This is a post for everyone to add onto, and I think it’s a really important aspect when looking at halo just in general. In older Halo games, the AI were somewhat predictable, even on harder difficulties, and had their own strengths and weaknesses. This is an example of how there was variety in the AI.
I’ll add a few things that made enemies really fun to fight in halo for me personally, and things that could improve upon the current enemies.
Grunts’ methane tanks sometimes exploded upon death - Elites would use energy swords when their shields were taken down - Making them more realistic; not phasing or shifting everywhere like the current prometheans - Flood combat forms had three types in Halo 3 which added variety and different ways to have to take them down. - Ally marines and elites were more apparent in older games and had good dialogue - Allies in older games didn’t look like power rangers, they looked like soldiersMy Question is this: What were some fun traits that enemies had in previous Halo games? How can 343i create variety in the current enemy (and ally) AI sandbox?
What made enemies so fun in Halo for you?
Give your thoughts
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> This is a post for everyone to add onto, and I think it’s a really important aspect when looking at halo just in general. In older Halo games, the AI were somewhat predictable, even on harder difficulties, and had their own strengths and weaknesses. This is an example of how there was variety in the AI.
>
> I’ll add a few things that made enemies really fun to fight in halo for me personally, and things that could improve upon the current enemies.
> - Grunts’ methane tanks sometimes exploded upon death - Elites would use energy swords when their shields were taken down - Making them more realistic; not phasing or shifting everywhere like the current prometheans - Flood combat forms had three types in Halo 3 which added variety and different ways to have to take them down. - Ally marines and elites were more apparent in older games and had good dialogue - Allies in older games didn’t look like power rangers, they looked like soldiersMy Question is this:
> What were some fun traits that enemies had in previous Halo games? How can 343i create variety in the current enemy (and ally) AI sandbox?What made enemies so fun in Halo for you? Give your thoughts
Also, the funny grunt dialogue, 343 brought that back in Halo 5.
Humour imo. The comments they made, some of the antics too. A brute relieving himself in a corner lol. The enemies had personality, they were funny. I would like more of that going forward. Halo 4 and 5 lost that personality imo. I would also like to see the true colours of some enemies, I stated this before. The brutes are savages, eating grunts, ripping off arms and tearing out throats are some of their more sinister habits, we should see those sides too.
Enemies in past Halo titles didn’t have ridiculous health or unnecessary movement.
Warden is a bullet sponge - Knights & Soldiers teleport - Must break knights 2 back cores just to kill it - Soldiers teleport constantly and cannot be killed while teleporting. - Watchers revive the OP Knights, catch grenades, provide shields.Enemies can be challenging, but adding bizzare modifiers makes it unnecessary and not fun (IMO).
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> Enemies in past Halo titles didn’t have ridiculous health or unnecessary movement.
> - Warden is a bullet sponge - Knights & Soldiers teleport - Must break knights 2 back cores just to kill it - Soldiers teleport constantly and cannot be killed while teleporting. - Watchers revive the OP Knights, catch grenades, provide shields.Enemies can be challenging, but adding bizzare modifiers makes it unnecessary and not fun (IMO).
Agreed. This is kinda why I made this post in the first place, so we could not only give feedback to why they weren’t great enemies, but how this problem could also be solved.
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> Enemies in past Halo titles didn’t have ridiculous health or unnecessary movement.
> - Warden is a bullet sponge - Knights & Soldiers teleport - Must break knights 2 back cores just to kill it - Soldiers teleport constantly and cannot be killed while teleporting. - Watchers revive the OP Knights, catch grenades, provide shields.Enemies can be challenging, but adding bizzare modifiers makes it unnecessary and not fun (IMO).
Yes that was honestly way to much health, and on harder difficulties he can one shot you with some of his attacks
& 4. While it makes sense with the level of Forerunner technology it does get annoying when they DON’T STOP TELEPORTING
It is possible to do it without breaking the two back plates(By just shooting it anywhere until it disintegrates or just shooting off one Plate and blasting the exposed core)
Yes I hate these SOOO much, they are even worse than the Engineers of Halo Reach, (Which weren’t bad as far as scaling, just overshield for multiple enemies[or giving an energy shield to enemies who don’t have one] and repairing the energy shield of you enemies).
I didn’t think it was necessarily the Ai themselves, but how they fight. Covenant were always straightforward, with slight sudden gameplay mechanics.(Not in Halo 5 though) The prometheans are too random.
Once you see how the enemies interact with each other, each encounter becomes like a puzzle box with different ways to approach it. For example, you could just go blasting away, or specifically kill the Elite first and the Grunts will scatter, making it easier to clean them up.
