A few of the reviews for SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs have complained about its poor AI. My own glowing post about the game included just such a remark in fact. Well I got the opportunity to talk with Seth Luisi the producer of SOCOM and he dropped some info on me about the AI that I haven't seen mentioned anyplace else so I figured I should share it with you all.
I should have stated in my previous post that I was only on the third level of the single player campaign. From what Seth tells me the enemy AI ramps up significantly from there, with level five being the real turning point. He also had this to say:
"As you complete SOCOM multiple times the AI keeps getting more and more difficult. By the time you make the Admiral rank the AI will kill you like a dog before you get two feet unless you are a SOCOM God."
Shit damn, that sounds hot. As for why the enemies start out so easy Seth dropped this little nugget on me:
"…being a console game with what we hope has mass market appeal we had to dumb down the AI on the first 3-4 levels considerably since everyone in our difficulty tests were getting completely slaughtered by the AI. So, now the "smartness" of the enemy AI ramps up through the levels, which is really how it should be anyway. The enemies in the first level of Mario Sunshine are not exactly the brightest, are they?"
So there's the dirt on the AI straight from the man who should know. So far when I play SOCOM it tends to be multiplayer so I am not progressing through the single player levels. Now that I know what to expect I think I'll devote some time to it on Saturday. I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks Seth for the heads up on the AI.
-Gabe out
