Interesting Enemies In Gaming

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This is something that many of the best video games of all time have, from Mario or Zelda to Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden to F.E.A.R. or Halo. Yet, it's an underrated feature of games that I think a lot of people notice on a more subconscious level, yet few people actually vocalize their thoughts on it. This thread is dedicated to highlighting some of your favorite enemies (and yes, that includes bosses) in gaming, and explaining WHY you find them so interesting and fun challenges, or just find them to make the game more fun even if they aren't hard to fight, but can be exploited in some way.

Just to give you a bare bones example of what I'm talking about, let's take an iconic game like Super Mario Bros. and many of its various sequels, but mainly just the original in this case. The Goomba is basically the first enemy that you encounter, and your first obstacle to overcome, so naturally it's made as simple as possible. It gets the job done, but once you are decent enough, you find that it's a very shallow enemy. However, just a little bit later on in the game you encounter Koopas. You try and use the same tactic of jumping on their head, but find that rather than killing them, they just hide under their shell. You then find out that you can pick up that shell and throw or slide it, which can allow you to kill it by throwing it off a cliff, or even better, using it as a potential weapon to take out other enemies. This, relative to the Goomba, is a much more interesting enemy.

Likewise, in games you can have mindless drones for enemies like in most COD clones or in your typical DE game, or much more intelligent enemies like in Half-Life, or more versatile enemies like in Devil May Cry. It's probably also something that you didn't notice among the many things you may have disliked about RE6 when that came out. With a game like RE4, even the "zombie" type enemies had surprising personality to them and were incredibly nuanced. Comparatively, RE6 really did make them pretty mindless, which made them significantly less fun to fight and try to exploit.

So, the first game I'm going to highlight for now is the aforementioned Halo. As far as single-player gameplay goes, I consider it to be among the best FPS games out there, and while the PC elitists can call it out on not being all that original or technically proficient, or the modern gamers can say that it's not as "epic" with completely scripted set-pieces like COD or Uncharted. However, turn the difficulty up to anything above normal (and play it solo, because co-op really kills the element of strategy from the game, as fun as it is), and suddenly run and gun tactics don't work, and then you have to slow down your pace and take cover, and then you start to notice things about the enemies and their behavior. For one thing, the Grunts are amazingly full of personality, from the things that they say to the way that they act in battle. For instance, when they are in a large group and have Elites in their ranks, they will be quite aggressive and try to flush you out of cover with well-placed (but not cheaply accurate, a la COD) grenades. This is also reflected in their behavior and the demeaning things that they say to you and your Marine allies. However, if you take out the Elites leading their group and or the support fire from Jackals, they start to panic and run away in the lower difficulties. On the higher difficulties they are still affected, but will hole their ground as long as they are still strong enough in number. Should you stick one with a grenade, they will go into a frenzy and usual run to their allies and take them out, sometimes making them a better and more enticing target for plasma sticks than Elites, who will instead proudly hold their ground and just die by themselves.

Speaking of Elites, you could almost write a book on the nuance and depth of this enemy in each game. These guys don't only have your shield and your combat system to work with, but on the higher difficulties they are incredibly evasive, and their AI substantially improves with rank (indicated by the color of their armor). However, even the most basic of Elites will take cover, attempt to flank you or distract you to allow other enemies to flank you, and in some cases will try to rush you when they know that they have you cornered. If there are vehicles nearby, they will immediately prioritize taking them rather than attacking you, which is really interesting to know in a certain mission of the original Halo where you can take one out before it reaches it's Banshees, allowing you to claim it and skip to the end of the level in almost no time.

And on the subject of Elites manning Banshees, did you know that you can actually directly predict their course of flight without fail? Most people think that it's random, but it's all controlled by AI that reacts to YOU, so knowing this can allow you to actually influence their flight path. This is very useful when you have a Rocket Launcher. Normally they are too fast to hit with it, but if you get their attention and either fire at them with a weapon or stand in their direct line of site, they will fly directly at you, and will only shoot light bursts at you until they are close enough,which your shield can take, even on Legendary. When they are close enough, you can fire off a rocket and kill them instantly, but if you so much a duck behind cover before it actually hits, they will swerve out of the way since you are now out of their site, thus showing how you indirectly influence their flight path.

I could go on about every enemy in the game, but I'd be talking forever. I thought it was worth bringing up because if you're one of those people who think that Halo games are just standard FPS and nothing more, consider the design I just mentioned and compare it to the mindless soldier drones in most movie-shooters of today. To me, it's just so much more interesting in design.

The next time I post, I'll cover some DMC enemies, and explain why they make these games more than just glorified combo-bait like most people who haven't played much of the classic games seem to assume that they are.

