F.E.A.R.’s AI Is Still the Best in First-Person Shooters

It’s been years since I played F.E.A.R. so I’m not sure if this guy is right, but he claims that the enemies you encounter in this game are still some of the smartest ever. As described, the AI doesn’t actually sound all that radical: they’re merely smart enough to communicate with one another and flank you based on your cover. Has the last decade’s worth of FPS games really innovated so little in terms of enemy intelligence?

…movement isn’t just random, either. Enemies are aggressive, and will actively hunt you down in packs. More than once I’ve died because an enemy simply ran over to my cover position and shot me mid-reload, before I even knew they were there. What’s most remarkable is the simplicity of the system behind the AI, as revealed by Jeff Orkin, senior engineer at Monolith productions, way back in a 2006 GDC presentation. The team had just one AI programmer, and so designed a ‘planning’-based system that lets the AI soldiers think for themselves.

Megalith said:

Has the last decade’s worth of FPS games really innovated so little in terms of enemy intelligence?

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Yes.

I am being actively flanked and dual flanked with changes in cover in Mass Effect Andromeda. I'm not saying its the best ever but it is far better than I am used to seeing.

Wildlands is flanking and moving as well but not doing it quite as good but they are definitely reactive.

Yeah...with the "MP only" focus these days, it seems like companies have forgotten (or don't care) how to make good AI anymore.

FPS and innovation is an oxymoron these days. For the most part they feel like they went backwards and are now slowing bringing things back to the unreal tournament level.

Little example:

80's no jumping, 10 weapons, power ups, health packs

Early 90's jumping, 10 weapons, power ups, health packs

Late 90's Double jumping, 10 weapons, jet packs, jump pads, power ups, health packs

early 2000's, single jumping, no power ups, 2 weapons, health packs.

2010's, single jump and no jumping, no power ups, regenerating health.

Today, double jumping returning, 2-4 weapons, some health packs, some power ups.

Realistic AI would remove the feeling of superiority players generally like to have. There has to be a balance of giving the player a challenge but not creating a situation where the player just quits out of frustration or boredom. I'll admit that I have quit playing FEAR multiple times after trying to play through it due to that feeling of power being taken away, even after trying to change tactics to suit a given situation. It ultimately felt like I was just wasting my time. I've matured with age, however, and feel there needs to be more "smart" AI as in FEAR to create a challenge rather than arbitrarily increasing enemy damage and health while at the same time decreasing player damage and health.

Armenius said:

Realistic AI would remove the feeling of superiority players generally like to have. There has to be a balance of giving the player a challenge but not creating a situation where the player just quits out of frustration or boredom. I'll admit that I have quit playing FEAR multiple times after trying to play through it due to that feeling of power being taken away, even after trying to change tactics to suit a given situation. It ultimately felt like I was just wasting my time. I've matured with age, however, and feel there needs to be more "smart" AI as in FEAR to create a challenge rather than arbitrarily increasing enemy damage and health while at the same time decreasing player damage and health.

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Are you honestly complaining that FEAR didn't make you feel powerful enough? The game with maybe the best shotgun in an FPS of all time? And a spike gun that could nail people to the wall?

HA, I don't think FEAR is the issue here.

That said, Yes, there has been very little done with AI in the past decade or two.

Armenius said:

Realistic AI would remove the feeling of superiority players generally like to have. There has to be a balance of giving the player a challenge but not creating a situation where the player just quits out of frustration or boredom. I'll admit that I have quit playing FEAR multiple times after trying to play through it due to that feeling of power being taken away, even after trying to change tactics to suit a given situation. It ultimately felt like I was just wasting my time. I've matured with age, however, and feel there needs to be more "smart" AI as in FEAR to create a challenge rather than arbitrarily increasing enemy damage and health while at the same time decreasing player damage and health.

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I don't know if Fear's ai was that smart, in fact I think it's 'smarts' was an accident if I remember correctly. it is really easy to break the AI in Fear, my play style tends to be very aggressive (I hate cover heavy fighting like GOW) I found getting in the face of FEAR's enemies broke their AI, they didn't react properly at all, making every encounter a cake walk. The one time I did sit still I was impressed they flanked me, but then I just charged em and they broke again.

Personally I blame competitive gaming for most of the current stagnation in the industry. How can you do something crazy and outside the box when your constantly working to create 'balance', simply put you cannot, everything just ends up being a slight reskin of everything else, with homogenized traits that make it easy for a dev to modify stat lines in pursuit of that perfect balance.

A F.E.A.R. remake with Modern visuals would be amazing.

