Hi I'm Tommy Thompson and welcome to Design Dive on AI and Games, where I look at how
AI impacts game design and vice versa! When I look back on the games that I would argue
have been prolific in shaping player perceptions of what AI can do in games - what they're
capable of versus how it all actually works - I always find my way back to Goldeneye.
Sure, there are many other games that fit that bill, be it Thief: The Dark Project,
Half Life, Black and White, Halo and F.E.A.R. plus contemporary games such as Forza, Alien
Isolation and Shadow of Mordor, but Goldeneye really influenced players perceptions of AI
behaviour, even if they weren't really thinking about it. Now a lot of that isn't down to
the how intelligent they actually are, but the intentionality of design that enriches
the overall experience; redefining what we would come to expect of character behaviour
in games.
So I'm gonna take a trip back to 1997 and examine what it is about Goldeneye that is
still pervasive in game design today.
1997 saw the release of Rare's Goldeneye 007 - an adaption of the Pierce Brosnan Bond film
released almost two years prior. Rare had garnered praise for their work on Nintendo
titles such as Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo and had already released two
games on the Nintendo 64 - Killer Instinct Gold and Blast Corps - with Goldeneye originally
posited as a launch title, but had gone through a prolonged development cycle. It was a first
person shooter on a console, a notion in the mid 90s that was still in it's infancy what
with functional albeit limited ports of DOOM and Wolfenstein 3D on the SNES. However, the
new wave of consoles built for 3D rendering was enabling new titles as well as ports of
famous PC games to make their ways to consoles. It was the fourth FPS released on the Nintendo
64, with three others brought to market earlier that year: Acclaim's excellent Turok Dinosaur
Hunter - based on the little known comic book character from the 1950's -, DOOM 64 - the
first title in the franchise not developed by id Software but instead by Midway - and
a console port of id's fantasy FPS Hexen by GT Interactive.
[CUT] **Note to self... I should really do an episode
on why DOOM 64 is just amazing.** [/CUT]
Goldeneye elevated the contemporary first person shooter on consoles with a greater
freedom of movement, a variety of weapons and gadgets and a collection of non-player
character AI that are hostile to the player or flee when confronted. They act in realistic
and intelligent ways through nicely refined animations. It's something we'd seen kicking
off in PC games already, but there were very few FPS titles on console that had 3D animated
characters attacking the player with lovely fluid animations, with the likes of Turok
and Codename: Tenka on the PS1 preceding it.
While the game established the viability of console shooters - and even more specifically
of local multiplayer on these devices - it left behind a legacy in the design of its
AI characters and systems that has set the standard for many a shooter to this day. So
let's walk through some of the more defining traits behind Goldeneye's characters and how
these influences are still felt today.
-- ENEMY AI -- When you consider the AI of Goldeneye's non-player
characters, it's pretty remarkable that it exists in a console game of this age. Characters
navigate around the space to find suitable attack locations, flee if they're civilians
and non-combat personnel, and even move for alarm switches should the player be detected.
Friendly AI such as Natalya will work with you and attack enemies in proximity. Their
animation system enables for a variety of dodge and attack stances. They respond to
nearby gun shots and other characters being killed in proximity. Plus the number of AI
characters visible in game at once is fairly impressive and doesn't impact the performance
too much (although Goldenye and Perfect Dark were prone to the odd frame rate drop regardless).
Now while this feature list is what we have come to expect of the modern shooter, it's
important to contextualise this by the fact that there wasn't really any other game on
the market at that time that had achieved this. DOOM was still the high-water mark for
the FPS experience but the hordes of hell are rather rudimentary in nature. The novelty
of the gameplay comes not from the level of AI agency, but rather that the range of enemy
types combined with speed of movement creates a fun speed chess environment for target prioritisation
and elimination. Even games that came out in the same time period such as Turok: Dinosaur
Hunter, still prioritised direct assault or standing still while shooting as the primary
AI behaviours. Goldeneye became more about learning patterns of behaviour, of knowing
when to eliminate enemies as they patrolled a route, or made that move towards cover or
attacking the player. Given the ability to attack through stealth or aggression, you
could aim to systematically remove enemies in a region, or simply go runs blazing. It
provided not just depth in the gunplay itself, but versatility in how players can approach
each combat segment. But that target prioritisation still held true: enemies could run for the
alarm, or target your sidekicks - thus establishing the woes of escort missions - but it was still
possible to lose the enemy in the level, to hide and wait for alerts to subside. This
target prioritisation extends to silenced weaponry, as this allows you the affordance
of taking enemies out unnoticed, placing greater emphasis on the tactics of selecting enemies
that nobody will noticed being eliminated.
