For my graduation project, I am researching into Enemy Design.
As part of my field research, I'm asking as many people as possible about their favorite enemy in video games. If you want to help me out, then please answer this question for me:

What is (one of) your favorite enemy or encounter in a game?
- Please specify from which game it is.
- If you can, provide information why you feel that it is such a great fight or encounter.

If you can't think of your 'all time favorite' enemy, just pick whatever comes into mind first.

I personally have problems naming my all-time favorite, but one that springs to mind are the ninja enemies from Oboro Muramasa.

They really give me the feeling I am actually fighting ninja's, and not some random moving sprite. I think they give me that feeling because of their use of smoke bombs to disappear and reappear, which really adds a feeling of realness and intelligent behavior on top of plainly throwing ninja stars.

In fact, I think I like Oboro Muramasa's AI design in general, most of the bossfights really suck me in

When I first played the generation of games at the time of HL2, FEAR, Far Cry, et cetera, I was really impressed by the AI of F.E.A.R. (dated now but see Jeff Orkin's "3 States and a Plan": http://web.media.mit.edu/~jorkin/ ), because of the chatter and their flanking and cover-seeking maneuvers, etc. that added a deeper sense of using tactics that varied with weapon and environment. At the time this stuff was implemented in a fresh and clever way, such as timing the chatter with certain triggers to make it seem like they were calling for reinforcements.

Bonus: Familiar with Bart Simon? A contrastive look (at cooperative AI) - Human, all too non-Human: Coop AI and the Conversation of Action - With great stuff like ... 'the solo game is posthumanistically social... '

The only game I can actually recall any enemy is in Metal Gear Solid. The fact that I cant remember any other enemy just goes to show how crap they all were. MGS enemies were awesome. They had character, uniqueness, dialogue, some sort of history with the protagonist almost like 007 but much less tacky and more profound (yes I find the entire 007 series shit)

I haven't played mgs2/3/4/whatever bullshit they have out now. MGS and Matrix have one thing in common, there shouldn't have been any sequels.


Isn't this all just a matter of personal preference? I also tend to like semi-enemies that have the cute recurring failure like characteristics that most games have for comedic value. (e.g The 3 dude in FF7 I forgot their name, Turk was one of them)

I'd say any from MGS too. A clever mechanic was Psycho Mantis reading the saved games on your memory card -- great idea.

I like enemies with a back story that's connected to the hero.

My favorite is Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. It's all about build up in this case. The fact that Sephiroth is a seriously powerful force is built up in so many ways. The beginning of the game you are fighting against Shinra, and the person representing the evil aspects of the company is president Shinra. He is found dead with Sephiroth's sword in him, even though Sephiroth was thought to be dead.

This first build up is great because at the beginning of the game your impression is that the whole world is Midgar, and it's all about fighting the Shinra. And this guy does away with all that in one swoop.

Fastforward a couple of hours, and there are snakes on a field, and you can't fight them because they're far too powerful, so you need to outrun them. To push the point, if you want to you can in fact fight the snake, and it is ridiculously powerful. When you get to the other side, you find that Sephiroth has killed one and left it impaled on a giant stick. Again, this is a powerful man. This basically happens again in again in surprising ways.

Also, there's the aspect of imagery and emotional response. Aeris' death was widely considered the most emotional moment in a video game at that point, at the hands of Sephiroth. The imagery and music was pretty damn powerful for all us preteens who were watching. He also kills the main characters mother and destroys his town, and you get to watch it all. Him walking through the fire was a nice touch, and visually conveys his badassness.

The last fight is done in the style of any other fight. To make it powerful, the camera moves in a way that it never has before at the beginning of the fight, zooming in on Sephiroth and Cloud. No music plays, eerily. It's a badass fight (and there's not even a fight, you win if you attack).

So, it's mostly about amazing build up in this case. You can find similarly built up villians in Xenogears (just a year later) with Graft (sp?) and ID, and a few others. Also really well done.

Runner up would have to be the fight in Half Life against the many legged monster that can't hear. The badass thing about the fight is you need to avoid him by being quiet, but he kills you instantly and can do so at any time randomly. It's psychologically thrilling to crawl by him as you could get hit at any time. You can also trick him by throwing things. The concept is simply enough to understand easily, but he's still hard to defeat, and it's very effective psychologically. This is an enemy which is great solely based off of game mechanics.

Second runner up in Glados from Portal, but I don't think I need to explain that.

liosama Wrote:Isn't this all just a matter of personal preference?

Yes indeed, this is all a matter of personal preference.
For the designer however, this is exactly what he would want to know. Cause its exactly what he can't predict by himself. I have my own idea's on what is and what is not interesting enemy behavior, however that is essentially irrelevant cause as a developer you will want your players to enjoy your game, and not make a game that only you like.

So for me it is interesting to see what kind of enemies appeal to people, and why.
You and Torida like enemies who have some sort of background story or personality, so you are more drawn towards the narrative side, while nest0r actually enjoys the feeling of a cooperative enemy. Both of these differ from my point of view on what makes up for great enemy encounters.

