There are a lot of complaints out there about how the friendly AI in Halo Reach is garbage and how you have to do all the shooting (playing the game) as of late.
 
I suppose this could be a problem as it is with some other games out there, but for whatever reason, I have not noticed this behavior with the rest of the noble six squad in my current push to get through the campaign on heroic. Most people say the AI doesn't really shoot at anything and really isn't any help, but I disagree. There have been many instances where another squad mate, or a group of marines, have really saved my ass. 
 
Take that one mission "Nightfall" where at the end you're defending that spot with Jun or whoever when they drop two hunters on you along with some cloaked dudes. The cloaked ones were easy enough to deal with, but fuck those hunters all the way to hell. Eventually I was able to lure those godforsaken creatures over by Jun where he immediately began firing on the things. They were distracted, and I saw that as a chance to go to town. Unfortunately, one hunter turned towards me and picked me as a suitable target. It was go time, and I had to get some distance between that other hunter, so I lured the one that I was dealing with further away which took a little time. 

 There are a lot of complaints out there about how the friendly AI in Halo Reach is garbage and how you have to do all the shooting (playing the game) as of late.
 
I suppose this could be a problem as it is with some other games out there, but for whatever reason, I have not noticed this behavior with the rest of the noble six squad in my current push to get through the campaign on heroic. Most people say the AI doesn't really shoot at anything and really isn't any help, but I disagree. There have been many instances where another squad mate, or a group of marines, have really saved my ass. 
 
Take that one mission "Nightfall" where at the end you're defending that spot with Jun or whoever when they drop two hunters on you along with some cloaked dudes. The cloaked ones were easy enough to deal with, but fuck those hunters all the way to hell. Eventually I was able to lure those godforsaken creatures over by Jun where he immediately began firing on the things. They were distracted, and I saw that as a chance to go to town. Unfortunately, one hunter turned towards me and picked me as a suitable target. It was go time, and I had to get some distance between that other hunter, so I lured the one that I was dealing with further away which took a little time. 

I have never seen a single one of my squad members actually kill anything (Cept for when they are on vehicles). I think they suck. Only thing they are good for? Is a distraction.

I once watched Jorge get punched by a Gold Elite for two whole minutes before I got in a Warthog and left him there for the rest of the mission. I don't know what game you played but I would love to have the version where your allies do anything whatsoever.

I just finished first mission on Legendary and now I just let them do all the work with the occasional grenade and PP charge to drop their shields but they can be supreme boneheads. During the Exodus mission, they literally stood there doing nothing while I had to turn on the AA batteries I mean, they can't fire one measly bullet to help me out?
 
Only thing I don't like is they have this weird habit of walking to weird places like they ran up a hill when we had to assault one of the bases and I was like "where the hell you going?"

I noticed the AI actually being pretty useful on my heroic playthrough also. 
 
Maybe Bungie just added a rand() to the friendly AI as a joke.

"They still stand around and refuse to enter vehicles routinely though:(. "

"Only thing I don't like is they have this weird habit of walking to weird places like they ran up a hill when we had to assault one of the bases and I was like "where the hell you going?" "

" I noticed the AI actually being pretty useful on my heroic playthrough also.  Maybe Bungie just added a rand() to the friendly AI as a joke. "

I don't have Reach yet, fucking gamefly. I have been hearing a lot of flak about the AI though (especially Kat's driving ability). Maybe a lot of folks are like me in that I say for instance you have to defend a point against multiple sources of intrustion and maybe you have 2 allies. I would love the 2 AI to kill most of what's coming at them but just be inept enough to have to run over and fire over their shoulder to take out the scragglers to keep the action going. 
 
From playing most recently Halo 3 about the only fond memory of the AI is they could kick some ass if you gave them the Spartan Laser in the passenger seat and you drove.

"(especially Kat's driving ability)."

Friendly AI is always going to be tricky. If they contribute too much, then you have a situation where the player can just sit behind a rock while the allies take care of everything. I've found that they've struck a pretty good balance between occasionally scoring a kill without being able to do much to a large group. 
 
If you want to talk about abysmally stupid people, talk about the civilians in the city mission. They don't seem to understand that getting shot is something to be avoided. 

" I feel like there are points when the games asks a lot of the player, and the AI contributes somewhat to be sure, but perhaps not to the level a lot of players would like/expect.  "

" Friendly AI is always going to be tricky. If they contribute too much, then you have a situation where the player can just sit behind a rock while the allies take care of everything. "

I suppose this is what I was getting at. There seems to be a really fine line when it comes to you taking control of the situation rather than being led. I feel like you are doing a lot of shooting, but the other dudes on the field are doing exactly what they are meant to be doing which is support.   You don't want those guys stealing all your kills right? "

On my heroic play-through they were eff-ing useless. They couldn't drive, and 90% of the time they just stoood there and got shot. At one point of was being attacked by four elites and all my squad mate did was stand way back and do nothing.

"You don't want those guys stealing all your kills right? "

" @wolf_blitzer85 said:

"You don't want those guys stealing all your kills right? "

Yes and no. There was at least one time where a teammate got a hunter kill and I was pretty bummed, but at the same time I found it awesome that I was getting points for the AI getting kills using the warthog turret while I drove. Maybe some assist badges would help. "

I played through on heroic and saw the AI kill some stuff, but they never seemed up to the par of a competent Spartan. But it's Halo, I expected this going in, so I didn't give a shit, I just ignored teammates until I needed them to play gunner on my vehicle. 

Get ready for the easiest AI tip in the game that you probably already know:  Find a heavy weapon (jackhammer tubes or something).  Once you find a warthog in a driving spot, give it to a random marine, let him sit in the passenger seat, and enjoy unlimited heavy weapon destruction against all your foes.  makes the driving portions kick-ass even on higher difficulties.