Best A.I. In Games

I know it's been stated before but I'm playing F.E.A.R for the first time almost 10 years after it came out and the AI is blowing me away. Self preservation, enemies will split up and attack at the same time, etc. It seemed a point of pride for developers that was abandoned as online became more prominent. What are some other games with great AI?

Halo - on higher difficulties the enemies are geniuses.

I miss seeing enemies attacking one another. Like Far Cry 3 had some wonderful random animal attacks. But outside of that I just think most AI feels like Serious Sam without the charm.

I heard RAGE has some pretty innovative A.I.. I imagine that Titanfall will have some advanced A.I. similar to enemies in RAGE to be able to pathfind all that shit. What else? [Looks at steam list] Alyx Vance is always an impressive character even back in hl2 (2004 (Christ that was 10 years ago!)); Elizabeth (2013) is an advancement of the same things that Alyx was good for.

Black & White apparently.

I just started playing Just Cause for some reason, so... NOT Just Cause. I remember hearing that the AI in No One Lives Forever was pretty great, at least at the time, but I've yet to play it myself so hopefully someone else can confirm/deny that.

Though I personally haven't played it, but whenever a thread like this crops up F.E.A.R. is always brought up pretty consistently.

F.E.A.R. is probably the pinnacle of AI in action games, even today. The last game I remember where it was obvious the enemies where not just following a complex scripting module.

Black & White was innovative because it used a non standard method of programming the AI of the deities, but it wasn't that interesting from a gameplay perspective.

Halo games have generally pretty good AI in my opinion, just don't let your allies drive.

I still occasionally play UT2k4 bot matches on the highest difficulty levels, even Godlike gets pretty predictable after a point but it's never boring or easy. 3 wasn't too shabby in that regard but gross otherwise.

Maybe I played FEAR too conservatively to notice the AI tricks, I just remember a lot of slow-mo from behind a corner, controlled bursts and retreats to somewhere they can't flank me.

The Last of Us on higher difficulties has AI that makes avoiding combat at all costs rewarding in a way no other game has managed.

Resident Evil 4, in its time at least, had remarkable AI as well. That opening village scene though.

Killzone 2 for FPS, RE4 for 3rd person shooters, Dark Souls for action RPGs. Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance for RTS and Heroes V for strategy games. The AI is excellent in VP2 and Vagrant Story but in a different sort of way that's hard to compare on a linear level.

Metal Gear Solid, since 2, has been pretty amazing. Not only the way they search rooms but how they react physically to you and each other, like being unable to shoot if they're wounded, or limping and running away. Lots of cool stuff. Holding up guards? Scaring them by pointing a gun at their groin/head? Holding them up? Interrogating them? They're difficult enough on Hard and Extreme that they need to be avoided, but mostly it's their interactivity that makes them Great AI. Pretty sure they can spot you by your shadow too, which is kinda nuts.

@geraltitude: MGS 2 introduced one of the coolest mechanics in regards to enemy ai, which was clearing. Hiding in a room and having a little video of the guards clearing the room I was hiding in made the game so incredibly tense. Both FEAR and MGS games have one thing that makes their ai seem so good: they work in groups and most importantly, communicate in groups.

Most games have really good, advanced ai. But the sound direction isn't there, and it just seems like a group of robots walking around. Making the ai yell out orders, say commands, announce movements, and interact with each other is what makes ai good, at least for shooters.

A.I. War, anybody...? I hear the A.I. for that's good. Also very unforgiving.

That's a great observation. The way the MGS guards signal to each other and watch each other's backs was definitely a "wow" moment. You really get the feeling all the guards in MGS are connected, or talking, one way or another.

Do they count, though? It seems their impressive moments are outside battle rather than within it. It's more to do with scripting than AI.

MGS AI might appear to be smart but apart from a few of the bosses the whole point of the game is how stupid they are.

Gal Civ 2?

