Inspired survival shooter mechanics.

Introduction.

There's this great moment in the 97' Russian Cult Film "Brat" that stuck to me the most. It has been the source of an idea about reinventing action planning in our shooter games. How the player needs to be fully engaged in more of a thoughtful confrontation with the enemy AI.

              Through the 90' inception of shooter games as we know them, we went from the admittingly good but very mechanical enemies of Doom to pushing the boundaries in terms of "lifelike" characters and enemies. There were games like "Halflife," in which NPC's were for the times impressively lively but also predictible. They played a thoughtful part in the presented gameplay. Finally being close to what would be shooter/strategy game perfection. What the devs made is an action game and an amazing one. That is in part because of how it was elevated by its fights.

             97' "Brat" Danila character purposes an old shotgun by cutting its stock and barrel. Then he modifies the buckshot to an improvised and unpredictable, but more deadly, flechette round.

              ~ Strategy? I dont even like strategy games... I thought you were talking about shooters.

              I am. As everything stops in an RTS (real time strategy) game, the player is supposed to make a decision. Like in a board game, he looks at what resources he has and makes a plan, executes it during his round, and then waits for his enemy to do the same. It is somewhat like real fighting. Replacing fast instincts with thoughtful decisions. I think this is the single thing that has been missing from modern shooters. It's not even the more detailed AI; it's the stiff predictability we lost coming from the 90's. In essence of strategy and thought, there is an implication the player would have time to think.

Half-a-life.

              To illustrate this point, let's come back to Halflife. Its 2004 Valve came up with the new installment. New things to get excited about, to put the genre on its head. Graphics, Physics, life like environments, and set pieces. Also less enemy variations. New adversaries don't even talk as much as in the first game, but it's all good. They just focused on new things, game is bigger, and the budget is also bigger. Halflife 2 is an amazing game.

               But as everybody that fought against both the Combine and Soldiers from the first game will say, the first game got it right, its more of replayable fun. This is the point I am aiming towards, budget can be bigger, enemies can be advanced and lifelike, but what's fun isn't necessarily expensive. Let's introduce strategy to fighting again.

              Courtesy of "RevivedHalfDead" (youtube). Notice how AI never moves and shoots. It fights in a simple pattern. Move/Attack/Hide and doesn't do a thing in between.            

              Above is one of the most memorable fights in the first Halflife game. As you can see, the arena is very simple. Developers actually made it so, which you can notice by the way they safety striped all pillars for readability. Enemies appear to be tactical and deadly all the while the player has time to hide, make a plan, and execute. 
              The difference lies in how restricted the AIs are. Enemies can be accurate and smart, defeated by using provided tools and smarts, but if players don't have time to make such decisions, it's not coming naturally and every time. Then gameplay is not replayable. If every second AI makes one decision, another second player can react.
              If we make the AI free (as in real life), they can come up to the player and kiss them, anytime they want, then we will need to nerf their ability to kill. This way we get the modern AI. One that doesn't seem to actually see or shoot.
              The fact that Halflife's soldier AI doesn't make realistic decisions won't come to players during the actual playthrough. You would think that it would look robotic, but actually all NPC's are always robotic, and what makes them seem alive rarely sits in gameplay. 

In essence.
              I think we need to make the fights more rythmic. AI's more deadly, in some cases and unable to do harm in others. This way, gameplay systems are readable. This leads to thought and how a player survives only by encouraged use of environments. 
              These things and more are at the core of my own actual shooter/strategy idea. For this, go to the Game Ideas (videogame) page, where I do my own thing, while throwing examples and comparisons.