Attention Troopers!
I admire all Branches of Service. I'm a war game strategist, and badass military gamer!
I have what I think is a very important observation about the AI in most first person and third person shooters for both console and PC platforms. Game franchise blockbusters like Call Of Duty, Ghost Recon, and Rainbow 6, feature hard hitting action, engaging story and characters that we become invested and attached to. With systems like the XBOX 360, PS 3, Wii, Wii U, and now soon coming XBOX ONE and PS 4, the hardware, software, and list of games, movies available to each system grows more astounding each year.
Vast improvements in graphics, hardware, and amazing fluidity of gameplay, have not prevented a constant and reoccurring fatal flaw in the production of most military based games, which is, the artificial intelligence programming. More specifically the AI soldiers and fellow troopers who fight along side YOU the gamer in a squad effort are sub standard. The AI of the friendly troops who fight along side you in the games are not as well programmed as the enemy AI. Whether it was intentional or an oversight, it diminishes and frustrates the experience of the gamer and gives a one sided advantage to your computer controlled enemy.
In the following games I noticed this similar pattern with all of them: Medal Of Honor 1 and 2 WarFighter, nearly all of the Call Of Duty franchise, Rainbow 6 Vegas 1 and 2, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, The Mass Effect trilogy, and the HALO saga.
Example: I was playing Modern Warfare 2 the other day and noticed a few things. The enemy AI is a lot more aggressive and knows when it has an advantage and pushes that advantage in your face. When I gained the advantage and pushed forward on the stage I was playing, there was an ambush waiting for me around the corner and I knew it. I pressed the attack after using a couple of flashbangs expecting my team to be behind me and back me up. When I turned real quick to see how many were with me no one was there! I survived the ambush thankfully and went back to see what was the hold up and I saw the stupidest thing!!!! My ENTIRE SQUAD including SOAP, GHOST and three other TF 141 members were all behind cover and shooting at one guy! They wouldn't advance any further until this one tango was dead. I was able to slip past him and thought surely they would have killed him and caught up by now. Plus the cover that he had was a fence with BIG GAPS in it and he was in cover and could have been easily shot, through the gap in the fence. Now think for a sec....an entire squad of spec ops soldiers were shooting at one guy in bad cover and couldn't kill him after two whole minutes!!!! I went back and killed him and then they moved up. That was an inexcusable lack of programming! Where was the game tester on that one? Other examples are: running right passed an enemy soldier instead of taking him out, friendly AI smart one part of the stage and dumb the next: Example: I was advancing toward the enemy with GHOST and died 3 times in a row because GHOST took cover on the right side and I expected him to take out the two enemy soldiers in front of him and take care of his AOR (Area Of Responsibility) in that firefight. Instead I was shot dead twice and the third time one of the enemy soldiers actually ran up to me, hit me with his rifle and killed me. Another time, I was shot in the back and killed. The camera then turned to show who killed me. My two team mates who were right there and supposed to cover me, had weapons pointed at my killer but did not shoot. They did not shoot the enemy until after I was shot and killed. I believe this is a big flaw in the programming.
In another stage, the programming of my squad mates suddenly increased and they started fighting like real soldiers. My team killed every enemy they saw, advanced right with me, covered each of their sectors beautifully, and when the enemy threw a grenade, a squad mate threw it back before it exploded. This is a welcome but rare response from my programmed team mates. Too often, my gaming experience has been, my squad would not have responded and would have allowed the grenade to explode and kill the whole squad. The AI regressed back to being incompetent in the next section of the stage.
Maybe the the game developers and programmers did this on purpose. They want you the gamer, the player to feel like the hero, the center of the story, instrumental in moving the story along as you play a key character, like "Yuri" in Modern Warfare 3. The AI soldiers who fight with you represent real people who make real mistakes and I get that dynamic, but the inconsistent fighting ability of your AI troopers is still frustrating.
Alright Troopers! That is the intel I have on this section with more to come in the following weeks.
Sound off below in the comments section to add anything else and let me know the subjects you want to discuss next briefing. DISMISSED!!!