[talonmalon333]

If I could, I would post basically every monster in Silent Hill 1, 2, and 3.

They aren't all especially challenging (in fact, many of the monsters in 2 are too slow to pose any threat). But there is just so much intrigue to them and what they represent. Like, I think that literally every monster in those games (with maybe one or two exceptions) represents something in the overarching storyline, and it can encompass their design, their movements, and the way they attack. For some monsters, their symbolism is a little obvious, but many aren't as clear and require a lot of thought. If it wasn't for them, the storylines of the games just wouldn't be as effective.

Not to mention... many of them are downright terrifying, mostly in 1. Also, there is a handful of them (mostly in 1 and 3) that can give the player a lot of trouble.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Pyramid Head = Rape

And that's about all I know of the Silent Hill games, though I do hope to play them some day.

While I haven't played any of the games, I've watched friends play through REmake and RE2 back in the day, and those have some pretty intriguing enemies.

Speaking of Resident Evil, did anyone know that you can kill the first El Gigante that you encounter in the game in a single hit with grenade using a wall-bounce trick? Granted that, you still have to stun it first, and in a certain position next to the wall, but it's still an amazingly fun and quick way to take it out. I can't imagine how someone sat down and discovered that, but it's totally a thing.

[talonmalon333]

Pyramid Head = Rape

Maybeeee.

Once you someday play the games, all will make sense. I do highly recommend them. Though if you can never get the means to play all of them, at least try out 2, being that it was released on the original XBox and is a self-contained game (whereas Silent Hill 1 and 3 have story themes that tie together, and 3 especially should be played after playing 1). But overall, it's worth trying to play all three of them.

While I haven't played any of the games, I've watched friends play through REmake and RE2 back in the day, and those have some pretty intriguing enemies.

Of the classic RE games, I do think RE1/REmake and 2 have the best monsters. The Hunters are my favorite (particularly in the original RE1 for PlayStation). To me, they are still frightening and challenging to this day.

Speaking of Resident Evil, did anyone know that you can kill the first El Gigante that you encounter in the game in a single hit with grenade using a wall-bounce trick? Granted that, you still have to stun it first, and in a certain position next to the wall, but it's still an amazingly fun and quick way to take it out. I can't imagine how someone sat down and discovered that, but it's totally a thing.

That's something I did not know. I'll need to try that out sometime (RE4 is a game I need to go back to replay overall... after I get to the millions of games I want to play for the first time). In general, there are so many things I don't know how people discovered in games. The biggest example is Pokemon Red and Blue. Those games are so loaded with glitches. Like, what made someone talk to the an old man, then fly to Cinnabar Island, and then swim on its coast to discover a glitched mess that gives you 999 of whatever is the 5th item in your inventory?

Speaking of which, I'd like to add Missingno to this topic. I know it barely counts, but it's great.

[Eddy]

Lisa Trever from Resident Evil (she appears in the remake) has always been one of my favorite villains. Finding her back story through a series of notes and journals and finding out how she became the mindless monster she was always made me pity her. And you never forget the first time you encounter her, either.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Kuribo's Shoe. I have no idea how they came up with that idea, but it's still one of the most fun items to use even though it comes from an enemy that is extremely common.

[Daxdiv]

Evice in Pokemon Colosseum. Whoever made his team had a good idea on how competitive battling worked. Friendly reminder of if he starts with Slowking and Slaking, take one of them out first before Slowking can use Skill Swap, since Slaking without Truant will wreck your ass. Also the fact that it's Colosseum makes your choices for party members rather limited. He also has a good Swords Dance/Baton Passer in the form of Scizor as well, along with the fact he has some good number of Physical attackers on his team, he can take your down if you're not prepared.

Hell, even the other Cipher Admins in these games are no slouch in the strategy department. Dakim uses a Protect/Earthquake Combo or one of his ground types has Levitate as it's ability, which means only you'll take damage from his Eartquakes.  This is hard in the early game, especially when you're trying to snag Entei. His later fights have Sunny Day which he uses to cover his Water Type weakness. Venus uses Attract and also has some other status ailments in her arsenal like Stun Spore/Confuse Ray in her later encounters, which can mess up your attacks, by either not doing anything or getting hit yourself. Ein uses Lightning Rod for his team which gets BTFO hard by Electric attacks, and one of them is Rhydon and the other is a Manetric which has Protect. As for Miror B., he does use a Rain Dance team.

[talonmalon333]

Lisa Trever from Resident Evil (she appears in the remake) has always been one of my favorite villains. Finding her back story through a series of notes and journals and finding out how she became the mindless monster she was always made me pity her. And you never forget the first time you encounter her, either.

Lisa Trevor has to be the best monster in terms of story. But overall, I have to call Nemesis the best monster from the series.