A mini Halo 3 review, in which I rant about AI

[misterk]

I have recently begun to play Halo 3 solo, while before I had only ever played the Halo series via co-op. I have to say, it's quite a different experience. I actually enjoyed it- theres quite a variety of fights, and the vechile combat sections are inspired and great fun, with enough checkpoints to not be punishingly difficult. It probably also helps that I'm not playing with a friend who wants to kill every enemy, so I can play the levels as I suspect they are intended to be played- punching a hole through enemy lines.

The graphics are noticably pretty, even on my tiny screen, and the plotline is reasonably interesting... and yet....

Halo 3 is a new generation game, so why exactly is the AI so stupid? The main issue here is regenerating health. In many skirmishes I find myself losing my shield then ducking behind cover for a while to recover. This mechanic works fine for the most part, because you have allies nearby- as in COD. But it begins to make no sense when the game occasionally chucks you alone into a room full of enemies. Why aren't they sodding charging me? One section on heroic should be impossible- it is you against about 10 brutes, walking tanks of creatures who take significant firepower to take down. The game decides to lock you into the room where you fight them.

You can take a couple by surprise at first, either with grenades or long distance head shots, but they're soon alerted. How to beat this horde?

Well I sat behind cover, popped out occasionally, and killed one. There was no attempt made to advance- the brutes simply stood around stupidly, not making an attempt to flank me, or assult me, or even throw grenade at me. All they did was react to me, making them relatively easy to kill. The few brutes that decided to charge me did it alone, and I easily took them out.

What the hell? One man against an army has always been absurd, but in half life and doom and excetera, you have had a collosal amount of health- the masterchief has a regenerating shield, and his enemies know this. He cannot take on too many enemies at once, and it is absurd that the game lets him. The AI in doom was smarter than this!

Incidentally, this sequence IS punishingly hard, because of the way the game sets you up, locking the door behind you so you cannot retreat, but it is not impossible. It should be.

 

[Knight Templar]

I think you're.... I won't say lying, exaggerating maybe, misinformed?

Edit: Wow just found this again, fixed the spelling.

 

[Gigantor]

It's a fair point, albeit maybe one which should be in Gaming Discussion instead of Reviews. You did answer your own question a bit:

Incidentally, this sequence IS punishingly hard, because of the way the game sets you up, locking the door behind you so you cannot retreat, but it is not impossible. It should be.

Should it? Should it be impossible? I remember spending a long time on this bit on Legendary, but I don't think the game would have been improved if the brutes kept on charging round the corner whenever I was low on shield and killing me. I quite like my games...possible.

 

[wilsonscrazybed]

I think your.... I wont say lying, exaggerating mabey, missinformed?

Ouch, this hurts my soul.

 

[misterk]

Obviously I don't want the game to be impossible, but I don't think they should create sections that should be impossible if the AI was smarter.

To knight templar... well I have played all three Halos, and encountered similar actions on the part of the AI... they're just not as aggressive as they should be. I understand that if they were more aggressive I would die, but as I say, the game should be designed so that I can have these kind of fights.

 

[Lion Fury]

Ya. I pretty agree that I dont exactly want parts that are impossible. Otherwise, I can see an expensive 360 controller hurling like a missle towards my even more expensive HDTV, and we dont want that happening. For the most part, I feel herioc is an appropriate setting for single player, with the occassional breezy sections where I just kinda auto pilot through it. Multi-Player Coop is an entirely different beast though. Me and my friends find Legendary a must in those situations, although with 4 players even that is a tad easy. 2-3 players seems to be the sweet spot. Say after all the Halo hating in that other thread, its nice to talk with some people who actually like Halo. Send me a friend request on Xbox Live if you are interested, my gamertag is SpartanOverkill. My Xbox is getting repaired by Microsoft right now, but ill be sure to accept friend requests when I get it back so we can play some Halo3. Anybody feel free. Just send me an xbox live message so Ill know where the request is coming from. Im supposed to be getting my 360 back this friday.

 

[BadSJames]

I remember thinking the same thing when I played that part. They really do just stand there and let you shoot them in the head a couple times and then throw down a bubble shield but they never really attack you. The strange thing is I remember some Bungie employee boasting about how brutes will have "pack mentality" and they'll all throw grenades at once and attack in waves. I guess they either scraped it entirely or altered it for for the sake of the level. I even watched a video in which brutes gather around a single bunker-type area and fill the place with grenades. But then when I played the game it seemed as if the brutes acted just like all the others. I was really looking forward to seeing a pack of 4 or 5 brutes running at me full speed and frantically trying to escape but like others have said, the AI in halo just isn't very aggressive. In fact, in most game the AI is far too willing to just sit back and let you kill them.

 

[Lion Fury]

Wow. You could put it nicer. By the way, Halo's ai is bettet then most games. Hell, on legendary the enemies get downright devious sometimes.

 

[Rentsy]

Yea, you really have no right to complain about the difficulty without it being on Legendary.

Also, as one who took over an hour to master the throw smoke grenade - shoot- advance - shoot - advance - shoot - advance - shoot -advance for Call of Duty 3's second level on Veteran (No guarentees on that!), you really don't want impossible levels. I was planning on playing the whole game on Veteran, but that just burned me out.

