Horror Games With The Most Unsettling AI Behavior

Summary

• Horror games rely on AI to create realistic threats like relentless enemies in famous titles.
• Mods for Lethal Company allow enemies to mimic players’ voices, adding a terrifying layer to gameplay.
• In some games, the enemy AI strategizes and adapts to players’ choices, making them scarier.

Horror games are normally only as scary as their main monster(s), be they humanoid or something that doesn’t quite ascribe to our laws of anatomy. In order to truly create a tangible threat roaming around in the environment alongside the player character, they’ll equip it with an AI to determine its behavior.

In some cases, the enemy AI can be advanced to truly challenge the player for their survival, or designed to exhibit terrifying behavior. This can be stalking the player relentlessly, walking randomized patrol paths or even hiding, ready to spring out and scare the player witless.

8 Lethal Company

A Clever Mod Allows Enemies to Mimic the Voices of the Players

Lethal Company is one of those multiplayer games made for mods. From extra costumes to quality-of-life changes and even new enemies, modders have been hard at work making this already great game even better. One of these must-have mods alters enemy behavior in a slight but absolutely terrifying way.

Known as the Skinwalker mod on Thunderstore, this mod listens to players and copies what they say, playing back some of the words spoken from the mouth of enemies, which could potentially lure their unsuspecting friends to their doom. It’s even more eerie when players hear the voice of someone they already know to be dead.

7 Welcome to the Game 2

Every Potential Enemy Has Different Behavior

• Platforms: PC
• Released: April 3rd, 2018
• Developers: Reflect Studios

Welcome to the Game 2 is not a very welcoming experience, from its punishing difficulty to the variety of threats. Players must survive and overcome these obstacles while browsing the deep web in hopes of accessing a specific site to try and save the life of a young woman who has garnered the wrong kind of attention through her investigations.

Delving into this dark section of the internet is a dangerous affair, with the player having to worry about Noir, a hit-man called Lucas, a serial killer known as the Breather, a possible visit from the Dollmaker, as well as swat raids. Each of these units has different behavior, and the player must memorize their patterns and behaviors, or they will certainly die. One of the most tense is Lucas, who will break into players’ apartment, forcing them to hide and avoid noise, or maybe even just shoot them through the peephole.

6 At Dead of Night

Jimmy Tricks Players into Believing They Are Safe

This indie FMV horror game made a surprising impact on the internet, with no one expecting it to be quite as frightening as it was. After Maya and her friends decide to stay the night in an empty hotel on their way to a music festival, they find their stay anything but comfortable. Maya awakens during the night to see their friends beset by Jimmy and sets out in the hotel to escape him, aided by the ghosts of past victims.

Considering the main and only threat in At Dead of Night is merely a human, one might expect this game to pack less of a punch when compared to other titles in the horror genre. And yet, Jimmy’s behavior can certainly be startling, as he hides around corners to spring out in a heart-attack-inducing jumpscare, or even worse, fool players into believing he has left the hotel room they are in only to hide in the bathroom in wait. It is impossible to tell if he truly has left the room or not, making that fateful walk to the door a true test of courage.

5 A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead

Death Angels Can Hear the Player

Based on the highly popular and successful horror games, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead places players into that horror universe, pitting them against the deathly Death Angels in the shoes of a pregnant woman who is forced to leave her current shelter. The road ahead is long and treacherous, and it is one that must be tread silently, lest death visit her.

Unfortunately, there will be many of these noise-sensitive creatures between her and her destination, forcing not only the character into silence but also the player. Any noise made attracts the creatures’ attention, and too much noise is immediate death. The player will have to try to stifle any noises on their end, as the creature is listening in through their microphone, and will react accordingly. This adds an extra layer of terror and immersion, allowing fans to see how they might fare in this universe.

4 F.E.A.R.

Enemy Soldiers Strategize Just as a Military Squad Would

Everybody knows the F.E.A.R. game series for its mascot, Alma Wade, a terrifying young girl with powers that make her far too dangerous. When Point Man and the rest of the squad enter the facility in the first game, they are beset not only by horrifying hallucinations of Alma but also by enemy forces known as Replica’s, which display some alarmingly realistic behavior.

Their clever AI makes it seem like the player is confronted by a team with formal militia training that they are just dying to put to good use against the player. They talk out loud with each other, giving orders and voicing strategies to counteract the players’ actions. Guns blazing will be met with heavy fire to keep the player at bay. Hide behind cover and enemy forces will converge, forcing the player out of hiding and into the line of fire. No single encounter with these enemy forces is ever the same.

3 Song of Horror

The Presence Learns and Adapts to the Player’s Play Style

• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
• Released: May 16th, 2020
• Developers: Protocol Games

When famed writer Sebastian P. Husher mysteriously vanishes, his editor’s assistant goes searching for him in his house, who also vanishes as there are dark forces at work. Players will play one out of 13 possible characters, all with their own distinct ties to the events that will unfold. Death will cost the player one of these characters, and they will be forced to continue as another one.

But what makes this game stand out even more than its hearty roster, is just how clever the AI is that powers the Presence, the dark and terrifying antagonist. The Presence learns patterns that appear in each player’s unique style of play, meaning the favorite hiding spots will become the place the Presence checks first, never following scripted actions and instead reacting according to everything the player does. This makes the antagonist utterly unpredictable and terrifyingly realistic.

2 Alien: Isolation

Highly Unpredictable Foes

Alien: Isolation brought the iconic xenomorph into the world of survival horror games, resulting in a truly terrifying experience that was almost too scary. Playing as the daughter of Ellen Ripley, they board a space station in search of the Nostromo’s flight recorder in hopes of finding answers. Amanda gets far more than she bargained for, ending up stranded alongside other humans, the Working Joe’s, and a terrifying creature the likes of which she has never seen before.

What made Alien: Isolation so appealing to gamers was the promise of an unscripted AI that would be unleashed and allowed to roam free. Though it remains in close proximity to the player, there are some elements of chance as to where it might wander, making it impossible for players to learn its route to avoid it. In addition to this, the Working Joe’s can be just as unpredictable, as they may just spout off their built-in dialogue at the player, or try and bludgeon them to death. And this makes them all the more unsettling.

1 Resident Evil 2

Mr. X Never Strays too Far from the Player

There are few Resident Evil games quite as stressful as Resident Evil 2, and this is largely thanks to the unstoppable juggernaut known as Mr. X. While fleeing inside the Raccoon City Police Department from the zombies ravaging the streets, Leon and Claire likely had no idea what they were in store for and never could have predicted this hat-wearing monstrosity.

Impervious to all attacks and very capable of doling out punishing attacks himself, the player’s best bet when confronted with him is to get the heck out of dodge. Unfortunately for them, Mr X isn’t designed to simply let players go, and will doggedly pursue them for every second, never veering too far away and chasing them right into their safe rooms. His unending presence is as tenacious as it is unnerving.