Evolution of AI Battles in Call of Duty Games (2003-2023)

[@juliantscorrea]

That one green guy at 37:11 killed like 10 before dying damn

[@SoundwaveSpectre]

Guy didn't even call in his killstreak.

[@myhelshik5844]

And then got randomly killed on a run

[@Dk-he6ez]

​@@myhelshik5844Just like cod, get a lot of kills and then die to some hidden sniper.

[@jakuzya]

am i wrong, or did he killed by friendly fire?

[@imasavage95]

​@jakuzya no if u look closely the guy snipes him it seems after he does he goes back behind the wall

[@wisper1x]

Now this is an Npc war. A war that lasted 20 years

[@captainpricegaming4571]

Cod 1 is actually based on WW2 so we can say that war lasted 60+ years (if we ignore release date)

[@Buddy_gaming445]

​@captainpricegaming4571 is well true, but it's NPC so

[@Railhog2102]

This October will mark COD's 20th anniversary

[@the_yeegineer]

Wow

[@Buddy_gaming445]

@@Railhog2102 who born same as first call of duty released happy birthday

[@DrugJangSu]

It's amazing how call of duty is already 20 years old

[@illyrian44]

While their playerbase is 7yo on average.

[@logger22]

They need to consider a definitive 20 year anniversary edition for next Gen

[@Railhog2102]

Yeah right and overtime it evolved

[@kamrynsims6842]

Didn’t realize it’s 20 years old. I was born in 2003 crazy to think I played this my whole life

[@chikntaco141]

You know what else is 20 years old, the invasion of Iraq and we had already been in Afghanistan for ,2 years by that point.

[@InsertHandleHereYo]

Battle of Burger Town, truly one of the most important and deadliest battle in history

[@22zachprime32]

They project burger king from unwanted MacDonald Russian forces.

[@esoteric1212]

that"s mw2 right?

[@fuzzy3383]

@@esoteric1212ye “RAMIREZ!!! GET TO THE BURGER TOWN NOW!!”

[@EveBatStudios]

This was a great idea and perfect for why I follow your videos, To study AI and game feel for development. I would love to see more of these battles with multiple evolutions of AI.

[@neongenic]

I've always loved Infinite Warfare for it's intense and detailed battles. I look at it again and ask myself why people hated on it so much...

[@thepurenewb1584]

I dont think it was the campaign they hated it was mainly the multiplayer which i dont care about anyways, I loved the campaign through replayed it multiple times.

[@logger22]

It came out when when fans were tired of the jetpack era. Not to mention Battlefield 1 took the spotlight for taking us back to WW1.

[@insertu5ernamehere]

It was just popular to hate at the time I feel but overall was a pretty solid product tbh like honestly if it really was a sh!tty game I wouldn’t fw/ buy some of the infinite warfare type stuff in codm just for the memories of that time you know? So naw I feel ppl just gave it a overall bad rep

[@Ashen_Night116]

@@insertu5ernamehere Compared to the games that had come out before it and the ones that came out near it, it was for all intents and purposes, a rather terrible game, Battlefield 1 came out before it did, and just crushed it because what other game back then had decided to go to World War 1? Verdun was the only one at the time, and it honestly wasn't that great of a shooter. Overwatch had released earlier that year, Destiny got a new expansion that year, Deus Ex as well.. 2015 had GTAV, Planetside 2, Fallout 4, Black Ops 3. 2014, Insurgency, Titanfall, Advanced Warfare, the list goes on. All of the games listed were more fun than Infinite Warfare was, and played better too.

