Lunchtime Discussion: AI

Artificial intelligence is often overlooked when talking about what makes a game great, but it’s crucial to the whole experience. Think how many times you’ve been disappointed by a game because of poor enemy performance, it was certainly one of the few let downs in Batman: Arkham Asylum. You want enemies to react, co-operate and adapt, but all too often they only react briefly before returning to their pre-set positions or route.

The first time I was genuinely amazed by a game’s AI was when I saw the previews for Metal Gear Solid 2. Not only did the enemies react when you entered their field of view, but they reacted to your shadow, to the sounds you made, to the loss of other enemies. They changed patrol patterns and investigated collaboratively. Before that game I’d never really given a second thought to AI, but MGS2 showed me just how good it could be. For me, personally, it was a huge revolution in the AI in games, not just another evolution as most games seem to be.

It seems sad that few other games in the last 9 years have achieved the same level of detail in their AI. Given how graphics, storytelling, sound design and pretty much every other aspect of games has come forwards leaps and bounds since the release of Metal Gear Solid 2, it seems that AI should have followed the same trend. Disappointingly a large number of games still seem to suffer from poor AI. Take my earlier example, Batman: Arkham Asylum. That game had incredible design in almost every other area, but the enemy AI was pretty poor in my opinion. Enemies would react, but in an incredibly predictable way, and every boss fight was so scripted as to make it almost child’s play – the only one that I even found slightly challenging was Poison Ivy. Man I hate Poison Ivy.

So what’s your opinion on AI? What games do it well? What games do it poorly? What techniques work well for making enemies seem real? Is it how they react? The way the work together? Do any games feature pro-active AI where they actually hunt you instead of just being hunted?

Thanks to manorhowze for suggesting this particularly interesting topic. Have your own suggestion for a topic? Head over here to make it known.