Best A.I. In Games

A.I. War Fleet Command.

I think EDI and Cortana are both great.

I'll stick up for Red Faction Guerrilla purely because it could take advantage of damaged buildings by using edges as cover or holes as pathways, and (I think?) deal okay with general debris and not give up at the first wonky block. Not terribly tactical otherwise, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't damage things specifically for that, but the former was just as likely a game decision than flaw.

I could be entirely mis-remembering it though.

@ravey said:

That review seems a bit misleading, No One Lives Forever AI would take cover and push over tables to create cover which I recall being fairly unique at the time, they tended to stick to the first piece of cover they found though and didn't react that well to your movements. I also don't recall them being that bullet spongy on normal difficulty, I remember them going down pretty fast with a pistol unless they were a boss.

Goldeneye is the one with kamikaze rushing enemies, the death sequences of blood flowing down the screen as multiple enemies rush in to hump me in the face are too seared into my memory to forget that. I always liked their behaviours when they were unaware of you but as soon as they were aware of you they would just run towards you until you were in their line of sight and in range. You could never escape them and if an alarm was going off the newly spawned AI would magically find you. Funnelling them through choke points was always pretty effective. Perfect Dark was a little better but still pretty similar.

I always thought Facade had pretty amazing AI. The two characters were pretty good at perceiving what you were typing to them or at least good at faking it when they couldn't parse it.

@bdhurkett: You could definitely mess with the AI in Guerilla, its most auspicious aspect was being able to shoot you from a mile away with an assault rifle.

+1 for Rage.

A.I. eats up so much processor juice I think which is why its usually simple but in Rage it was fun because enemies would flank you, take cover etc. etc.

I'd play a RAGE 2 where its like Wolfenstein (remake), Rage, etc. but the main focus is crazy awesome A.I. instead of set pieces or physics simulation.

Thats why I think its bullshit when you hear studio execs talk about "the end of single player".

I agree with the OP about FEAR.

I also think when it came out, Far Cry's AI was pretty stand out to me and sticks in my mind. No AI had worked like that before and been there to really manipulate in the way you could in that game. They really seemed to use squad tactics.

At the time Metal Gear Solid 2 had some great, almost scary(in the sense of tension to the player) A.I in their use of tactics and the whole radio thing. But once you peek at it, it's noticeable on how predictable and easily it can be abused.

Also how dumb they are (peeks in to a room full of tall boxes, only looks left then right, "Clear!").

MGS2 AI is only smart in the alert phase. Out of it, enemies are dumb like any other stealth game.

It's not of the 'best' category per say but some of the monster a.i. in the first two Dead Spaces could be pretty good sometimes, enemies would actually pop in and out of the vents to ambush you and not just *only* as a set piece to scare you once but actually as a tactic, there is this one enemy that screeches really loud and will hide behind boxes and try to scurry around them to ambush you, and if you back yourself into a safe corner/bottle neck they might avoid you all together until you came out into the open a bit more. Sometimes their patterns became predictable though so that's why maybe not the 'best'.

I've been replaying FEAR as well, and man... how is this not the standard for FPS AI?

I love that I've played through this game four times, and basic Replicant grunts can still kick my ass if I'm not paying attention. I swear, they still pull tactics I haven't seen before. It's not perfect, of course; I often throw grenades and watch the enemies run *towards* them, even if it's blatantly obvious where said grenades have gone. But despite little quirks like that, nobody has matched FEAR's combat yet. Such a shame that the franchise went in the direction it did... even 2, which I loved, felt like a pale imitation.

Glados

I GOT IT DAMMIT I'LL GO BUY AND PLAY FEAR >:(

Half-Life 2?

oblivion had the most funny ai...example

guard completly slices someone to death, he walks in a circle and checks the body, SOMEONE'S BEEN MURDERED!!