[@divinegreed8252]

Well all I can say is that the campaign isn't bad, but it was the MP, people didn't like a futuristic COD, me honestly I kinda don't like that idea, which is why I stopped playing at COD BO2, and Ghosts, but in COD games, people are more focused on the MP rsther than the SP, which is why although the campaign is great, as long as the people don't like the MP, the internet will always view it as sht, which is honestly very sht tbh

[@Stryker_-]

Love the AI battles in DMZ. You should do a video on the active combat zones in Al Mazrah

[@NPCUniverse]

I will try to do that thanks for the suggestion

[@systemoverlrd]

I like how they added shadow company back to ashika. It makes dealing with the veteran level bots slightly more bearable

[@klanhit7141]

I remember playing every cod campaign as a kid and taking forever to complete missions because i would be engaging every npc available even the ones in the background that keep respawning lol it was like the best target practice 😂😂

[@jessicajackson645]

You deserve a medal of honour 😂

[@submerged7640]

That one sequence in Black Ops. I swear I spent 15 minutes gunning down Vietcong coming over that hill wondering when the mission would continue, only to realize I was free to go any time

[@jamesashcroft8170]

Black ops 2 had such a novel idea with its cross between tactical control and FPS, shame it was never refined or expanded upon

[@greenth-mac2550]

Apparently the community hated it back in the days. This community really is the worst.

[@LordSaladbar1]

I think the closest we got to that was the spin-off mobile game Call of Duty Strike Team. Which you can’t get anymore.

[@haroombrother]

​@@greenth-mac2550The COD community was always known for the worst in terms of toxicity and skills issue. That until the Fortnite came and take away the 👑 from the COD

[@StalwartTirith]

This is quite possibly your greatest video yet; you did an amazing job on this! I still remember playing that demo level for 2003 Call of Duty more times than I can remember and sometimes I'd just enjoy watching my allies fight.

[@ItsPlants]

9:37 that's the scream from the sniper (tf2)

[@luizfelipebr5554]

And the other one luis from left 4 dead XD

[@AfroMan187]

Hahaha at 0:15 the guy kicks in the door, squat-jogs away, and then comes back to check it out like an indecisive cat

[@Anonymous_Gentleman]

1:06:26 love the red SDF guy using the Robot as a shield

[@4T3hM4kr0n]

Cod 1 got the mag pouches correctly for weapons your allies and enemies have. Tanks also have fully moving tracks and guide wheels. Every cod game afterwords pretty much lacked authentic mag pouches for the corresponding weapon.

[@fastwing3295]

I'm not sure if this is a criticism or a fun fact. If it is criticism, then it is in bad faith, because it would be really hard and would take way too long for any of the other games to make mag pouches for all of the different weapons for a specific soldier. Take the (OG) Modern Warfare series, for example. To give the player the ability to try out new weapons, each soldier class (Rifleman, Shotgunner, Sniper, etc.) have access to multiple weapons so the player can pick them up. With their weapons being randomized, their mag pouches would have to reflect the weapon, which is not only a waste of time for the model maker aswell as the script maker, but nobody actually notices when they play the game. I noticed, you noticed, but the difference is that I don't care.

[@4T3hM4kr0n]

@@fastwing3295 both a criticism and a fun fact. Too bad they don't put in the effort any more.

[@CountlessPWNZ]

​@@fastwing3295nah, hes right. but the mw reference you made makes no sense. in the real world, mag pouches for a lot of modern weapons are practically universal for small arms.

[@evilalan2084]

​@@fastwing3295Seems like they got lazy eh? They put more effort into the battle pass than details in game now. Shame

[@fastwing3295]

@@CountlessPWNZ I'm not talking about the pouches themselves, I'm talking about the poor guy who has to MODEL and align all the different mags, make sure they don't clip through the puches, then alter those pouches and make sure the dimensions are right, because some mags might stretch them, or maybe they're too small, etc. Not to mention that he'd have to do this for up 50+ different weapons. Sounds tedious, don't you think? This isn't about realism, this is about game making. It isn't worth it.

[@civilprotection3114]

To me, the battles peaked in COD2. The Germans and your allies yelling to each other made the game feel very lively.

[@joseduran7368]

Doubt

[@DakotaofRaptors]

That and MW2 had the best NPC callouts

[@alansilvero]

It's also the first game in the series which the enemy AI would repeatedly hurl grenades at you to get you out of cover.