Armenius said:

Realistic AI would remove the feeling of superiority players generally like to have. There has to be a balance of giving the player a challenge but not creating a situation where the player just quits out of frustration or boredom. I'll admit that I have quit playing FEAR multiple times after trying to play through it due to that feeling of power being taken away, even after trying to change tactics to suit a given situation. It ultimately felt like I was just wasting my time. I've matured with age, however, and feel there needs to be more "smart" AI as in FEAR to create a challenge rather than arbitrarily increasing enemy damage and health while at the same time decreasing player damage and health.

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I disagree, that would mean most gamers wouldn't play PVP games because they did not feel powerful enough. Quitting out of frustration or boredom is what usually happens with me when games have a boss character... i hate boss characters because it usually requires multiple deaths to find the exact sequence to beat them, because your powers/weapons are useless unless used in a certain combination or sequence, and that takes me out of the game world. I hate that. Now, awesome/tough AI enemies get my blood pumping, i love a challenge all things being equal. But, i will admit.. NPC's that always know where you are or seem to get perfect shots all the time does get frustrating.

Making AI takes a special programmer most just phone it in with low-level finite state machines that get though 99%, hell i doubt they even test much anymore considering some dumb behavior in games, although glitches are quite funny.

Fear's horribly basic and dated level design lent it self to the ai perform well enough in most situations but it would completely fail in more complex environments. Ai has gotten a lot better imo most shooters now have some sort of stealth system and can lose your position and will search where they last saw you or react to a whole slew of different situations while not being completely scripted. Most old games they know where you are at all times once they enter a on/off alert state even if they cant see you.

FEAR uses a scoring based AI. Each possible action is given a score based on the desired results, its pretty different than behaviour trees and state machines.

How does it work?
The Apex Utility AI works by making several decisions possible to the agent, and then scoring each potential decision. The Utility AI then selects the high scoring decision and has the AI perform the action associated with this decision.

An example of how the Apex Utility AI works could be to evaluate whether the agent should attack, take cover or load his weapon. In a simple scenario, this might be solved by an if-then statement, such as if the enemy is visible then shoot. However, what happens when there are multiple conditions to take into account such as whether the weapon is loaded, how many enemies there are, and whether we are hurt, and need to take cover? In these complex scenarios, the number of conditions and the potential interactions between them might become so complex that we cannot plan for all scenarios. Furthermore, as the game development processes, we need to be able to extend our AI design, without having to redesign it every time.

In the Apex Utility AI you simply assign a score or a scoring curve to each action and the Apex Utility AI selects the best option. Simple, powerful, smart.

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http://apexgametools.com/products/apex-utility-ai-2/

Armenius said:

Realistic AI would remove the feeling of superiority players generally like to have. There has to be a balance of giving the player a challenge but not creating a situation where the player just quits out of frustration or boredom. I'll admit that I have quit playing FEAR multiple times after trying to play through it due to that feeling of power being taken away, even after trying to change tactics to suit a given situation. It ultimately felt like I was just wasting my time. I've matured with age, however, and feel there needs to be more "smart" AI as in FEAR to create a challenge rather than arbitrarily increasing enemy damage and health while at the same time decreasing player damage and health.

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There was an article about this not too long ago...basically positing the same thing, that players don't want smart AI because it makes a game frustrating. It was a good read but I disagreed with several points the author made, primarily the notion that AI either had to be hyper-smart and boring or stupid and fun. There's definitely an ideal middle ground that the author didn't really address.

Article here:

How is the AI in Dark Souls as it seems to be one of the harder games to beat? I haven't played it but I was just curious as it seems a lot die over and over in that game but still love it?

yourgrandma said:

Fear's horribly basic and dated level design lent it self to the ai perform well enough in most situations but it would completely fail in more complex environments. Ai has gotten a lot better imo most shooters now have some sort of stealth system and can lose your position and will search where they last saw you or react to a whole slew of different situations while not being completely scripted. Most old games they know where you are at all times once they enter a on/off alert state even if they cant see you.

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Maybe you can give some examples. My experience with stealth systems is sure, they'll look where you are, then you flank them, as though they're clueless security guard. It never feels that smart, it feels very basic and is a simple tactic to work around. In FEAR, they would CONVERGE upon your location, splitting up and trying to cover other possible paths you were taking. The AI gave the feeling they weren't taking any chances with you.

The LMB does an ok job in the division...

cptnjarhead said:

I disagree, that would mean most gamers wouldn't play PVP games because they did not feel powerful enough. Quitting out of frustration or boredom is what usually happens with me when games have a boss character... i hate boss characters because it usually requires multiple deaths to find the exact sequence to beat them, because your powers/weapons are useless unless used in a certain combination or sequence, and that takes me out of the game world. I hate that. Now, awesome/tough AI enemies get my blood pumping, i love a challenge all things being equal. But, i will admit.. NPC's that always know where you are or seem to get perfect shots all the time does get frustrating.

