Mebber,
Human,
11 years ago
Unfortunately, it's absolutely shitty. Here's an example:
There is a firefight with WY baddies. They hide in another room, seeking cover to both sides of the door and occasionally lean forward to shoot through the door. Well, they didn't recognized that the walls they're hiding behind feature large, broad glass windows, so they're actually leaning against the glass. Of course i shot the glass and killed the stupid guys. More baddies come into the room, run to the exact same cover positions, and hide behind... well, nothing. Just as they didn't realized their cover was out of glass, they didn't realized their cover was actually shot to shards. Quite hilarious to see these stupid guys in their cover-animation while they're actually absolutely exposed...
There are many others examples, it's just a sad fact that the AI is really awful and based on very simple, reocurring patterns. It's not always as obvious as in the example because of the corridor-shooter nature of the game, which gives the AI less options anyway (and therefore less situations where they might fail like in the above example).
I actually hope they will bring out a massive update to patch AI, because imo that's one of the biggest bummers of the entire game, especially with the xenos. You can run through an entire xeno-infested levels without beeing seriously botheres by the bugs (as long as the games allows this, e.g. you're not trapped with them), on badass. I've tried it. I ran through a very tight corridor crowded with bugs (you are supposed to gib them with the smartgun while "they just keep coming" - approx 30 xenos i'd say), right into and through a hive-labyrinth, without problems.
This and other things makes the xenos absolutely not threating, which, as you can imagine, is a real letdown for an Aliens game which claims to be a horror game. I swear, if they drastically increase the AI - faster reaction times, better pathfinding, improved doding behaviour, all that neat stuff - the game as a whole would be ten times better. Threating enemies mean more tension - more tension boosts atmosphere - a good atmosphere serves the entire gaming experience. Hell, it would be amazing. As i said, the encounters with the stalker aliens are great, not because they're numerous but because they are threatening (these bastards are real fast, hide well and pounce at you from the shadows).
I have high hopes GBX will do something in the AI departement, they're pretty much forced to, this current shitstorm is a real PR debacle for them.
By the way, one of the best game parts is the multiplayer, where AI doesn't count at all. There, aliens are really aliens.