[@equilibriajorvingia9705]

Davis! Give me covering fire!

[@Jason-fm4my]

Agree.

[@Thekeed13]

The 2003 AI battles are surprisingly good.

[@alansilvero]

Yeah, the variety of actions they can perform (aside from the obviously planned ones) is very impressive, especially when combined with the range of animations. It felt highly polished for being the first call of duty on PC, which is why it is undoubtedly my favorite, along with cod 2.

[@aefad]

I’m also quite surprised how good it was back then

[@101jir]

As someone that has never played a single CoD game, the 2003 ones get me every time with the walking/running animations. Feels like something straight out of kekeflipnote or Flintstones 😂

[@CDNBreadDogs]

I love how every COD seems to have its own color theme thats just ALWAYS on your screen, like MW2 everythings warm and orange looking, MW3 its all greenish, Ghost's is blueish gray, etc

[@angelvaldez3536]

The amount of animations the first cod has. Literally has me dropping my jaw! The fact there’s a stagger animation to a staggered shot and can shoot while on their knees.

[@matthewmspace]

Honestly, the Warzone 2 AI is actually impressive the way each little squad calls out for each other’s names on where the enemies are and asking if everyone’s alright. Sometimes they’re idiots aiming and shooting at walls that don’t work, but it’s some good shit.

[@mrguy7593]

I can't help but appreciate MW2 (2022)'s AI, but while it is cool, imagine how much cooler it would be if it were used in something like the battles seen in COD1 or COD2, that would be a sight to behold!

[@Caucasian60]

One thing that always kept me glued to Call of Duty campaigns was in almost every level you were accompanied by a plethora of fellow soldiers. It always felt like you were a single cog in a huge battle. I always though that was the appeal of COD over Medal of Honor. COD nowadays goes for the one man army approach and that’s one of the reasons I don’t bother with them.

[@ohwaitchristian]

Exactly, it feels more real and enjoyable knowing it isn't always playing out like a john wick movie

[@jayjay1343]

Hasn’t the one man approach been a thing since bo1?

[@Caucasian60]

@@jayjay1343 probably. All I remember is losing interest in COD after COD:Ghosts. Around that game and BO1 was when it started to heavily enter the one man army action movie approach,

[@silencedcreator]

I love the animations in 2003 call of duty like climbing the wall and kicking the door and sitting while taking cover that was fun to see

[@ramal5708]

Even for its time, CoD had great AI movements or animations like taking cover, running across obstacles, reloading was pretty damn good

[@shamusbob7969]

Wow some of this is really well directed, that one shot from COD4 when they're fast ropping out of the helicopter through the smoke was very MGSV!! Love it!

[@klanhit7141]

1:28:46 execution style lol and amazing teamwork

[@EJayWalker]

I still never know how you are able to access ai battles in all of these games. So wild.

[@iTomBass]

the guy killed at 1:27:27 looks so good. MW19 attention to detail has not yet been beaten imo.

[@TackticalTack]

it looks like he did the family guy fall pose

[@djrxbbnz5120]

That guy in the suit at Burger Town was definitely the owner 😂 These NPCs are brave asf lol

[@Whackysniper7700]

15:23 The guy got stunned by an explosion, phased through the other guy, moonwalked behind him, shot him in the back and then ran off, I love call of duty

[@fuzzy3383]

Styled on

[@DARKO_ARGENTO]

beautiful work!!!!!so much dedication is appreciated!!!!it really brings me nostalgia!!!!thanks a million!!!!

[@IronVigilance]

One detail I always liked about MW3 was how they showed the difference between CAG(Delta Force) and the Rangers with multicam and UCP respectively

[@willylim1200]

7:46 By this angle, it kinda looked like the soldier was wielding a PTRS anti-tank rifle instead of a PPSh-41.

[@SRSAirbag01]

1:07:30 that looks very realistic

[@uncommonsaucers2355]

Modern Warfare 2's AI was a giant step up from COD4. COD4 AIs only ever went to the same spots or stood still, and when they werent they'd bumrush you and shoot you, it was too basic

[@ksam3427]

I still loved the game to death

[@deixos2224]

This is one of the first thing I noticed when playing mw2 campaign, the enemies run away when you get close, rush you when flash banging,etc.

