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AI and Games: F.E.A.R. - The retrospective
- Thread starter IbizaPocholo
- Start date
- Analysis Trailer Game Dev
LordOfChaos
Member
I remember a lot of FEAR being held up as a high watermark for AI in video games, still is to this day like in this video, and it was one.
But I remember a somewhat hilarious moment playing it when I would kill an enemy, close a door, another enemy would open the door, I'd kill them, and I quickly had a mound of enemies piled up right at the door that the other soldiers kept running into and and instead of reacting in any sensible way they just kept coming though and dying lol. A moment of artificial dumbness.
Also made me paranoid of climbing game ladders from the jump scares
I'd still love to see a new modern FEAR game.
But I remember a somewhat hilarious moment playing it when I would kill an enemy, close a door, another enemy would open the door, I'd kill them, and I quickly had a mound of enemies piled up right at the door that the other soldiers kept running into and and instead of reacting in any sensible way they just kept coming though and dying lol. A moment of artificial dumbness.
Also made me paranoid of climbing game ladders from the jump scares
I'd still love to see a new modern FEAR game.
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Laptop1991
Member
Brilliant game, slow mo and the enemy ai was great, still one of the best FPS ever, the story was good too.
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CamHostage
Member
FEAR is a high watermark for AI in video games, but it's also a high watermark for marketing AI in video games.
They sold everything that the game characters could do in pitching the game to the audience, and they used techniques of audio and animation and lighting to ensure that players did not miss the AI doing its tricks. (It's also a high watermark for putting the extra work into programming unique pathing incident routines and level design specifically crafted to maximize enemy character choices in encounter spaces to give a great playspace for the ideas pioneered in the AI design.) "Combat Adaptable A.I." was a bulletpoint on the box, and was a key talking point in every preview. Games are rarely funded these days with such singular focus on one aspect like this.
As Orkin says in the interview, it's not that the techniques of FEAR were only used in FEAR, or were never surpassed over time. (In any case, the game use of GOAP is inherently hard to "surpass" since it's generally human design and academic research which powers the FEAR AI rather than generational leaps in hardware horsepower. It helped that they had the machines they did then just as they made this breakthrough, but more CPU power wouldn't completely mean more intelligence for characters, it would mean more work on the designers' parts to come up with additional intelligent things for them to do.) You see FEAR's progeny in gaming all the time. What you rarely if ever see, however, is game design and production focus placed so specifically on highlighting and exploring the capabilities of this (or more robust) artificial intelligence approach. It was a golden era for taking a good idea all the way to the end of the line, and FEAR had those kinds of good ideas and people with the time and experience to know how to use them. Games have technically gotten smarter since then, but gamers and game producers have not valued "smart" enough since then to make it a key reason to get hyped for new games.
History of AI in Games - Video Game - F.E.A.R
For those of you who don't know, F.E.A.R is an acronym for First Encounter Assault Recon and a great example of how AI can be used in video games.
modl.ai
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Wildebeest
Member
I feel like you are right. With the recent Half-Life anniversary, it seems like after all this time, the main thing "smart" commentators seemed to care about as memorable was that sodding tram ride. Some people might have got round to mentioning the AI, but only after talking about using in game scripting instead of pre-rendered cutscenes (not that there were many of those in the 90s).
Heimdall_Xtreme
Jim Ryan Fanclub's #1 Member
Excellent and brilliant game, one of the last great games, before entering the disastrous seventh generation of consoles.
Bit of a sad state of affairs that at the height of the golden age of game dev in the 90/00, actual academics, PHD and MIT doctors where invested in designing games with interesting technical breakthroughs and concepts.
Remember Looking Glass studios build up of MIT graduates. Remember the Bioware doctors? Remember Valve having scientists onboard helping to build it's facial animation and physics tech?
All driven out of the industry because the industry got to unwieldy and manager driven.
Remember Looking Glass studios build up of MIT graduates. Remember the Bioware doctors? Remember Valve having scientists onboard helping to build it's facial animation and physics tech?
All driven out of the industry because the industry got to unwieldy and manager driven.
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SmokedMeat
Gamer™
ChuckeRearmed
Member
Slo mo effect is still unmatched. It looks so cool. Especially with explosions.
I do find it fascinating that it required like a small team to develop the game.
I do find it fascinating that it required like a small team to develop the game.
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Fart Knight
Al Pachinko, Konami President
One of my favorite games of all time
The Cockatrice
Member
RAGE also has some great AI
It's a shame developers stopped putting work in it but then again modern gamers are so mentally challenged, it wouldn't make sense to have highly adaptable AI's. Journalists would just complain.
It's a shame developers stopped putting work in it but then again modern gamers are so mentally challenged, it wouldn't make sense to have highly adaptable AI's. Journalists would just complain.
