AI Versus Environmental Interactivity In Gaming (Monday Musings 70)

Horizon: Zero Dawn's Thunderjaw

Both Breath of the Wild and Red Dead Redemption 2 have received universal critical acclaim, with environmental interactivity being one of the highlights, so it appears that a trend is for video games to emphasize physics.

One such example that my friend mentioned is that in Breath of the Wild, when you're in the lava area and drop a piece of raw meat, it falls to the floor cooked and then burnt. 

I was hoping, however, that developers will move more toward advanced enemy intelligence so that when you're fighting a trash mob or a boss, they respond to where you are and your attack patterns, so it actually feels like you're attacking a real monster.

For instance, even with my favorite game, Dark Souls, the bosses' attack patterns are very stylized, so even as you move behind the boss to whack it, he or she would attack in front, grasping at air, which is not realistic.

I think that's why I was so impressed with Horizon: Zero Dawn's machine design where they actually see what you're doing. I placed a trap, and the Watcher, noticing it, actually jumped over it. 

I was going to do the usual strategy of Dark Souls and attack the Thunderjaw behind him when he was shooting lasers at me when I was facing him. My thinking is that if I run behind him, he'd continue to shoot lasers in front of him, like the typical Dark Souls boss. However, since he saw me make a mad dash behind him,  he stomped me with his hind legs, turned around to face me, and started shooting his lasers at me.

For me, interacting with the environment is really cool in-game, but I can do a lot of these things in the real world (i.e. pushing benches, picking flowers), so it's not that exciting to push objects around in-game.

However, in real life, I'd never be in a situation where I have to fight soldiers, monsters, and other enemies, which is why I enjoy video games, to experience things that I'd never experience in real life. To be transported to another world, and face these awe-inspiring enemies.

Therefore, I'm hoping that if developers have to chose between environmental interactivity versus enemies that respond realistically to your attacks, I hope they'd work toward the latter so battles will feel more real, visceral, and get my heart pumping.

I'm not sure what is harder to code, but it appears due to limitations of budget and computing power, a given developer will have to emphasize one aspect over the other.

What do you prefer? The intricate, extremely detailed physics of a Breath of the Wild or Red Dead Redemption 2, or fighting extremely intelligent enemies of the likes of Horizon: Zero Dawn?

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