The conclusion to a series covering the design methodology of encounters found in the Halo trilogy…
7 Comments
Ah excellent piece once again vociferous.
AI is so huge, and you don’t really realize how seamless and varied Bungie’s efforts in the department are until you play another game. I for one thought that Halo: CE’s AI was a smidge better than Halo 2’s but that’s an opinion.
I love the way you write all this stuff, and it’s really helped in rekindling a lot of my Halo memories. The hindsight series especially gets me itching to play Halo 3. Any chance you can do some on the previous two games (or allow submissions)?
lol and the big question… how are you going to shine a positive light on “Cortana”?
I personally have much more fun fighting the Elites in Halo CE and Halo 2 then the Brutes in Halo 3. The Elites seem (and indeed are) so much quicker then the Brutes, and this made fighting a single red Elite on Legendary a challenge.
When fighting the high ranking Brutes in Halo 3, I only really had a challenge in dealing with the ones who had multiple allies around them. The only Brutes that I feel can really hold their own in Halo 3 are the one’s wielding hammers, and the only strategy to fighting a Hammer-wielding brute is to backpedal and fill them with lead. Not so fun, in my opinion.
Comment by Nokterne — September 12, 2008 @ 10:46 pm
Yeah, in a way I agree with Nokterne…While the departure of the Elites from the Covenant was a kool part of the story, you cannot deny that they were missed as foes in Halo 3.
Woot woot woot!
Actually, I might just play Halo 2 to relive it =)
…
Oh and nice article. Please continue with the hindsight series!
The Brutes in the barracks were going to eat the marines? I never knew that. That’s the only fault I have with Halo: it doesn’t let you adjust various audio levels like every other modern game in existance. I find the dialogue far too quiet (but I can’t turn up my T.V. to hear it or the FX and music will be too loud to bare).
Great article! Although I already knew that AI was a huge component in the Halo Trilogy, I never knew how complex the system was! But when you think about it, the task of the AI is far from simple: reacting to the player, and I think Bungie really nailed it.
Comment by Player_0 — September 24, 2008 @ 9:51 pm
You made a small typo. When you commented on the Brutes in the barracks on THE STORM, the barracks are actually in the level CROWS NEST. But nice article all the same.
@ comment #4 by AT-AT: I agree, it is annoying, but there are subtitles, I think. It would ease things, though, to be able to adjust dialouge volume relative to the rest of the audio. I’d also like to be able to turn off the soundtrack at my leisure, but that not nearly as important.
The only issue I have with the AI is with the friendly AIs’ tendency to micromanage and second-guess the player in Halo 3. If ever I get out of a vehicle to do something else briefly, invariably the other Marines will make off with it and, on higher difficulties, kill themselves and the vehicle with haste. It feels like an office suite that hasn’t had all the extra automation, suggestions and nagging prompts turned off yet, but it’s tolerable for the times when it necessitates zooming in on the chracters faces to illustrate that they’re part of a computer program. Their interaction with events, especially those likely never intended or perpetrated by reasonable players, are most impressive.
The thing I love is how enemy AIs can respond humorously to interactions with allied AIs. On the level The Covenant, one of the ODST-suited Marines got a bit impatient once and walked straight into a Brute, who dispatched him with ease. I could see the Brute on my radar, and I could also see the Marine thrown backwards, dead, but the Brute pulled off an amusing little stunt. He stayed hidden from my sight behind a rock and said, “Oh, Demon, I took care of the Brute! It’s all safe now!” Such relevant gags are something I have never seen in any other game, and they, in my opinion, are the best part of Halo’s AI.
Comment by TheAsterisk! — April 28, 2009 @ 2:32 am
Ah excellent piece once again vociferous.
AI is so huge, and you don’t really realize how seamless and varied Bungie’s efforts in the department are until you play another game. I for one thought that Halo: CE’s AI was a smidge better than Halo 2’s but that’s an opinion.
I love the way you write all this stuff, and it’s really helped in rekindling a lot of my Halo memories. The hindsight series especially gets me itching to play Halo 3. Any chance you can do some on the previous two games (or allow submissions)?
lol and the big question… how are you going to shine a positive light on “Cortana”?
Comment by Ryan — September 11, 2008 @ 5:08 pm
Great article.
I personally have much more fun fighting the Elites in Halo CE and Halo 2 then the Brutes in Halo 3. The Elites seem (and indeed are) so much quicker then the Brutes, and this made fighting a single red Elite on Legendary a challenge.
When fighting the high ranking Brutes in Halo 3, I only really had a challenge in dealing with the ones who had multiple allies around them. The only Brutes that I feel can really hold their own in Halo 3 are the one’s wielding hammers, and the only strategy to fighting a Hammer-wielding brute is to backpedal and fill them with lead. Not so fun, in my opinion.
Comment by Nokterne — September 12, 2008 @ 10:46 pm
Yeah, in a way I agree with Nokterne…While the departure of the Elites from the Covenant was a kool part of the story, you cannot deny that they were missed as foes in Halo 3.
Woot woot woot!
Actually, I might just play Halo 2 to relive it =)
…
Oh and nice article. Please continue with the hindsight series!
Comment by Scott — September 17, 2008 @ 4:52 am
The Brutes in the barracks were going to eat the marines? I never knew that. That’s the only fault I have with Halo: it doesn’t let you adjust various audio levels like every other modern game in existance. I find the dialogue far too quiet (but I can’t turn up my T.V. to hear it or the FX and music will be too loud to bare).
Comment by AT-AT — September 17, 2008 @ 1:58 pm
Great article! Although I already knew that AI was a huge component in the Halo Trilogy, I never knew how complex the system was! But when you think about it, the task of the AI is far from simple: reacting to the player, and I think Bungie really nailed it.
Comment by Player_0 — September 24, 2008 @ 9:51 pm
You made a small typo. When you commented on the Brutes in the barracks on THE STORM, the barracks are actually in the level CROWS NEST. But nice article all the same.
Comment by bjb yo — January 25, 2009 @ 9:53 pm
@ comment #4 by AT-AT: I agree, it is annoying, but there are subtitles, I think. It would ease things, though, to be able to adjust dialouge volume relative to the rest of the audio. I’d also like to be able to turn off the soundtrack at my leisure, but that not nearly as important.
The only issue I have with the AI is with the friendly AIs’ tendency to micromanage and second-guess the player in Halo 3. If ever I get out of a vehicle to do something else briefly, invariably the other Marines will make off with it and, on higher difficulties, kill themselves and the vehicle with haste. It feels like an office suite that hasn’t had all the extra automation, suggestions and nagging prompts turned off yet, but it’s tolerable for the times when it necessitates zooming in on the chracters faces to illustrate that they’re part of a computer program. Their interaction with events, especially those likely never intended or perpetrated by reasonable players, are most impressive.
The thing I love is how enemy AIs can respond humorously to interactions with allied AIs. On the level The Covenant, one of the ODST-suited Marines got a bit impatient once and walked straight into a Brute, who dispatched him with ease. I could see the Brute on my radar, and I could also see the Marine thrown backwards, dead, but the Brute pulled off an amusing little stunt. He stayed hidden from my sight behind a rock and said, “Oh, Demon, I took care of the Brute! It’s all safe now!” Such relevant gags are something I have never seen in any other game, and they, in my opinion, are the best part of Halo’s AI.
Comment by TheAsterisk! — April 28, 2009 @ 2:32 am