My initial rating would have been higher but... (Destiny)

by Kahzgul, Monday, May 04, 2015, 14:40 (3282 days ago) @ scarab

What is it about Destiny enemy AI that bothers you. Are other games any better? What could Bungie improve and how?

I feel like the enemy AI is more of a scripted "run to location X and stay there while doing your pre-scripted behavior" than actual AI, looking at the player, the environment, and figuring out where cover is, coordinating when to press the attack vs. when to hide, calling for help, etc..

I'll use the Omnigul strike as an example. Every single time you run the strike, the encounters are identical. There's always snipers on those three crates. The shanks always spawn in the same places and move right towards you. Get past that point and the wizards always bob and weave behind the big column. The thrall around the corner always sits there until you shoot him or walk past him, etc etc. There's nothing dynamic at all about the AI, and none of it is pro-active. It's all reactive.

Dregs (and Acolytes, which appear to have identical AI) hide behind cover and periodically lean out and shoot you.
Captains stand right in the middle until you shoot them and then they immediately blink to a side.
Wizards bob and weave back and forth, back and forth. They hide if you pop their shields, then go back to bobbin' and weavin'.
Thralls have the "best" AI and that's simply because it makes the most sense. They charge you unless you pop a super and then they back up to hide a bit. Everything about the AI in the game is 100% predictable. That's what makes it bad.

In Halo, the grunts ran right at you, but if you killed one of them sometimes the others would panic and run. The big guys would find cover to shoot from, but if there were 2 or more, one would move to flank you while the other laid down suppressing fire. Grenades would come at you "out of nowhere" because the enemy was smart enough to throw them over barriers at where you were, rather than having to have line of sight on you before throwing as in Destiny. The enemies would hop in vehicles and attack you (instead of only spawning in vehicles and then just leaving empty ones on the ground and ignoring them as in Destiny).

Halo also used the different enemy types to much greater advantage, putting tough melee guys in the front during an encounter and then also having snipers trying to take you out at the same time. In destiny, you're usually put in situations where you're able to clear the snipers before any other enemies are even close enough to distract you. Maybe they get you the first time, but once you know where they are, they're always going to be there and you can take them out with ease.

Basically Halo AI felt much more dynamic, a bit more like bots rather than scripted, mindless targets. Destiny feels like, instead of good AI, they just game "tough" enemies more health and damage to make up for predictable and exploitable behavior.

Halo 2 and 3 also got even more verbs for the AI to perform, from kicking you out of the vehicle you're driving to trying to run you over rather than just shoot. Sure, your allies were awful, but the point is that you're the best soldier in the realm, not that you get to sit back while your dudes kill everyone.

TL;DR awful ally AI makes you feel powerful. Awful enemy AI makes the encounters boring. A game whose main "hook" is replaying missions for chances at loot should have more replay value in its AI.