[@boblawblaw6185]

Why are the bots from 2003 and 2005 more logical and realistic acting than the 2022 and 2023 bots????

[@ksam3427]

The sequence of cod 4 is exactly what I asked for a while ago, just a cod 4 USMC npc battle and I now have it

[@nekolare]

I like how in some of the games the other important characters can carry the combat without you actually having to do anything, it makes you feel that even if you are the soldier controlled by the player, even if you are from the main group, you are another soldier, with the same possibilities of dying and killing, not a god who absorbs bullets like a sponge and who alone can clean an entire area of enemies, and that in a way your help is not really necessary, but grateful, you don't make a big difference, but you do your part, like in a real army where the strength is not in the individual but in the group

[@rutababoys5388]

Just found out that Treyarch's titles have ALL ran off a heavily modified IW 3.0, which is super interesting bc every sledgehammer / IW game is given a re-built IW version, usually for each game. On top of that I never knew CoD 1 ran on Quake 3's id Tech 3

[@remhylopez3040]

The stories that we used to do with toy soldiers. This is how I imagined it

[@commander__cody]

Mate that stormtrooper aim though 1:52

[@raktimjs]

The AI in MWII is considerably INSANE!

[@andrewoquendo844]

The world war 2 battles just hit different

[@greenth-mac2550]

COD2 had one of the best AI, not only they DO damage an kill the enemies, they also use machine guns at will. Infinity Ward was the best at AI in terms of making them do help the player with wiping out hostiles. They downgraded it with recent COD titles (IW, MW2019) but still doing effect. WWII on the other hand had one of the worse. For example in the 2nd mission, we are like 11 soldier against 50+ enemy, our teammates miss 350% of the times and if they hit it never do any damage. SledgeHammer really wanted the player alone to kill them thinking its what we want so it won't get boring. Like with this number of teammates, it should have been easier to clean the room especially if I am trying to finish it on veteran, but NOPE!..... You can say I'm kind of AI observer, I've observed my teammates fighting in the story mode across several CODs. Did I mention before How I kept a soldier named "Pvt. Morgan" alive to the end in a MW2 mission? It's the first one where we play as Ramirez when defending Burger town. Anyway, I haven't played MW II so I don't know how good the AI is in the campaign. Well, one day I will but I'm not buying it for 70$. Either with good discount or for free by other means, they don't deserve any money anymore because what they did 2 months ago was more than too much.

[@Durantl]

i made the AI accuracy better in COD2. You can actually modify the accuracy of the AI between IW Engine games, from COD1 to CODMW2 (2009) now in MW3 ((2011) to Infinite Warfare (2016) we cant modify any value of the game's code because Infinity Ward never release a mod tools either modding comunity, btw in MWR and MW2R that uses the AW engine its possible to modify again the values of the AI... With the following code, you can modify the health and accuracy of the bots when engaging in combat with enemy AI: self.accuracy = 100; self.baseaccuracy = 100; All you have to do is go to the script called _spawner.gsc and add the code line correctly to the script so that it runs efficiently. If you have experience with C++, you would feel familiar with GSC.

[@MiTical_Official]

1:20:20 That dude was like "im done"

[@richardceniza5091]

Sa🤕

[@HurricaneHomer9]

Very cool to see how AI and NPCs have developed and evolved just throughout my life time haha as being born in ‘03 Except for 35:08 😂

[@artarezaei8720]

LOL THAT SHOULD BE A MEME

[@joysonvincholas7108]

Damm right 😂

[@MrSheep2796]

Bro shot his already explosive cover 💀

[@FruitSkullCinema]

Gotta say the Ghosts space battle was my favorite

[@Jarrow_141]

You can really see how immersive they get from time to time

[@anglishbookcraft1516]

Great idea! Btw world at war was/is so epic

[@asmodeusix5390]

Holy shit this guy actually did it congrats man 🎉 ! Been watching you since 30k subs i was the guy who asked for reload animation comparisons.