The top of my head when I think good AI I think Halo. Each enemy type reacts differently to the player in a unique way. Enemies will flank you or throw grenades together when you're just hiding in one spot. Whoever writes the code for the AI in Halo games deserves a medal. Now if only the marines and other allies would act this way...

For whatever reason I've always been impressed with the AI in Forza 2. Each AI driver seemed to have their own personalities. Some would keep a good distance away from you while others seemed to breathe down your neck and brake late on turns. Even amongst the community there was an inside joke of the AI driver Rossi who always seemed to be leading the pack and was the driver least likely to screw up and more likely to spin you out.

Fear 1 had some pretty terrific AI as well for an FPS, probably rivaling Halo's. Firefights in that game were always a blast.. but sooo hard.

FEAR 1 is still the pinaccle of AI , dont know why developers cant take a look at that game and do it again (heck even monolith couldn´t in other FEAR games) :/

God, I can't think of a game with better AI than FEAR.

HEY NEXT GEN, CAN WE GET A PRETTY VERSION OF THAT!?!? *points at a FEAR firefight in an office complex, slow mo shotgu blastss and gibs flying through the air and a creepy Japanese girl crying and masturbating in the corner*

Actually, you know what? Nevermind, FEAR was pretty enough for me.

Also, that new Alien game, Alien: Isolation (?), they are talking about some pretty interesting things with the Alien AI in that, with it using simulated senses to hunt you. We'll have to see how that plays out.

i remember reading an article about skyrim that each npc will lead an almost realistic life, that if you followed this guy he would sneak out of the house on wednesdays to go have an affair in the middle of the night, its so unnecessary but pretty impressive if its true, most player will never even know what those crazy npc's get up to in skyrim but i bet there are some hillarious gems in there, somewhere

Rage had some of the most fun to play against AI in any game I've played recently. Too bad that game as a whole was pretty boring.

Halo is all I can think of, AI has not made enough improvement in the last 10 years, it's a shame.

If we're talking FPS: Half-Life 1, F.E.A.R, the Halo series, and good ole' NOLF are historic stand-outs for me.

I think Half-Life 2's AI's pretty good now too, key word "now", as it took a lot of cumulative and retroactive patching (and engine advancements from Episode 1/2) to really make it something engaging.

FEAR had mindblowing AI, even compared to Halo.

The enemy AI in the Halo series has always been great. They don't just stand there and shoot. They actually try to avoid getting hit and dive out of the way of grenades. It's pretty amazing what Bungie pulled off back in 2001.

The Half Life 2 AI is also pretty good, but the real AI star of those games is Alex.

The Elizabeth AI from Bioshock Infinite is also great in that she actually finds useful things for you when you're in combat.

Doesn't she just randomly spawn money, health and ammo? The only thing I ever saw her actually scout out as far as resources were lockpicks, which are inexplicably the only things she can't pick up herself.

@zalrus9: Hell yea A.I. War! A lot of it depends on the AI "personalities" that basically dictate how they act. Like one might overreact to every little thing you do, sending hundreds of units, or another might have a unique system of teleporting units directly to your planets. On top of that they all pretty much react to everything you do,like moving forces when they feel "threatened" at on a planet. My favorite is when they would send quick raiding parties to your bases, immediately after moving your fleet off of that planet. Its pretty crazy! And extremely hard! Though its sometimes hard to tell when they're truly being smart since the odds are always stacked against you.

@lackingsaint: Every time I found myself low on salts, ammo, or health during combat she always found those things. Yeah, out of combat, she doesn't do a whole lot valuable, but I'm specifically mentioning her AI programming in combat scenarios.

SWAT 4 definitely needs to be mentioned. The bots are randomly placed each time you restart the level, they can navigate large parts of the map and don't just all wait in the same room until you shoot them or they shoot you, they're capable of some incredible behaviors like pretending to give up their gun and then drawing another weapon.