[ファブリス]

The environment of the Tomb Raider series.

This game series is unique in that you control Lara and you find your way around the environment. It's easy to focus on Lara and think that the game revolves around a pretty heroine and that's behind the sales. It's certainly part of the appeal of the game, but there's much more to it.

I'm always amazed at the simplicty of the UI in this game. In Tomb Raider Underworld, to further emphasis the you & the environment, there is not even a health bar or ammo displayed, unless you press a key and it appears for a brief moment.

In Tomb Raider, there are "bosses" which help with the story going forward, but almost every other kind of enemies are filler: spiders, tigers, bats, .. they're just there to change the rhythm of the game.

So yeah, I'm not even sure calling the environment of Tomb Raider an "enemy" but in a way it is there as the challenge, and the only thing between you and the end of the game. There are many games I think which also focus on the "background", perhaps more frequent in puzzle games? But in First Person games, Tomb Raider is quite unique.

liosama Wrote:I haven't played mgs2/3/4/whatever bullshit they have out now. MGS and Matrix have one thing in common, there shouldn't have been any sequels.

That sort of seems like the kind of judgment that's less than absolutely meaningless coming from someone who hasn't actually played the games in question. Heck, I'd say MGS3 was probably one of the best in the series -- it's definitely on par with the first one in my book, maybe even a little better.

Can't actually comment on the topic on hand, though, my netbook's about to run out of batteries, and I don't have an adapter for these damnable Korean outlets. Just wanted to get my two cents in here before I'm cut off from the internet for a few days.

One of my favorite games on the N64 was Mischief Makers. Particularly, because it had absolutely awesome boss fights. It had so many awesome ones, that I honestly don't think I could pick a single one of those enemies as my favorite.
They aren't particularly memorable for their personalities, or anything like that. But just the pure awesomeness of the ass-kicking that you were about to lay down on them.

Here are a few of my faves:
Migen:

Cerberus Alpha:

Final Boss:

But lastly, I would like to mention the poor goomba from Super Mario bros. The most common and basic enemy. He offers little resistance, and is more there to prey on the players carelessness than anything else. In later games like super mario bros 3, he actually becomes a *tool*, as you can jump on him to reach heights that you normally wouldn't be able to. He is also rather cute and non-threatening looking. You almost feel sorry for him.

Yes I should have added though I supposed it was a given, it was the increased depth from the sense of cohesion and joint interactivity/awareness that also made me appreciate the basic FEAR AI.

Goombas :-p

The first thing that's coming to mind is that I liked all the boss battles for the different temples in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the N64. I like enemies and boss battles where it's not immediately clear what you need to do to defeat them. Having to figure that out makes it more fun for me.

shirokuro Wrote:The first thing that's coming to mind is that I liked all the boss battles for the different temples in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the N64. I like enemies and boss battles where it's not immediately clear what you need to do to defeat them. Having to figure that out makes it more fun for me.

But... in zelda games, the weak spot is always glowing or something... and you always need to use the weapon that you just found in that dungeon. I'd hardly say that it's not immediately clear how to beat them :p
They ARE pretty fun and exciting though.

Zarxrax Wrote:

shirokuro Wrote:The first thing that's coming to mind is that I liked all the boss battles for the different temples in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the N64. I like enemies and boss battles where it's not immediately clear what you need to do to defeat them. Having to figure that out makes it more fun for me.

But... in zelda games, the weak spot is always glowing or something... and you always need to use the weapon that you just found in that dungeon. I'd hardly say that it's not immediately clear how to beat them :p
They ARE pretty fun and exciting though.

Hehe, well yeah, but I found some more obvious than others. And even the ones that were pretty obvious were still fun. If things are too hard to figure out, then you might lose too much health before you can actually start getting some damage on the boss.

My favorite enemies were probably any of the weird things in Dead Space. The main reason was because you had to take unconventional approaches to deal with them which really added on the pressure.

After that would probably be the thugs with guns in Arkham Asylum. You can't approach them directly so you have to sneak around to deal with them. Watching them freak out as they get more and more paranoid really adds to the atmosphere also.

Yeah my favourite enemies were the innocent people I indiscriminately slaughtered as a Drow vampire assassin in Oblivion, after I joined the Dark Brotherhood, because of their horrified screams and their terrified expressions as I butchered them at their most helpless. *giggle*

Head-crab zombies from Half-Life 2. The enemy itself is pretty standard fare for a Half-Life game, or really any game with a zombified enemy. I think what really makes the encounter interesting is that if you set one of the zombies on fire you can hear the guy screaming. So then you suddenly realize that the head-crab leaves it's victim alive and only controls the functions.

I also like the enemies from Dynasty Warriors. No reason, just that they're so stupid they just stand around you so you get tons of kills. I love Dynasty Warriors.