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The difference in PvP is knowing that it's a person at the other end of the tube, so you don't feel like you've been treated unfairly due to the difficulty scaling or AI algorithm. You'll see numerous posts around the internet about how a game can cheat because it supposedly acts outside the rules levied upon the player. There is an implicit understanding in fairness there unless extraordinary circumstances occur in which accusations of cheating by other players start flying around.

I'll add on to your last point that I find it particularly frustrating in a game when you have a group of AI working with you and the enemy AI is always targeting you instead of any of your group. The original ME series did this, and in that series I hate that the player can res their teammates, but your teammates cannot res you.

Rahh said:

How is the AI in Dark Souls as it seems to be one of the harder games to beat? I haven't played it but I was just curious as it seems a lot die over and over in that game but still love it?

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Enemy AI is constrained to a finite set of responses and patterns per enemy. Mostly the level design positioning enemies, allowing enemies to patrol paths, and managing aggro range makes it tricky.

Aireoth said:

I don't know if Fear's ai was that smart, in fact I think it's 'smarts' was an accident if I remember correctly. it is really easy to break the AI in Fear, my play style tends to be very aggressive (I hate cover heavy fighting like GOW) I found getting in the face of FEAR's enemies broke their AI, they didn't react properly at all, making every encounter a cake walk. The one time I did sit still I was impressed they flanked me, but then I just charged em and they broke again.

Personally I blame competitive gaming for most of the current stagnation in the industry. How can you do something crazy and outside the box when your constantly working to create 'balance', simply put you cannot, everything just ends up being a slight reskin of everything else, with homogenized traits that make it easy for a dev to modify stat lines in pursuit of that perfect balance.

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Yeah I found the best strategy was to run in, hit slomo, vault over any cover, scissor kick the first guy or two, then unload on anyone else with the shotty!

Elite Dangerous's AI went all Skynet on the players. Made its own weapon combinations that ultimately made it a more efficient killing machine. I bet it googled about human anatomy too. lol

Fear was one of the most memorable ai I have ever encountered. Hl2 had some good moments too. Doom 2016 also, some if the imps can be great.

Over all no one cares about SP. I support SP developers where possible these days, MP at 600ms isn't possible.

Campy AI plus perceived communication between bots = great AI. Worked for Valve with HL1, worked even better when Monolith did it with FEAR.

I mean, you could call it the best if by that you mean convincing which is an entirely different thing.

N4CR said:

Fear was one of the most memorable ai I have ever encountered. Hl2 had some good moments too. Doom 2016 also, some if the imps can be great.

Over all no one cares about SP. I support SP developers where possible these days, MP at 600ms isn't possible.

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MP at 600ms is definitely possible, it's just far from playable.

This guy has obviously never played Star Citizen. I read that the AI in SC has (or will soon) thousands of different possible motivations and these can be combined to produce billions of different realistic behaviors.

Like Space_Pirate_006 might have a small dick and be real self conscious about it and this combined with morbid obesity makes him super aggro but also makes him never leave cover and never try to flank you.

And Bounty_Hunter_003 has a newborn child so he's more likely to make mistakes due to sleep deprivation because his wife left him recently, which also causes him to tear up occasionally which reduces his accuracy by 12%.

Armenius said:

Realistic AI would remove the feeling of superiority players generally like to have. There has to be a balance of giving the player a challenge but not creating a situation where the player just quits out of frustration or boredom. I'll admit that I have quit playing FEAR multiple times after trying to play through it due to that feeling of power being taken away, even after trying to change tactics to suit a given situation. It ultimately felt like I was just wasting my time. I've matured with age, however, and feel there needs to be more "smart" AI as in FEAR to create a challenge rather than arbitrarily increasing enemy damage and health while at the same time decreasing player damage and health.

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You just described every total war game ever made. You have 12 towns and the Ai only has one left and you just wiped out their large army. Think you have an easy cruise in for a victory lap? BAM Next turn they pull a fully maxed out army with the latest units and a 5 star general out of their ass just to say"fuck you" (when there was no realistic way for them to do it had it been a human player) then they destroy your battle weary army and proceed to retake all their towns before you get reinforcements.

Talk about frustration and rage quit inducing.

deaedius said:

A F.E.A.R. remake with Modern visuals would be amazing.

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Prey looks close to it coming out 5th of May

F.E.A.R.'s A.I. the best of all time? Hogwash. Maybe by 2005 standards. Methinks someone's been drinking the cool-aid.

