The Sims series
The Sims is one of the most recognisable PC franchises, tapping into everyone’s desire to play god once in a while. What was remarkable about the AI of your sims wasn’t necessarily how they had their own needs and desires, but how they reacted with each other. Especially as the series developed, you’d see Sims reacting differently to pets, jobs, colleagues, spouses, children etc. It all made for a surprisingly dramatic experience.
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead had some ferocious AI kicking about in the background. Whenever you were lacking a full team of four, AI characters would fill out the spaces. The irony here was that these AI were often far more helpful than another human player, making you really question the worth of humanity. If that wasn’t impressive enough, then the AI director is the real seller. Orchestrating the ammo pick ups, enemy spawns and musical cues differently in every game, the AI director is a complex and fascinating use of artificial intelligence that truly raises the Left 4 Dead series above and beyond the call of duty (no pun intended.)
Halo: Combat Evolved
The original Halo completely altered the way console FPS games were appreciated. Whilst this was largely due to the game’s incredible control scheme, the enemy AI in the game was also revolutionary for the time. Covenant squads would take cover, throw back grenades, split into different groups and attempt to flank the player etc. What was also interesting was how each individual member of a unit had their own AI that would dictate their behaviour, resulting in Grunts fleeing should their leader unit be incapacitated.
Black and White
Black and White had so many AI instances going on at any one time, it was actually kind of ridiculous. You had your villagers you were looking after, who would normally be numerous, with each occupying a separate profession that would dictate their behaviour. You also had your creature, who would learn miracles as you performed them and modify his routines based on how you treated him. You’d also have other gods roaming the land too, each with their own creature and set of followers. Talk about overkill.