It set the standard moving forward and has since been improved upon in many a subsequent
release, given a lot of these systems aren't as nuanced as players might remember, with
a lot of the execution dumbed down in an effort to better support an experience on the N64
controller. But amazingly parts of it still hold up to contemporary scrutiny. For 1997
it's still an amazing feat of design and engineering. The stealth elements are later refreshed and
expanded but one year later, with Metal Gear Solid visualising stealth mechanics in a more
amenable and interesting way, while Thief: The Dark Project crafted the template for
pretty much every future stealth games that wasn't Metal Gear Solid. Meanwhile the core
enemy combat behaviour set the stage for the likes of Half-Life to expand upon it with
a similar level of character agency, but a greater diversity of enemy types that enriches
the experience further, with Halo reinforcing this approach in the coming years.
Intelligent AI behaviour aside, the thing that really helped elevate all of this is
the animation system: which is based on a fairly early stage motion capture system,
alongside the hit-detection system that enabled specific contextual death animations having
been shot in the head, the chest or even in the family jewels. Sorry fella. Animation
is critical to an non-player characters behaviour and perceived intelligence, given it's the
primary method through which the player can really interpret what's going on in their
head. As mentioned earlier, this isn't the first game to employ 3D art assets for a shooter,
with other games even on the N64 also in that space, but it's one of the most prominent
of the era that had a variety of animations that helped enrich the experience but more
importantly telegraph enemy behaviour. It helps identify not just when an enemy is moving
in to attack, but whether they're responding to your behaviour agressively or defensively,
it adds a lot more contextual information about whether a character presents a threat
and again reinforce the prioritisation process. As one guy is rolling across the floor, the
other is lining up a shot, while a third is throwing a grenade. This gives you space to
think, but also provides a fun puzzle to try and grok your way out of: do you take out
the grenade thrower and risk being shot, or shoot the soldier taking aim and dodge the
grenade, or y'know, take out the guy rolling and get hit by both!
Plus, I'd be remiss to not take some glee in the hit response system built into enemies
- a system built from the games earliest inspirations by Virtua Cop - given they clearly communicates
the effectiveness of your aim. Did you temporarily disable the enemy or take them out with one
hit. Taking out a soldier with one shot is very satisfying, but equally so is shooting
em in the junk. It's still funny - and painful to watch - 20 years later.
Now I mentioned this already, but friendly and co-operative AI truly came to the fore
in Goldeneye. It's the first game I can think of where escort missions became more commonplace,
but also the idea of interacting with characters to move the story forward. Even from the earliest
moments with Trevelyan in Facility, we see a narrative play out that requires not just
interaction with characters but the staging of set pieces that revolve around them. Trevelyan's
supposed execution at the hands of Ouromov, Natalya helping hack the Goldeneye sateillite,
Boris being forced to co-operate under duress. The idea that the games agency extends beyond
the players interactions - limited and artificial though it may be - was still a novelty at
that time. In many respects this has been supplanted by the likes of cutscenes and what
have you - given even then Goldeneye did some of this for the opening and closing of missions
- but the idea of buddy AI has since been further cemented both by Goldeneye and of
course Perfect Dark with Elvis. This of course has seen tremendous growth over the year with
the likes of Half Life 2, Halo 3, Resident Evil 4, The Last of Us, BioShock Infinite
and Final Fantasy XV all building on the template that Bond put forward.
The last thing that comes to mind might not be immediately obvious, but I would consider
Goldeneye one of the earliest examples of Systemic Design in games: whereby numerous
gameplay systems can influence and interact with one another, often resulting in unexpected
or unintended gameplay to occur. This is more largely defined in modern games by the likes
of the Far Cry franchise, the more recent Hitman titles and even the likes of Legend
of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. But Goldeneye also exhibits some of these principles, with
alarm systems triggering responses in different character types, meanwhile procedural destruction
(referred to by game director Martin Hollis as "cinematic realism") has consoles or screens
near those that explode chaining after a small delay with often random and unpredictable
results. This often create anarchic circumstances that either impede your progress or can be
weaponised to full effect. The scope is relatively limited here, but even being able to lure
enemies to proximity mines and blowing up consoles as enemies enter a room laid the
foundation for many a game that followed it.
You might find some of my arguments a stretch, but for so many of the core staples of character
behaviour in games - especially in shooters - I find us returning to Goldeneye. A game
that was built in a very organic, reactive and somewhat chaotic environment, but built
something that has not only stood the test of time, but set the standard so many games
sought to surpass. There are still fundamental gameplay and AI systems established in this
game that set the stage as the bare minimum for modern games to accomplish, and with even
better tools these days to enable it to be accomplished!
Thanks for watching this episode of Design Dive here on AI and Games. Getting a chance
to revisit Goldeneye was a lot of fun and it was in fact an episode that patrons voted
to see here on the show. Speaking of which, this show is supported over on Patreon, with
a covert shout out via undercover channels to
Bernhard Werner Deeb!
Now you might already be furiously typing in the comments, Tommy this is good and all,
but what you didn't tell us how the AI of Goldeneye works....
*sigh*
OK, then. Fine. Be here, next week. I'll be back with a brand new case study, with assistance
from none other than Dr Doak himself, on the AI of Goldeneye 007. Yeeesh, tough crowd.