 

[qbert4ever]

Grr grr Halo sucks grr Half-Life owns "grinds teeth"

Ya know Necroswanson, after reading the posts you put up on all these Halo threads, I'm kinda getting the feeling that you have some sort of vendetta against the Halo series. What, did a Bungie employee run over your dog or something? Or have you been hired by Valve to spread anti-Halo propaganda?

At any rate, I would like it to go on the record that I disagree with your entire post, but I respect your opinion (well, not really. Seeing as how you seem to have gone out of your way to piss off fans of the game. But that is a bit nicer then asking you to wipe Gordon Freeman's seed off your face, so I'll go with the respect bit).

I would also like to go on record in saying that these Halo threads should all be locked and any attempt to make a new one should be cause for a swift banning.

 

[blackadvent]

...I guess it would depend on who makes the thread. I think we've established that I should never be trusted with such power.

But yeah, making a Halo thread for the sole purpose of flaming? Should be probable cause for a banning.

 

[Lion Fury]

Halo's AI is shit. The have no 'pack mentality' and have to not strategy save for self preservation. (as small of a need as it is to them) On higher difficulties the only difference made is higher damage output and health while both of yours drop. This is NOT Ai, this is faulty programming. It is the product of shooting for pretty over challenging. Half-Life has much better AI as the enemies will take cover and will fire in rounds, rather than all just standing there absorbing bullets. The Halo AI IS dumb, in fact it's downright retarded. This isn'tnew.

I agree with the other guy who called you out. You troll Halo threads just to piss people off. The other guy played nice, but forget that. People who pull crap like that are just self serving bastards looking for attention by causing flame wars. The AI in Halo isn't perfect, but what game is. Half-Life sure isn't, seeing as there was numerous occasions that enemies would come at me in waves, where either I would destroy them all or eventually the hoard would wear me down. Personally, I don't think HL is nearly as good as you say. So go bury yourself in a hole and leave us be.

 

[Lion Fury]

The point he was making is if you hate Halo so much, why do you keep posting hate in Halo threads? Seriously, if you know you are going to offend people, why do it over and over again. Just say your peace in say a thread, then leave it at that maybe ? Oh, and for the record, the new Episodes of Half Life are a complete gameplay and tech rehash of HL2, so maybe cut Halo some slack and try to be less hateful. Something to ponder.

 

[Fire Daemon]

Dare I say it, I thought that AI in number 1 was smatter then in number 3?

Maybe this was deliberate for the brutes as they are pretty much monkeys but whats the deal with the marines. Did the Covernant spray earth with a retard disease while the Master Chief was out on Space Holiday?

 

[qbert4ever]

The point he was making is if you hate Halo so much, why do you keep posting hate in Halo threads?

Kind of, but not really. What I was trying to say is if you don't like something, fine. But saying shit like

The Halo AI IS dumb, in fact it's downright retarded.

is just plain trolling. Dont get it? Let me help.

Good: I dislike Halo.

Bad: Halo sucks.

See the differance? It's all how you phrase your oppinion. For another example, let's see which one pisses you off more. "Half-Life 2 is a piece of shit. The AI sucks, the guns are stupid, and it's really over-hyped" vs "I can't really see what the hype is over HL2, I just never really found it fun". Nobody is forcing you to like or dislike something, but having a little respect never hurt anything.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

Kind of, but not really. What I was trying to say is if you don't like something, fine. But saying shit like

The Halo AI IS dumb, in fact it's downright retarded.

is just plain trolling. Dont get it? Let me help.

Good: I dislike Halo.

Bad: Halo sucks.

See the differance? It's all how you phrase your oppinion.

I dislike Halo sucks.

- J

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Well I sat behind cover, popped out occasionally, and killed one. There was no attempt made to advance- the brutes simply stood around stupidly, not making an attempt to flank me, or assult me, or even throw grenade at me. All they did was react to me, making them relatively easy to kill. The few brutes that decided to charge me did it alone, and I easily took them out.

I call shennanigans.

I did exactly that, on Heroic difficulty as the poster claims he played, and the Brutes did try to flank me. Often. The usual pattern would be one with a Brute Shot (think grenade launcher) popping out of cover and taking my shield down, forcing me to duck back, and one or two others with Spikers (think SMGs) rushing up the opposite flank while I was suppressed. Other tactics included a hasty grenade throw to displace me followed by a full-court press, or drawing back into cover in an attempt to sucker me into a fire sack.

Admittedly they did only come in twos and threes (rarely in 4s), as opposed to massing for a charge, but that's common in games. Besides, if they did I'd be able to kill them more easily at the chokepoints with grenades or a captured Brute Shot.

The less said about what they did to me in Legendary, the better.

No, the AI isn't as smart as a human opponent... but it did challenge me and a great many others. If there is a better system for managing large numbers of combattants, frankly I have yet to see it. (And no, I don't count CoD's as better. It's too reliant upon scripting for my tastes, making it more a matter of Groundhog Day trial-and-error play than an exercise in tactics.)

-- Steve