Now that 2007 has come to a close it’s a time to reflect on the evolution of games in the last year and look ahead to areas where the industry can improve. In a holiday season that was packed with games that had amazing graphics and level design, a disturbing trend became apparent the more I played: game AI has really fallen behind. Enemies that duck for cover in linear corridor shooters like F.E.A.R. and Half-Life 2 no longer impress me, as we’ve now seen this “intelligent” behavior for over 10 years now. Titles that push the boundaries of sandbox level design have only further compounded the issue.

In the past, single-player games like the original Half-Life relied on predominantly contained arenas for both the player and AI enemies to engage in. In fact with their latest release Half-Life 2: Episode Two (which has been lauded for its impressive AI) Valve again puts the player in very controlled environments, even if you don’t always realize it. If you listen to Episode Two’s commentary tracks, a lot of time is spent describing the lengths to which the level designers went to in order to make the enemies seem more intelligent than they really are. See that alcove in the hallway with the health pack in it? It was created so enemies would jump you when you feel most vulnerable. Notice that broken down van in the middle of the street that the Combine soldiers “intelligently” ducked for cover behind? Well they do that every time - it’s scripted.

At the end of the day it’s all smoke and mirrors. But is that a bad thing? Of course it’s not. To Valve it’s all about creating an immersive gaming experience, and they succeed brilliantly. I don’t care if the AI is actually intelligent or Valve is creating a magic trick that makes them appear intelligent, because in a linear environment where the players situation is a known fact to the developer it doesn’t matter. An illusion of intelligence is the same as actual intelligence if the circumstances can be controlled. It’s when you get to more open-ended gameplay scenarios that you rely on the AI to make judgement calls and behave appropriately. It is in this area that developers have increasingly fallen behind the technology curve and gamers are left disappointed.