I recently played through F.E.A.R. and its two expansions. By today's standards, the game is not even top ten in terms of A.I. I admit that F.E.A.R.'s A.I. was great in its day, but now it's just a mediocre standard. Competent, but still shows its age.

Tom Clancy's The Division has superior A.I. when compared to the likes of F.E.A.R's. I'd even consider the A.I. in Far Cry 3/4 to be superior to F.E.A.R.'s. I could go on and on about other title's (non-Ubi and what not) being superior.

The only sobering fact (i.e. not opinion) here is that progression of A.I. in video games, whether it be through enhancements to mimic human logic or immersion, has been rather flat-lined compared to graphics improvements in general. I think that's because most reviews focus on graphics more than anything (anecdotally sound, which I find just as important as graphics, rarely gets the attention it deserves too). The bar for A.I. was set low long ago, and I guess we've just come to accept it. I'd happily trade off some CPU or GPU resources for improved A.I. as long as it enriches my immersion.

I would like to see a revolution in terms of A.I.

I remember playing and beating the game in insane difficulty and that was very tough. One instance a soldier shot me and killed me even though a spike from my nail gun had gone through its head and was still walking. Lol. I still remember that to this day. Ha, ha.

Armenius said:

Realistic AI would remove the feeling of superiority players generally like to have. There has to be a balance of giving the player a challenge but not creating a situation where the player just quits out of frustration or boredom. I'll admit that I have quit playing FEAR multiple times after trying to play through it due to that feeling of power being taken away, even after trying to change tactics to suit a given situation. It ultimately felt like I was just wasting my time. I've matured with age, however, and feel there needs to be more "smart" AI as in FEAR to create a challenge rather than arbitrarily increasing enemy damage and health while at the same time decreasing player damage and health.

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It depends on the game and the style it is. Map layout and enemy numbers have to be accounted for.

Absalom said:

F.E.A.R.'s A.I. the best of all time? Hogwash. Maybe by 2005 standards. Methinks someone's been drinking the cool-aid.

I recently played through F.E.A.R. and its two expansions. By today's standards, the game is not even top ten in terms of A.I. I admit that F.E.A.R.'s A.I. was great in its day, but now it's just a mediocre standard. Competent, but still shows its age.

Tom Clancy's The Division has superior A.I. when compared to the likes of F.E.A.R's. I'd even consider the A.I. in Far Cry 3/4 to be superior to F.E.A.R.'s. I could go on and on about other title's (non-Ubi and what not) being superior.

The only sobering fact (i.e. not opinion) here is that progression of A.I. in video games, whether it be through enhancements to mimic human logic or immersion, has been rather flat-lined compared to graphics improvements in general. I think that's because most reviews focus on graphics more than anything (anecdotally sound, which I find just as important as graphics, rarely gets the attention it deserves too). The bar for A.I. was set low long ago, and I guess we've just come to accept it. I'd happily trade off some CPU or GPU resources for improved A.I. as long as it enriches my immersion.

I would like to see a revolution in terms of A.I.

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I disagree, Far Cry's AI is a far cry from anything special

I took out so many bases without even being noticed, even if I killed a guy right in front of someone. When I was noticed, they just run at you in generally a straight line.

Division is the same, most AI just blindly trundles towards you, taking some cover here and there, till it gets to programmed range X and then just stays at that range shooting you.

This is not AI, nor does it create a sense of realism or escapism, I am acutely aware that I'm shooting generic algorithms.

FEAR did give the perception that the bots where thinking, they would fall back, flank and try to adapt. Like I said before, did not work well, but it sure was fun.

AI these days is a joke, I feel it is no better than AI of the 90's.

F.E.A.R's AI was one of the best...even the original Far Cry had decent AI where those mercs would flank you...I wish more games would pay more attention to making things more realistic/difficult...just another reason why I love the Dark Souls series so much

tetris42 said:

Are you honestly complaining that FEAR didn't make you feel powerful enough? The game with maybe the best shotgun in an FPS of all time? And a spike gun that could nail people to the wall?

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I just did my usual old game run beating FEAR and the FEAR2 for 10th or so. FEAR2 has two types of shotguns and they both suck.

dgz said:

I just did my usual old game run beating FEAR and the FEAR2 for 10th or so. FEAR2 has two types of shotguns and they both suck.

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I'm talking about the original. I haven't played the second one, I heard it got dumbed down some for consoles.

tetris42 said:

I'm talking about the original. I haven't played the second one, I heard it got dumbed down some for consoles.

