What's your favorite? Here's my breakdown for F.E.A.R:
F.E.A.R: (extreme difficulty was used)
The AI in F.E.A.R is just f'in incredible. They do things that I have not seen any other games do period. They will use the obligatory tactical crap to hide behind things and whatnot, but unlike other games they will actually look for another spot once they realize they are vulnerable where they are at. They will even find another spot when you have retreated for cover to reload to surprise you or even go around and flank you while their squad mates keep you pinned. One of their neat abilities is the way they use grenades. Sure, we've all seen FPS goons chuck nades around but never with the accuracy of the replica dudes in F.E.A.R. They may for instance spot you without you even realizing it and toss a surprise nade at you ending your game immediatly or they will toss a nade to flush you out in the open so their squadmates can destroy you. This is a level of teamwork that is not seen even in online games(pub games anyway).
One thing that really shocked me one day when I was playing the water plant level was when I came upon a replica guard. The guy really surprised me and we were staring at each other for like a half second. As soon as I reacted the guard followed suit and a quick fire fight ensued. It was almost as if he was as confused and as shocked as I was from our meeting. This is the kind of thing I normally only experience in online games when I am not sure if the guy I wanna plug is a teammate or not.
Replica guards use communication to their advantage as well. This is painfully obvious when you play the game though so I won't mention much about it. One thing that is really neat about the AI is the way they detect you. They will use sight, sound, shadows etc to spot you. Busting out a window will cause them to search the area where the glass was broken while loud footsteps on concrete are an easy way to give away your position.
The coolest thing about them though is the way they navigate through the levels. When you first discover a guard, they follow a scripted path. However, when they spot you their AI kicks in and they will search every nook and cranny of the level to put you down. One thing that Monolith really did to raise the bar in AI was keeping them from getting stuck on physics objects and doors. They will use larger physics objects as a cover and contrary to popular belief, these sequences are not scripted. The guards ARE positioned in the appropriate spots to knock over stuff, however I have found through many hours of playing that they will use any useful object they can find for cover once you drag them out from the areas they spawn in. Shame on any developer that has crap AI in their game from now on.
All in all, I believe F.E.A.R has the best AI in any game to date. The level of intelligence in the AI makes it seem like you are playing an online game with real humans. For the power of the AI to be truly realized, you must unbind your slowmo key and play through like a traditional FPS game. The AI is really gimped when you go into slow motion and it sort of ruins the whole thing for me despite how cool it looks and sounds.
F.E.A.R: (extreme difficulty was used)
The AI in F.E.A.R is just f'in incredible. They do things that I have not seen any other games do period. They will use the obligatory tactical crap to hide behind things and whatnot, but unlike other games they will actually look for another spot once they realize they are vulnerable where they are at. They will even find another spot when you have retreated for cover to reload to surprise you or even go around and flank you while their squad mates keep you pinned. One of their neat abilities is the way they use grenades. Sure, we've all seen FPS goons chuck nades around but never with the accuracy of the replica dudes in F.E.A.R. They may for instance spot you without you even realizing it and toss a surprise nade at you ending your game immediatly or they will toss a nade to flush you out in the open so their squadmates can destroy you. This is a level of teamwork that is not seen even in online games(pub games anyway).
One thing that really shocked me one day when I was playing the water plant level was when I came upon a replica guard. The guy really surprised me and we were staring at each other for like a half second. As soon as I reacted the guard followed suit and a quick fire fight ensued. It was almost as if he was as confused and as shocked as I was from our meeting. This is the kind of thing I normally only experience in online games when I am not sure if the guy I wanna plug is a teammate or not.
Replica guards use communication to their advantage as well. This is painfully obvious when you play the game though so I won't mention much about it. One thing that is really neat about the AI is the way they detect you. They will use sight, sound, shadows etc to spot you. Busting out a window will cause them to search the area where the glass was broken while loud footsteps on concrete are an easy way to give away your position.
The coolest thing about them though is the way they navigate through the levels. When you first discover a guard, they follow a scripted path. However, when they spot you their AI kicks in and they will search every nook and cranny of the level to put you down. One thing that Monolith really did to raise the bar in AI was keeping them from getting stuck on physics objects and doors. They will use larger physics objects as a cover and contrary to popular belief, these sequences are not scripted. The guards ARE positioned in the appropriate spots to knock over stuff, however I have found through many hours of playing that they will use any useful object they can find for cover once you drag them out from the areas they spawn in. Shame on any developer that has crap AI in their game from now on.
All in all, I believe F.E.A.R has the best AI in any game to date. The level of intelligence in the AI makes it seem like you are playing an online game with real humans. For the power of the AI to be truly realized, you must unbind your slowmo key and play through like a traditional FPS game. The AI is really gimped when you go into slow motion and it sort of ruins the whole thing for me despite how cool it looks and sounds.
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