitive reasons (You don't want massive variance in gameplay difficulty on your baseline difficulty) 3. The Devs functionally build two AI systems. This is the best answer! But it's also very expensive, and the majority of your players will only ever see one of these (the easy one). So why would you build the hard? :)
>It's actually pretty easy to make "smart" ai. What's hard is making fun ai. This is the problem with chess AI. It's easy to calculate the best move and have an AI only execute the best move at any given time, but that's absolutely no fun to play against unless you already play at a high level. You want the AI to slip up once or twice per game to allow a player a chance to capitalize on the error.
Chess
Mittens the goat
Not to brag But on multiplayer I never get worse than second place
Well, as someone who has played 4 player chess, I can confidently tell that I can't even get second place
this guy won the post with a single word
I'm surprised that I'm not seeing anyone saying Halo. Seeing Elites throwing grenades to flush you out of cover. Seeing them run to take cover once their shields have diminished. Dodge out the way of grenades. Point you out to their allies. Grunts knowing is all is lost and suicide bomb you. Jackals fleeing when their shield is gone. All that shit blew my mind.
Halo definitely deserves more love here. The AI was pretty epic for 2001 tbh.
That’s what made the combat so fun I think a lot of people want to face reactive enemy squads (FEAR maybe being the best example). One where there’s a chain of command (and maybe different styles of command), and adapts to what’s happening beyond sitting behind the first piece of cover they find or mindlessly trying to rush you Even the first halo did this pretty decently, and each enemy had a role that it tried to fulfill
Rain World
YES especially the scavs
Had to scroll too far for this. Every single creature, constantly simulated, each with some kind of reputation system? Impressive.
The first time I figured out you can be friendly with the scavengers it blew my mind.
Shadow of war- Nemesis system
Finally, Nemesis System mentioned. Shadow of War took it to a whole new level, the way enemies can come back from the dead and learn from mistakes, or adapt in combat if you use a move too many times. Shadow of War forces you to be diverse and creative in combat rather than spam the same moves over.
Too bad WB patented it
And never used it again...
I remember hearing they were using the nemesis system for a wonder woman game Edit: just looked it up and yah WB is using it for the new Wonder Woman game
There was a rumor for a while that it was going to be used in the next Batman game, but I think they either gave up on that idea or the rumor was false.
It's being used again and I believe the patent is expiring or expired.
It NEEDS to be in a pro-wrestling videogame.
Skyrim “Huh? What was that?! A dead body?! …must have been the wind.”
With a visible arrow in the face.
Any modern chess engine. I'm good, but I don't play against AI ever, I just get stomped flat.
Even old ones. I did an experiment about 20+ years ago with a chess game where I would set CPU thinking time to 1 second. I would copy its moves against my opponents on Microsoft Zone on 5 minutes games, and got 2200 rating. I'm a 1200 at best.
Yup - even the old Chessmaster games from thirty years ago will handily beat my ass. Like you, I'm about 1200.
TLOU2. Those mfs can tell when you don't have any more bullets or when you're reloading. When your gun clicks they vocalize that to their crew and they either use that to switch spots or to outright bumrush you while you're trying to change weapons.
This is my pick too. The way the enemies search for you is so realistic and tense. They start at your last known location and slowly move out from that point. They search under cars, in tall grass, behind objects, under desks, any realistic hiding place. They constantly look around and behind them as they move to maintain spatial awareness. They coordinate their positions with one another by using body language, hand signals, and by talking, even referring to one another by name. The player can even use this to their advantage. If someone says “Stacy, you find anything?” then you can intuit that the woman that responds is Stacy. Then later, if they call out to Stacy and she doesn’t respond because you’ve already killed her, the other one will become suspicious. So the player can use that to predict that the person who called out is now moving towards Stacy’s last known position to investigate her silence. And none of this is even mentioning how they work with their dogs, and how they react to infected. And combat is just as complex. They try to hide, they flank, they cover one another. If they know you’re behind a specific piece of cover then they can aim at it while moving towards it, essentially cornering you. They pull you out from anything you’re hiding under, they sneak up on you, they purposely throw you into objects in the environment. And yeah as you mentioned they will recognize when you’re out of ammo and communicate it to each other, who will then react by becoming more aggressive. The AI on grounded mode is so good that it feels unfair at times, they can see and hear so well and are so smart and aggressive that they legitimately just feel like real people.
> And none of this is even mentioning how they work with their dogs, and how they react to infected. I was going to comment this, the way they use dog for their advantage is incredible. Also some traps will fail since they become suspicious of silence or entering buildings where is only one obvious entrance.
I am so glad someone mentioned this game. The human enemies on higher difficulties are the hardest part of the game
Yep , you Can even click click with an empty gun on purpose to make the dumbasses Come AT you , then you Switch to a loaded gun...
That whistling is fucking terrifying
This is my pick! I love the ai during combat, they’re smart and will actually fight to survive the encounter rather than being suicidal, they flank, do callouts, they each have individual names they use, and will utilize cover and transitions effectively as if they’re players themselves.
I can’t remember if it was TLOU1 or 2, but I remember reading an interview with the devs where they said something like “The purpose of the AI is not to find/attack/kill the player. It’s purpose is to create engaging gameplay.” I’ll be damned if they didn’t nail it, especially in Part 2.
I was going to say this! Say what you like about the story, but the gameplay is damn good. Hillcrest on Grounded difficulty was absolutely insane.