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I thought it was already implied that FEAR's shotgun is great at producing fountains of blood.

polonyc2 said:

F.E.A.R's AI was one of the best...even the original Far Cry had decent AI where those mercs would flank you...I wish more games would pay more attention to making things more realistic/difficult...just another reason why I love the Dark Souls series so much

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Agreed. Two very fun games. Also turn off slow-mo in FEAR if you want more of a challenge. Lack of difficulty really lowers my overall rating of a game. Most recent one (FPS) I'd use as an example is the newest Wolfenstein. Game was laughably easy on the hardest difficulty and the AI completely brain dead.

Comixbooks said:

Prey looks close to it coming out 5th of May

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I would say it looks far more like Bioshock than F.E.A.R.

People don't want Reality in their games, they want "The Hollywood Idealized Version of Reality". Why? Because it's entertainment. Yeah there are people who need the hardest possible challenge in a game......clearly those people have something to prove, but that isn't most.....most people will go at a certain point "You know, there's only so much slack-time I have....and this videogame is not tickling my reward synapses they way it should". So then you fire up Call of Duty and replay the AC-130 Spectre mission and take delight in deciding if you want to BOOM them or BRRRRRRRRRRRRRP them.........

I personally wonder what people think when they say "We need better A.I.". It really does depend on the game. A really good FPS with good A.I. means you aren't killing 30 guys in a Rambo-esque display of cajones-fueled mayhem, it means you're hiding out while that A.I. boxes you in, waiting for its buddies to flank you. You put your head up and die. "HEY UNFAIR"...no, not unfair....cuz if you were "that other guy on the other end", you'd probably be sitting there, all scoped up...waiting for the head to pop up....which is probably what you did. And if that happens over and over and over....you think the game is cheap.

Here's my take: People want varied A.I....they like knowing some of those guards are the ones who are just waiting to be taken out...(tickle the reward center).......they like knowing that there are other guards, however, who might hunt them. Or...Oompa Loompas or whatever the game is. But really, the most realistic A.I. out there will start bunny-hopping for no reason, Team Killing and being racist and homophobic just to see if it can get away with it. *Thats* real A.I. And who needs that?

HeadRusch said:

I personally wonder what people think when they say "We need better A.I.". It really does depend on the game. A really good FPS with good A.I. means you aren't killing 30 guys in a Rambo-esque display of cajones-fueled mayhem, it means you're hiding out while that A.I. boxes you in, waiting for its buddies to flank you. You put your head up and die. "HEY UNFAIR"...no, not unfair....cuz if you were "that other guy on the other end", you'd probably be sitting there, all scoped up...waiting for the head to pop up....which is probably what you did. And if that happens over and over and over....you think the game is cheap.

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I disagree entirely, good AI can contribute massively to the 'Hollywood' feel of a game. No one here has said they want the game to kick their ass, which you seem to assume is AI.

Good AI makes the experience, good AI create immersion, flushes a game out with more than just shoot x number of guys until end of the rail. The proof that people want good AI (even if they don't know they do) is in the success of multiplayer games, you can feel someone hesitate when they see you if your dominating a match, you can feel a good squad in a BF game working together, it makes challenge, excitement and draws people into these games. Imagine if you could replicate this with the AI opponents.

So what makes a good AI? Immersion. Anyone can make a walking Aim Bot that wins every fight.

One of the things that bugs me the most about single player FPS' is the rabid willingness to die that bots have, it is the number one thing that breaks immersion. If I walk into a room and blow away 2/3rds of the men in it, there should be a visible impact on the remaining 1/3, instead they all just single mindedly rush you until dead. In no way would this happen, even in the movies characters have a little more self preservation. Solution: adapting bots to take into account attrition and redeploy accordingly.

Good lord do I wish Witcher 3 had this, I can remember one specific fight where I defended a defector from being hanged, and 6 peasants attacked me, within seconds I had cut two in half and was well on the way to killing a third, at this point the remaining should have been shitting themselves and running for the hills. That would also have allowed for further quest lines if you entered their village or met them again. Yes it is not a FPS, but why should an FPS be any different?

Another is the 'Boss', in modern games they are mostly just a jacked up regular with extra DPS, Health and maybe a gimmick. This is so anti-climatic, it even ruins the Hollywood immersion. The current solution seems to be some kind of QTE tied into the fight to recreate the illusion. Would it not be better if the Boss had enough intelligence behind it to tackle the player on a relatively equal footing? We can do it, hell we can make an AI that would wipe the floor with a player.

TL/DR The reality is, AI development has not only stagnated, but pretty much collapsed, to be replaced by graphics. The saddest part is that AI development would lead to a greater sense of immersion in the IP, interaction in the world, and I personally believe, way more fun. Yes, I'm passionate about game AI.