When people talk about artificial intelligence in games, they usually talk about the NPCs you meet and fight. However, in some cases, AI concepts are involved in the main narrative. For example, a game might revolve around fighting or interacting with intelligent machines. Some titles explore the idea of whether artificial intelligence can really live.
AI serves as an interesting subject regardless of how it is implemented in the narrative. It’s especially compelling if the game in which it appears is well-made and, more importantly, well-written. This is true for the next great game.
7 Portal 2
Most video games centered around artificial intelligence are generally serious and complex. One exception is Portal 2, where things are generally simpler and lighter, but still compelling. You play as a test subject trapped in an abandoned research facility and forced to complete a puzzle.
Abandoned in that there are no humans, but there are some mechanical beings. His two main ones are GlaDOS and an AI known as Wheatly. Although they are enemies, they have some things in common. First, both are hilarious and offer plenty of funny lines during the game. Second, they both want to run the facility, which creates problems for you.
6 nier automata
A common sci-fi story is the conflict between man and machine. But in Nier Automata, it’s androids versus machines. In this action RPG, you control a human-made android tasked with defeating machine lifeforms from another world that have invaded Earth.
But this is a very basic way of explaining the story, because the story is much deeper and more complex than it first sounds. So it takes multiple playthroughs to see the big picture and understand everything. One thing is clear, though. Artificial intelligence is at the center of everything.
Five Horizon Zero Dawn
Horizon Zero Dawn is an action-adventure game set in a post-apocalyptic world where humans live in small tribes while great mechanical beasts roam the wild. These creatures mostly behave like wild animals, so they aren’t the most advanced robots in gaming history.
Without getting into spoiler territory too much, though, true artificial intelligence is at the heart of the game’s main story. You don’t see this in the opening cutscene. Information about the AI, the protagonist’s origins, and what happened to the world is gradually revealed as the game progresses.
Four Halo 4
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The legendary Halo series of first-person shooters has always featured AI characters. One of the most famous examples and one of the best AI in gaming history is Cortana.
Even though artificial intelligence is a staple of the series, the early games aren’t really about artificial intelligence. However, Halo 4’s story certainly revolves around AI. In it, Cortana suffers from a problem called rampancy that severely affects her psyche and her functioning. Besides that, the main enemy group you will face is the Prometheans. Prometheans are mostly composed of machines, but most of them don’t seem to be very intelligent.
3 mass effect series
In the world of Mass Effect, when an alien race known as the Quarians created artificial intelligence, they lost their homeworld, so the creation of artificial intelligence is prohibited. Their creation is called Geth, and they fight throughout the series. However, they are not the primary mechanical threat.
The main antagonist is a synthetic substance called Reaper. Their mandate is to wait until civilization reaches its peak and then exterminate them. This happened cyclically, and during his original trilogy of Mass Effect games came a time when all the advanced races of the Milky Way galaxy were exterminated. Your overall task in this action RPG series is to figure out how to stop them.
AI hasn’t always been at the forefront of the iconic stealth series known as Metal Gear Solid. But artificial intelligence plays a big part in the overall story. This is because the group known as the Patriots is run by a set of AI in the current series of games.
Like any well-run covert organization, most of the Patriots’ activities are unknown to the public. But they control the president, the military, and virtually all digital information, so they essentially control all of America. And the common man knows nothing about it. But those who do try to fight them back. As such, they are the primary hostile threat in the series.
1 Detroit: Become Human
Detroit: become human tells a more down-to-earth and realistic artificial intelligence story than your average sci-fi game. Therefore, this work is not set in a wild fantasy world, nor does it depict the threat of the galaxy. This narrative adventure game is set in the real world, albeit in the future. And the AIs in this world are androids designed to follow human commands.
The constant abuse and lack of respect for these androids causes some to break their programming. However, these machines don’t start killing people right away. Instead, they demand better treatment and pursue equality. This creates a chasm between humans and AI. How it all unfolds depends on the choices you make for every character.