[@TheHawkeye0725]

Let’s hope we get some good battles in mw3 so we can update this npc war list.

[@Lumantrix]

Probably will just look how good the AI in DMZ are heck tier 3s are more dangerous then actual players

[@ThatoneWW2lover]

45:54 wow didn’t know people was inside the Apache.

[@kickingsumo807]

Are you finally back? I’m seeing a trend on content now. You’ve been uploading more now : ) you know it’s going to be a good day once you start uploading: )

[@divinegreed8252]

MW3, WaW, BO2, and COD Ghosts has got to be my top 4 favorite COD games of all time

[@kirillholt2329]

>MW3 >Ghosts yikes

[@LordiValimartti]

​@@kirillholt2329What's so bad about mw3? It's a more refined version mw2

[@ksam3427]

@@kirillholt2329it’s an opinion that I share with him, plus mw3 was the first cod game I played

[@kirillholt2329]

@@ksam3427 well let me tell you something, I started at cod1 in 2003, played until black ops 1 (loved it) but after that it became tired, stale and derivative, imo black ops 1 is still the best and most innovative (I suggest you play cod 2 campaign it holds up very well even today)

[@ksam3427]

@@kirillholt2329 ok bet

[@LMTran]

COD1 blew my mind back in the day. Until then, you had games like Medal of Honor where your friendly AI would die in 2 seconds, leaving you alone most of the game.

[@Dat_Kiwi_Boi]

Evolution Of COD + AI Battle?, Outstanding Combo

[@Kaiju-Driver]

Yep. It's hard to put this video down once the action starts. Nice camera work.

[@parvizsalahov8502]

Nothing can be compared to world at war. The dynamics, brutality of war, history details, physics. They increased the graphics of the recent series but killed all the other details.

[@zolikat4458]

Why did it take the programmers SIXTEEEN YEARS to figure out how to make the NPC's shoot from behind cover properly?? In MW2019 we finally see the NPCs peeking around corners and not exposing their entire body when shooting from cover.

[@BruhDidYouKnowThat]

They're not gonna think us players are gonna Pay attention THAT much

[@Davemillerson]

How Evolution of Ai battles this is Amazing dude!

[@kurtkesslinger7917]

I still enjoy playing through the old titles. They were a lot of fun. I even remember one pong was fun.

[@JIB-_-222]

NGL I really like the warzone one cause of the realism of the comms and that their formations are real military formations

[@killerbean-wx3ib]

Ah yes the siege of burger town that was such a fun mission they spawned endlessly for both sides and the residential neighborhood next was the same that was an NPC playground when I was younger.

[@AbeTweakin]

I miss those old games. Those first 3 cod games were great, wish you had some footage of cod 3, oh well. Also medal of honor allied assault was a good old-school game too. Man. This video really took me back. I didn't remember cod 2 being so wonderfully gory though.

[@npcragdolls]

The perfect video doesnt exist Npc Universe: Hold my cup

[@Kaiju-Driver]

Have you considered Iron Harvest content? I love your quality videos, i see great things if you tried.

[@Kaiju-Driver]

This was a good one!

[@Lodestar77W]

Honestly, even though it was kinda hated the Ghosts portion was one of my favorites in this video. The setting was so unique and the visuals were so interesting especially seeing it from the 3rd person view. They did a great job capturing it in this video.

[@natefsultan7692]

Incredible. Evolution Of Battles in Call of Duty Got better me 😉

[@fuzzy3383]

God that soldier in cod 3 who TANKED a shot, then got back up fighting! What a badass!

[@xrecon18]

I love COD NPC wars please make more of these videos! I subscribed because only you make magical videos like these

[@daniellabuda7744]

I have some huge nostalgia playing COD... It reminds my childhood pretty well, when I was a marine attacking Okinawa... damn WWII looks fabulous, and Overlord operation begin looks very authentic.