It's not my favorite enemy, but I liked the hydra in Chrono Cross. It's not because it was tough; it's because you didn't know whether it was the right thing to do to kill it or not. There are different outcomes depending on what you do after you kill it, but before the battle, there wasn't a clear way to know whether things would be alright or not.

Basically, you had killed the hydra to obtain its humor to make an antidote for one of your party mates. The hydra, however, helped keep the marsh alive. By killing it, you would destroy the marsh, rendering many of the creatures that lived there dead all for the sake of one human being.

An enemy that keeps coming back isn't necessarily frightening. Often times, it's actually annoying. What is unnerving knowing that it might not have been an enemy.

(Also, that one lady helped the girl in The Ring and the little boy was like, "Whaaaaat? You's a stupid ho." So the reverse works well too.)

TheVinster Wrote:Head-crab zombies from Half-Life 2. The enemy itself is pretty standard fare for a Half-Life game, or really any game with a zombified enemy. I think what really makes the encounter interesting is that if you set one of the zombies on fire you can hear the guy screaming. So then you suddenly realize that the head-crab leaves it's victim alive and only controls the functions.

I also like the enemies from Dynasty Warriors. No reason, just that they're so stupid they just stand around you so you get tons of kills. I love Dynasty Warriors.

That's so true about the HL2 facehugger zombies, that was freaky. Gotta triple tap them or behead them, it's a mercy-killing. ^_-

I second Sephiroth and Goombas for the reasons above (I had precisely 1 hp left when I beat Sephiroth, I thought it was all over and then, well it was! very uniquely memorable moment, but not by boss design... ).

The Zelda bosses are satisfying even though they're straightforward and systematic to beat. They're the final puzzle in the dungeon, and they get your pulse up a bit after you've spent ages standing around looking at things. And you're always rewarded for beating them.


Another great one, for different reasons --

Shadow of the Collossus! You're slaying mountains! They're the only other thing in the landscape besides you and your horse. You don't even know quite why you're hunting them down. Some don't really look menacing, more like they've been happily getting on long before you turned up. So there are moments you feel almost like you're killing off some endangered species (or was that just me?).

There's the awe when you first see one, then all the fun and puzzle aspect comes in figuring out not just it's weak point, but physically how to get up there. And they 'become' the environment as you grapple your way up. Simple idea, brilliant enemy.

Mcjon01 Wrote:

liosama Wrote:I haven't played mgs2/3/4/whatever bullshit they have out now. MGS and Matrix have one thing in common, there shouldn't have been any sequels.

That sort of seems like the kind of judgment that's less than absolutely meaningless coming from someone who hasn't actually played the games in question. Heck, I'd say MGS3 was probably one of the best in the series -- it's definitely on par with the first one in my book, maybe even a little better.

Can't actually comment on the topic on hand, though, my netbook's about to run out of batteries, and I don't have an adapter for these damnable Korean outlets. Just wanted to get my two cents in here before I'm cut off from the internet for a few days.

Well I have 'played' 2 and 3, but no I haven't finished them. I usually walk out when I'm watching a shit movie, like-wise I stop playing when I believe I'm playing a shit game.

liosama Wrote:

Mcjon01 Wrote:

liosama Wrote:I haven't played mgs2/3/4/whatever bullshit they have out now. MGS and Matrix have one thing in common, there shouldn't have been any sequels.

That sort of seems like the kind of judgment that's less than absolutely meaningless coming from someone who hasn't actually played the games in question. Heck, I'd say MGS3 was probably one of the best in the series -- it's definitely on par with the first one in my book, maybe even a little better.

Can't actually comment on the topic on hand, though, my netbook's about to run out of batteries, and I don't have an adapter for these damnable Korean outlets. Just wanted to get my two cents in here before I'm cut off from the internet for a few days.

Well I have 'played' 2 and 3, but no I haven't finished them. I usually walk out when I'm watching a shit movie, like-wise I stop playing when I believe I'm playing a shit game.

Well why didn't you say so? That basically changes my opinion entirely. I've no problem with people disliking games that I like, it's just passing judgment on things they've never even bothered to so much as look at that annoys me. I'd say give MGS3 another chance, at least, since it's prequel status makes it practically a stand-alone game and I think it's the only one in the MGS series that measures up to the first one plot-wise, but it's also a fairly radical departure in gameplay.

I don't know if can call it an enemy, but Id in Xenogears is one of the coolest "characters" I've encountered playing too many RPGs to remember.

The Master from the current Doctor Who - insane + brilliant.

The childlike things with knives in the first Silent Hill and the Pyramid head in Silent Hill 2 - creepy as hell.

Ozymandias from watchmen - 35 minutes ago line was just perfect.

Vegita... I mean Magus from Chrono Trigger - loved his lines when I younger.

Oh... wait. Just games?

The "would you kindly" guy from Bioshock - perfect twist.

The Mad Hatter from Batman and Robin on Genesis - trippy.

Oh shit... just one?

What's the point of that?

Then Magus gets the win. Having things change based on whether or not you killed him was part of what made the game so interesting.