Check vs Mate

Chess games always have the most brutal of AI

@meaninoflife42: That's not the AI doing that, when you run low on whatever she's scripted to toss you stuff. When a dramatic moment happens she's also scripted to toss you a coin and say "money" afterward; masterful direction.

Glad to see SWAT 4 was mentioned!
As a few have said, the Halo series has pretty damn good AI at higher difficulties.
The AI in Rage was fun to fight as well.

I was gonna say FEAR before I opened this thread. I also think that Half-Life 2 had some great A.I. that varied a lot based on the enemy you were facing.

Still hoping that advancing tech will help boost AI to semi-believable levels in the near future rather than simply have enemies responding to a bunch of scripts.

This is one of the things I wanna see improve in this new generation. AnywY up to this point Id definitely say fear is still the most impressive fighting those dudes felt like you were scheming against other human players which is what we should be going for. Last of Us can do some neat things too with both the humans and infected. Also I think I saw someone mention rage and I would agree with that. I remember the ai being pretty dynamic, especially some of the mutants that would traverse the environment to get to you extremely well. Dodging your gunfire and attacks

We've had an entire generation of consoles and we can still only point to a 2005 PC game, later ported to consoles, as "the best AI in video games". You'd think that things would be at least on par with that game by now. RAGE was pretty good. Halo's is good, but doesn't seem to have changed much since the first one.

FEAR has more of script based AI, so (patched) STALKER wins this one.

I bet the new metal gear solid games will be crazy.

Dr. Sbaitso.

There is something to be said for AI that has almost human like flaws. I've been playing NBA 2k14 against the AI a lot lately (because the servers are always down...) and while they are intelligent it is almost to much. Old school chess games and fighting games have the same issues frequently, where the computer can makes decisions on the fly that a human never would be able to. I recall the last Fight Night having boxers come in with different gameplans, styles, etc.

Yeah, F.E.A.R. always comes up in these topics. And Halo's AI is nice and varied to keep you coming back.

I used to have a go-to list but I'm sleepy.

The A.I. in DotA 2 is sort of impressive. Actually, I'm pretty amazed it works at all. Mostly because it's such a team focused game and it looks like they actually work together during attacks. Programming that kind of teamwork musta been ridiculously difficult.

F.E.A.R. made me work for my victories much harder than other games, so I'm gonna have to vote for that as well.

Halo's AI is impressive? That's news to me. I've never seen them do anything but stand in place, shooting at you as you shoot them. Maybe they'll try run around your side now and then, but that never really works because running around the side is only half the tactic of flanking.

Haven't played in far too long, but yeah. The AI is pretty great in AI War.

I also agree with the people saying Halo and Half Life 2. Those always felt pretty good.

Halo's (C.E.'s at least) was half decent on the hardest setting. Nothing compared to FEAR or anything, but not too bad overall.

shit i may have to try FEAR now.

Yep. I saw the question, and first thing that popped into my head was F.E.A.R. At least for a shooter, F.E.A.R. is it. They're not hard to take out, but they know when to fall back, climb ladders, use cover, make cover, work together, jump off from higher places, see your flashlight, call out your exact position and so on. They were what made the first F.E.A.R. intense to me on hard, to walk around the environments.

I also just love shooting them, it's probably my favorite of any shooter: the feel of shooting the Replica's, and their reactions to it all is impressive as well. I had wished CELL in Crysis 2, and even three were similar, but they were the total opposite, making them some of the worst A.I. I've ever faced, not necessarily in how it feels to shoot them, but just how dumb they are. In three, they're better, which was great news to me, but they still weren't great.

No, Halo's A.I. is good. The Brutes; and Grunts, not as much, but the Elites, especially in Reach and in four, they will dive, get cover, and side step away from your shots. It is impressive, and on Legendary, can make it so you have to make up a strategy to kill them, especially for the fact that they regain shields if you don't put enough bullets in them.