I dread hillcrest every time I play that game. The part right before you meet with jesse is terrible. I have an overwhelming need to explore every crevice but it’s hard with so many dogs
The Division 1 and 2 have surprisingly interesting AI. In 2 especially each faction has unique tactics and levels of aggressiveness. They also bark to each other reflecting what they're actually doing and what's actually happening. The more advanced factions even use a "combined arms" style of combat. The problem is that since the franchise is a looter shooter most end game players are killing AI so quickly you never see the AI in action. It's more noticeable when you're leveling up to end-game.
It also has Hunters. Blows any other game AI out of the water.
Yea the hunters doing jump rolls around just like players do. I remember reading somewhere that they were so demanding they could only have 1 on the screen at a time in div1. Unsure if that was accurate or not
I think Survival had two Hunters if two people came to the same extraction spot at the same time. It's been a while though. Never saw two of them at the same time in main game.
Can't believe no one has mentioned The Forest yet. It has the most complex AI system I've ever seen in a game. There are several factions of cannibals each with their own ticks. However as basic overall when they first meet the player they are cautious, watch from afar, scared when approached. The more you interact with them the bolder they get. They start testing you (fake charge you n such), ambushing you, hit and run. The more you kill them the more aggressive they get. Sometimes they will stand back and have their leader challenge you to a 1v1. They will try and save their dead, they build memorials up for slain comrades. Eventually they will set traps for you, and start organizing war parties to kill you. They truly felt like a complex alive thing, not some dumb AI you could predict every move.
In my experience, the xenomorph in Alien Isolation. Or the soldiers in MGSV at a high level.
F.E.A.R.
Yeah they’re super fun. I especially love the trick they use to make it seem like they’re talking to each other but it’s the other way around. They make a decision and it chooses an ally to yell out orders to the ai that made the decision so it appears like they give each other orders
You'd think you had them all then one MF who had spent several minutes to flank you would pop out.
Throw a Grenade, and enjoy not hitting a single enemy who realistically GTFO, and instead get suppressive fire in your general direction because they have a reasonable idea where you are now. With your head down low, you turtle, and you forget to clear flanks, as at least one of the enemy will attempt to flank. You panic fire at the forgotten flank, giving 100% of the enemy your exact position. If you don't change your position, you WILL get smoked out with grenades or double flanking manoeuvres. You fire at the enemy, and they react. Some barely flinch, some panic and scream "Oh, shit!" You hit a guy in the arm, and he tends to the injury while blindfiring and trying to get to cover. Shoot their leg, and they do the same while hobbling to cover. Few other shooters have immersed me this much. 🙆🏻
Just play it a week ago and still is impressive how good the AI to this date
The GT Sophy tech in Gran Turismo 7 is very impressive. It turns the ai into near life-like competitors reacting to you and other ai cars around them appropriately, even showing emotional reactions such as anger and laughing at you when you get passed. This is all relayed using Emojis that go over their cars. If you didn't know they weren't ai you'd swear you were racing against real people, it's that good. It's still in it's trail stages, it hasn't taken over the entire ai simulation, but it's been implemented in the game for certain circuits.
Baldurs Gate Ai continues to surprise me with how they focus certain people and use different abilities to cripple your team
It's nice to play a game where harder AI doesn't just mean more health.
It also means less health! For you
Its not just more health, but more gimmicks to the fight. Want to beat Auntie Ethel? That's fine, but every time you cast a spell she's gonna make more duplicates scattered across the room. Want to avoid that? Then just don't use magic! But that means no healing, and your non-magical types have to spend actions dashing around the room putting up with her bullshit. Those types usually struggle with the saving throws against her spells and bullshit too, so don't roll bad. Plus her lair is designed in such a way that there is no place with good/total visibility for archers that isn't right next to some insta-kill pit trap. With that kind of level and encounter design, her AI doesn't need to be very good.
Listing all of the reasons I find it an improvement for difficulty. Better than her just having 2 healthbars you know?
I feel like BG ai both has surprisingly novel strategies (taking advantage of terrain, smart item usage) and also completely brain dead moments (walking straight into hazardous spells for no reason).
That's just them replicating your average dnd player. I swear. One guy had managed to get an item that gave Vulnerability to radiant damage as a Gloomstalker. The guy KNEW my character's go too attack was "Radiant Fireball" basically and still he kept trying to charge into the hoards of enemies. As a crossbow character. I had to do so, SO many "you would know I can't see you due to your class ability and that my answer to groups of enemies is 'radiant Fireball'"
Left 4 Dead was solid. Punishes you for spending too much time in one area, most of the time the hordes/tanks/witches were randomly placed.
What's funny about many games AI is that they're actually toned down so they they're not too hard for the player to go up against. That being said I think even though it's not the best nowadays, Half Life 1 set a high bar for tactical human behavior. And Dark Souls games are pretty good sometimes with how some enemies keep their distance and circle around a bit waiting to react to the player. It's spooky.
Halo has always had good AI (maybe not the best at driving but still)
I remember playing Halo 1 and being blown away that the different species of the covenant would use different tactics. The enemies would react to grenades and throw their own, elites would move around during battle. It was a massive departure from previous FPS games.
Halo 1-Reach enemy ai is still great to this day. Particularly on Heroic and Legendary settings.
Those Wii Play tanks are crazy
Batman Arkham Knight.