Outstanding AI

[Akko Chan]

I've seen good AI, we think GTA 5, Far Cry, Metal gear solid. None of these games compares to the forest. It's unreal how quick the AI can react to your attacks and counter attack you in a fight.

They first use lots of bobbing and weaving, likely because on the base damage - you the player are far more intelligent than they are and can dish out more damage because you have tools. I'm speaking of course about the normal mutants, haven't had the luxury of fighting the battle cattle and other abominations.... yet.

Seriously, the amount of times i've watched these guys DIVE to the ground when i took a swing at them is incredible, i full on missed my attack! You kinda get this in RDRII and GTA6 but it feels so scripted, it doesn't feel real. This however really does.

I've come at a tribal with my spear, knocked her to the ground and just like a literal actual person would do, when i went in for the final strike. omg i'm gonna cry it was beautiful

She starts crawl backwards, pushing her elbows back, pulling with her hands and scampering on the ground like a horror film victim, I felt like hannibal lecture or leatherface butchering these native tribal people. The game really does make me question some sense of morality, giving them items instead of fighting them, that sort of thing. I had this dark idea of leaving human meat out for them to appease them, and if they picked a fight they'd go on the drying rack for the next batch of tribals to come by lol.

Seriously Devs you did amazing work on the AI. From them jumping behind you, climbing onto a tree stump and trying to jump on your back with mallet to cave the players head in from behind, just excellent work.

[Tripping Pug]

I completely agree. Combat especially feels much more realistic than in most games, and therefor much more tense. When I run into a pack of them in a wide open field I love how they just stare at me for a second, keeping their distance and moving back when I get closer while trying to get behind to surround me. And clubbing their leader to death in front of them, causing them to scatter like roaches while just one of them looks behind at me for a split second before running away? Crazy.

Personally I don't have any moral doubts though. They're humanoid, but the way they scamper around and try to pounce on you so they can eat you up seems more like wolf behavior than that of thinking people to me. That and I sometimes come back to one pounding on the side of my base with his bare hands. The only thing I feel a little bad about when I kill them is that I'm not better with the bow, since it would be nice to give them a quick painless death instead of bashing their brains in or slicing them to death with the katana.

The animation is really top notch too. Even the creepy mutants, those big hulking abominations, move in a way that keeps my suspension of belief intact while also making them that much scarier. And the way the normal guys duck under your blows and try to slide away from you with their hands after you knock them down seems so fluid and realistic.

[kir-kanos]

dont forget you can make them kinda your friends by not attacking and only blocking and them not seeing you cutting down their forest and such

[RequiemsRose]

I will also hop on this positive AI train lol. They also have at least primitive beliefs through their AI. Even to the player who doesn't care for lore, the effects of the red paint become clear. They will usually kneel down around you and chant (sometimes one is less submissive, but its also usually the feral cannibals not the tribals). The tribals can also be caught stopping periodically along patrol routes at places with totems to chant/prey.

Which brings up another thing I like, while they do have similarly squirrely combat styles, there are distinct differences in combat approach between certain groups of cannibals/mutants. Like the skinny ferals usually are more vicious and reckless while tribals tend to watch, scout, and attack in war parties. They will even place totems marking the player. With enough escalation of force they even begin to act more afraid of the player, becoming hesitant to fight more often (with exceptions).

All the gushing aside, I also have to laugh at the moments where the AI fails and you come across a group of cannibals mindlessly running circles without a care in the world. They don't even normally stop to attack you unless you swing first when they end up in lala land like that.

[AimsKey]

I do love it also, but my only gripes are the going underwater and getting stuck. Yes lots of games have this kind of issue too, but it would have been nice to fix it. Otherwise they certainly did a great job! Also i do think its only 1 person responsible. Michael Mellor, alone is mentioned as "Animation & AI", no one else. Although maybe he had help from "Programmer", Guillaume Kehren? but if it was him alone, he deserves real credit and i hope he's proud of it.

[phoenix_death12]

hear hear <3 <3

[Disastra]

The AI are truly brilliant.

[Akko Chan]

Originally posted by Ebony Raven:

The AI are truly brilliant.

Until you fight masked mutants. It takes me a good 12 swings to kill one and you can stun lock them. Funniest ♥♥♥♥ ever, spinning about