[@CALVIN.M]

Call of duty 3,Advance warfare,black OPS 3,black OPS 4,Codm has left the chat

[@Kaizaruu]

these are actually so damn fun to watch

[@johannr2658]

The cool thing about Cod 4 is that the friendly npcs follow you around the map and they have special programmed positions on the map that theyxwill go to.

[@DiegoClaudioSergio]

I ordered pizza to watch this like a movie🍕🥤

[@NPCUniverse]

🍕🍕🍕

[@AmirhoseinYegane-hc1ux]

Wow I never see this battles in cinematic. Very cool🗿🗿🗿🗿

[@So_Viet8032]

Props to the camera man who survived all these wars and delivered to us the footage

[@jasondeguzman6279]

39:00 nice one Soap

[@cherylrodgers6331]

I love this kind of content 💖🔆🤪

[@communism_is_wrong7167]

Can we just appreciate how well the call of duty ghost AI interacts with the satellite and zero gravity?

[@Statist_Fox]

9:36 *MEET THE SNIPER*

[@Beorneofmercia449]

funny at 10:03 you hear louise's scream from l4d

[@Quetzalcoatl_Feathered_Serpent]

The most horrifying thing in all of this is COD: Warzone 2.0. Not the game but how the AI soldiers converse on cordoning off an area hunting down another AI opponent or human player up to even ordering where they are going and actually following through on that order. They also seem to be working together, taking accurate cover, pretty decent shots suppressing fire, and more importantly they don't sit around in one place to long. They are moving like human players would. Thats terrifying. In the games the player or players are supposed to usually be elite, at least starting out as a average soldier to eventually becoming a real monster of a fighter. What happens when the AI ends up becoming as good and proficient as the player?

[@silversurfer7457]

the dude getting shot at 9:36 sounds exactly like the sniper from tf2 when he dies.

[@Z1zack]

well tf2 was released in 2007 so valve probably took the death sound from the game

[@Arandomhumanbeing-lo1fo]

Wow 4mins ago cool great video btw Edit:I hit post by accident

[@vinsonperdido5556]

30:25 Protect The Burger Town

[@RestlessBogatyr]

9:35 Sniper death sound?

[@user-fp1yz3nw4g]

Maybe

[@JustAskingquestions10]

How fo you make these battles? Superb video

[@Colemanbentz888]

Never forget those AI soldiers who fought for our country (especially the ones you friendly fired on to steal their weapon)

[@BruhDidYouKnowThat]

May Activision bless them

[@unk702]

The early COD games were fantastic. They essentially became updates in the form of full on releases. I will never spend that much money on a COD game for the exact same experience every time.

[@moonlightfilms5279]

The other day, I was bragging to my baby nephew about playing the first Call of Duty when it was brand new. I shit you not, the little dude gave me the same wide-eyed look I had when Grandpa told stories about serving in actual WW2. I’m not sure if this says something good or bad about where the future is headed

[@Makarov-v5c]

thank you very much to the author for such a video, I also wanted to make such a video but it did not work

[@luigin649]

Should we point out how in world at war there is an animation where the soldier before dying pulls out a picture of someone he loves, and then dies immediately afterwards?

[@QueenCallisto]

AI has come a long way.

[@1st_SGT_Bussey]

@1:27:50 just shows how unpredictable war is the first dude got shot and managed to get into position and the second dude that prepared for what was ahead died instantly

[@Viper-jr4sp]

Man the Ai in the first two COD's i still find incredible

[@MikeTheGreek]

I wish the NPCs on future games not only CoD would be AI so it would be unrecognizable as an NPC but really being like a true player

[@iced2594]

That man died in such a comedic way 34:35

[@yossefelrouby2145]

its just like a cinematic movie

[@Danwise]

I appreciate those custom zero-G animations in CODGhosts

[@RIOT690]

I love how the first game literally has real fighting, and then it slowly degenerates into NPC making no gains and shooting blanks.