On that note, I wish more shooters weren't just Rambo. Some of my favourite battles were ones where it felt like I was part of a larger offensive (I think Call of Duty 1 and 2 did this a lot). Unfortunately, the gaming industry completely ignored that design and went on to make one-man army games instead because of the power fantasy, which I find boring. I want to be part of an army. I want to be part of a war. I want to see dropships fly overhead. Artillery smashing the other side of the ridge. Fellow soldiers being gunned down as we push on an entrenched position.
Deus Ex ducks this trope. It's technically possible to shoot your way through, but it is much easier and quicker to talk or sneak your way through.
Most people don’t find actually smart AI fun to play against. It’s why modern online games have ranked matchmaking, because it’s the most fun to play against someone who is a little bit worse or better than you.
> But I think the real problem is this Rambo model of games. In reality, a single assailant against a large number of armed defenders should never be able to attack their way into a base. They should be pinned down by the occupying forces until the ammo runs out. You could sneak in, but you can't just show up with a rifle or machine gun and get anywhere. But aside from the possible solution of harvesting comedy gold from this trope, this reality based model would be really, really boring.
The Metal Gear Solid games (especially 1,2, and 3) are exactly this. It doesn’t take long to learn to be quiet; if you cause an alarm, teams of enemies with way better guns and armor than you show up and kill you.
This is a common myth that has basically never been tested. I know devs (particularly of stealth games) claim as much from their playtests, but I hope I don't need to point out the troubles with the approach of playtest-driven game design.
At the end of the day nobody has ever actually given an actual shot and released, say, a stealth game with guards that are similarly good at their jobs as real guards would be and have a vision range of more than 5 meters.
It's one of those super common game design wisdoms like 'let your your player jump a few frames after they've left the platform, otherwise it'll feel bad' and it's applied in most jump and runs because it's the right thing to do and then you get one of the most critically praised jump and runs of all time like super meat boy which uses exactly zero of these common wisdoms and instead just works with proper and tight game design.
Can you give examples of games that implement this, where jump and run is also a core mechanic?
I've only seen this in Dead Cells, co-creator of which argues that the game wasn't supposed to be a jump and run in the first place.
It makes sense SMB wouldn't implement these crutches as it's literally the whole challenge of the game.
The more frame-by-frame difference there is of that projection, the more visible you are.
Seems like possibly quite a resource-hungry solution. Or maybe not?
I can definitively say that in some games the stealth is so difficult that you need to use exploits just to complete it at all instead of taking the simple combat route of just killing everything. In Warframe all guns instantly alert all enemies, melee weapons and thrown weapons are silent but in reality they produce sounds too. If the AI was alerted by them then the only way to do stealth would be to just use permanent invisibility (most players don't even bother because it's too difficult).
At the beginning of my career I toyed with the idea of specializing in game AI but decided I didn't want to write games for a living. I didn't entirely like what games were doing to my friends.
I recall that Halo 2 made a big deal out of the fact that part of compiling the game maps included putting metadata in about terrain and cover, which is why some of the mobs would hide behind crates when wounded. You had to play hide and seek with them the same way they had to do with you. I'd really like more of this. In theory these bad guys have been in this area for a long time. Of course they should use the terrain to their advantage.
And as you mentioned about lobbing grenades around corner, the reverse should also be true. If one grenade blew up in this spot nothing is stopping another one from coming. You should avoid that area for a while, and move to where you can shoot anyone who comes into it.
But I think the real problem is this Rambo model of games. In reality, a single assailant against a large number of armed defenders should never be able to attack their way into a base. They should be pinned down by the occupying forces until the ammo runs out. You could sneak in, but you can't just show up with a rifle or machine gun and get anywhere. But aside from the possible solution of harvesting comedy gold from this trope, this reality based model would be really, really boring.