For the past week, I haven't so much been "playing" Far Cry 3, as much as "rabidly devouring". I have barely touched the main questline, but I've already crafted everything possible, found over 60% of the collectables, done most of the side missions, and unlocked most of the map. It's a freakin' great game, and I'd be lying if I said otherwise. However, it has a lot of glaring flaws that I think almost stand out even more because the rest of the game is so well-crafted. One flaw in particular has actually become something of a fatal flaw for a lot of modern video games, in my book.
The AI and dialogue for non-combat NPCs is dumb as shit.
There were a lot of points that grated on me, from the ubiquitous rebel fighter that appears in every single camp you liberate, spouting "Who's the man? I'm the man!" ad nauseum, or the rebels in cars that will blindly run over their own men and drive repeatedly into walls and buildings. But for me, the moment that provoked my frustration was when I came upon a small shack on a mountainside, and the resident was being attacked by a huge bear. She was screaming for help, running away from the bear and begging for her life. I stepped in, killed the great beast, and saved her life. The instant that bear was dead, before its body had even hit the ground, her animation changed to a calm walk, and she started musing about "Hmm, I wonder if he still thinks about me..."
Yanked me right out of the game.
This is becoming a major problem with immersion for a lot of AAA titles nowadays. I am a lot more forgiving with indie titles, due to their budget constraints and small dev teams, but for major titles coming from big publishing houses like Ubisoft? This is re-goddamn-diculous. It completely breaks the illusion in an otherwise immersive game. No longer am I Jason Brody, average-man-turned-savage-warrior stalking through the jungle to save the friends I love...I'm back to being the Cranky Old Gamer, sitting on my ratty couch with a controller in my hand and a cup of coffee getting cold.
For another example that has been hugely maligned over this issue, let's take a look at Skyrim. Now, a lot of Skyrim's Radiant AI system is mind-boggling. I can't hate on the game too much, because I do know how much went into that system, and just how insanely in-depth it really is. And yet, again that almost makes the flaws glare a little bit more by comparison. On one hand, NPCs live entire lives, completely independent of the player's actions, and will interact with each other and go about their jobs. If you anger someone, they will actually travel to mercenaries and hire people to kick your ass. People have followed Skyrim NPCs just to see what they do, and they actually do some amazing shit!
Yet, at the same time you can be walking around in a full suit of Daedric armor, secure in your status as the Master of the Thieves' Guild, Arch-Mage at the College Of Winterhold, and THE FUCKING DRAGONBORN, SAVIOR OF MANKIND, and people will completely ignore that and say the most inane bullshit to you. Forget the overused lines about arrows and knees. I mean things like guards mocking you with "Let me guess, someone stole your sweet roll?", or people asking if you "carry the mead" for the Companions. And who hasn't wanted to kill Nazeem? The argument has been made that "Well in that medieval-level world, word doesn't travel as fast, it's not like they have phones or computers or even telegraphs!" Yeah, that holds no water with me. I've literally had guards mock me or tell me "no lollygagging!" as I'm standing over the body of a dragon they just watched me kill.
This destroys the world you've worked so hard to build, and that I've worked so hard to wrap my belief in. I mean, I'm not asking to be able to sit down and have a deep meaningful conversation about philosophy and existence with every randomly generated twit meandering about, but can we get some realism in the world? Some legitimate reactions to the world around them? It couldn't be that hard to tell an NPC after an attack by a bear, to sit down and say "Wow, I thought I was a goner! I need to catch my breath!"
And have segues. For God's sake, segues would make a world of difference. I hate seeing NPCs click between emotions like that. Instead of jumping from "OH GOD I'M GOING TO DIE", directly into "Hmm, I should buy milk at the store", how about throwing something in the middle, like "Man, that was terrifying! I hope I never have to live through something like that again!" Something that registers as realistic emotion and reaction, even if it's artificial. Keep up the act! The fact that you have reactions to combat/violence events is great, but I've seen some games where NPCs don't even register things like car crashes or murders around them.
Game devs, this is not something you can keep ignoring. We've reached
an age where Combat AI is absolutely mind-blowing, and our opponents can
use stealth, strategy, and dirty tricks against us in our video games.
Combat AI can learn how we fight, and adapt to it. So why can't some
level of attention be paid to the rest of the game? You've put so much detail into so many things, don't neglect this one.
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