Or get into a position so the Flood Carrier Form is between you and your enemies and blow it up to send them flying.
The Promethean’s have no behavior like this that I know of, so the only strategy is just keep shooting. I think the Knight’s changes in Halo 5 are neat, but could also be improved on.
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> Predictable and learn-able behavior.
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> Once you see how the enemies interact with each other, each encounter becomes like a puzzle box with different ways to approach it. For example, you could just go blasting away, or specifically kill the Elite first and the Grunts will scatter, making it easier to clean them up.
>
> Or get into a position so the Flood Carrier Form is between you and your enemies and blow it up to send them flying.
>
> The Promethean’s have no behavior like this that I know of, so the only strategy is just keep shooting. I think the Knight’s changes in Halo 5 are neat, but could also be improved on.
Predictable behavior is HUGE. I’m glad someone mentioned this
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> Enemies in past Halo titles didn’t have ridiculous health or unnecessary movement.
> - Warden is a bullet sponge - Knights & Soldiers teleport - Must break knights 2 back cores just to kill it - Soldiers teleport constantly and cannot be killed while teleporting. - Watchers revive the OP Knights, catch grenades, provide shields.Enemies can be challenging, but adding bizzare modifiers makes it unnecessary and not fun (IMO).
soldiers are also bullet sponges, should not take more than half a clip from an AR to take them down
I think that that the 3rd party combat system has always made combat in halo fun(yes even in the new ones). What I mean by this is, for example, in halo 2 on the mission “Gravemind” when you were fighting the Covenant loyalists AND the elite separatists at the same time. but the best part (IMO) was that they were also fighting each other. It’s always fun to watch the brutes and elites battle it out. It’s always fun to watch 2 other enemy factions battle each other, wether it be covenant vs elites, covenant vs sentinels, covenant vs flood, sentinels vs flood, covenant vs wild animals, or covenant vs promethians. The 3rd party battle system has always been one of my favorite elements in Halo and I hope 343 is able to not only keep, but improve it as well.
1: The fact they had really distinct shapes and roles. You knew what an Elite was and you knew by color only wether or not you were screwed. You knew Grunts were cannon fodder and you knew who the boss was by the way Elites commanded them. CE did this perfectly and no other game in the series has recaptured that clear hierarchy within the Covenant quite as well.
2: The fact that the AI was insane for its time. Taking cover? Hunting you down? Man that was something back in the days. I’d say with H3 you started to see the cracks appearing in the AI development. Brutes were mostly just standing still shooting at you and no enemy really learned some new tricks to keep things interesting. Instead of moving towards having enemies regroup, or even switching weapons to counter you a bit we got more of the same. Prometheans are even worse because their all essentially Brute variants in the sense that they’re one-trick bullet sponges.
If we could go back to smart, cutting edge, AI with a distinct role for each enemy that would be really great. Also: yes the fights between factions where you could sit on the sideline and watch if you wanted were great too. Again: look no further than Covie vs Flood fights in CE or the H2 levels during the Great Schism.
I thought the promethians in h4 would have been fine if they didnt make the knights invincible during teleport. they loved to teleport right when you take their shields out but since you cant predict where they go you could never finnish them off before their shields fully regen. Instead of fixing the simple issue 343 turned the knights into these boring lumbering uninteristing opponents. I hope they go back to their h4 selves in infinite just without those insane i-frames during teleport. As for the cov they deff lost a lot of intelligence since the og games. I hope they bring them back up to snuff. I thought it was really cool how in h3 groups of enemies would do things like all throw grenades together. I dont think they still do that in 4/5? Also rememeber how in reach enemies would use armor abilities like hologram, evade or armor lock? Might be interisting to bring some of those abilities back for high tier enemies.
I think that what makes Halo’s enemies fun to fight is how they react to us, the players. In most games, combatants will just repeat the same patterns of attacking the player until they go down. But in Halo, enemies react to you and your actions. Grunts will panic if you appear suddenly, kill one of them from afar, or take out their leader. Same for jackels if you break their shields or get up close to them. Elites and Brutes will get extra aggressive if you break their shields, and higher ranking ones will draw a sword on you if you get too close. And nearly all Covenant enemies will flinch if you get a good hit on them.
This is what makes the Covenant different from the Prometheans. The latter group doesn’t really react to the player nor their actions. They’re just glorified metal posts that shoot you. They don’t flinch or change tactics when you shoot them, except for the Watchers, but those guys are just annoying because they bring combat to a grinding halt by spawning hardlight shields.
