Cross-posting my thoughts from elsewhere... WHAT ABOUT THE AI?
Some criteria comes to mind when I think about zombies. No, not criteria that I derive from a combination of previous Resident Evil games. After all, Umbrella Chronicles is a "brand new all original title". Arguably Capcom's first shot at an original and in-depth Wii experience, it seems now is as great a time as any to take a fresh look at the old, undead friends we've been conditioned to kill indiscriminately.
Nooo! Rails & Kevin Federline Zombies:
There are two types of games generally considered to be "on rails." Killer-7, Suda 51's attempt at making a nightmare into a hella surreal video game, demonstrated what many GameCube veterans may think about when "on rails" comes to mind. Although killers in the game could only walk along straight paths, the exploration and puzzle-solving elements of Killer-7 required game mechanics where characters could make 180 degree turns in addition to taking branched paths. For those who have not played the game, the sensation is comparable to being trapped in a see-through corridor about the width of your body, watching the bad guys run at you from a safe distance.
Now, I do not intend to take anything from Killer-7. In fact, it has hyped me up on Suda's ability to direct to the point where his titles are console-sellers for me. However, I'll be one of the first to point out that many considered combat in Killer-7 to often times be stale and maybe boring. The flipside to having greater freedom of movement in the on rail schema was the ability to maintain a safe distance from enemies. The second type of on rails plays like a classic arcade lightgun game; being pushed forward involuntarily forward and for the most part - only focusing on aiming. StarFox 64 if you're a Nintendo fan that's been living under a rock.
Umbrella Chronicles seems to be much closer to this type of on rails style, with only limited ability to go through branched paths and virtually no ability to backtrack or "run backwards" voluntarily. Think tight corridor, but with bigger see-through panes (freedom of vision via nunchuku relative to c-stick) than Killer-7's and no backtracking.
What does all this mean for Umbrella Chronicle AI? The Killer-7 on rails style seemingly allowed for greater replay value of any particular room or scenario. The artificial intelligence had one path to get to your killer, but the forward movement of enemies was adjusted based on the movements of the players. Smiles may begin running at you or acting in certain ways at predetermined distances, but those exact distances never remained. For example, the first time you may encounter a pair of Smiles in a room, you may be further in before realizing that they've spotted you. The second time, you can choose to sit at the doorway and take them from a distance, instead.
The major problem this poses for UC, in my mind, is its capacity for the artificial intelligence to be anything other than completely predetermined. With the game itself pushing the players progress rather than voluntary movement on a linear path, it seems that every time you engage in an encounter, the zombies will be at the same place, at the same time, in same number, attacking you in similar fashion every play-through. The heavy emphasis on choreographed scenes only seems to validate my worry. This is not to say that Umbrella Chronicles is headed towards gaming purgatory. Instead, I think it's important for us to understand under what sort of restrictions Capcom may be working with, based on their approach to UC. Of course, Capcom may choose to program alternate zombie spawns for different difficulties or save games, but anything I could say on the topic would be pure speculation.
Environmental Interaction, Physics:
Having watched through gameplay trailers from Capcom's GDC, I was incredibly disappointed by how zombies seemed to respond to gunfire. Yes, zombies fell, they had their heads blown off, and some of them even decided to come back to life. But where were the limbs?
Maybe it's just me but in 2007 I expect significantly improved body physics. When I shoot a zombie in the knee-caps with a shotgun, don't I have the right to expect it's legs to be blown off? Shouldn't it start crawling at me? If an independent development team was able to pull this off over two years ago, why can't a relatively large Capcom team?
I'm not sure if this is even really a design limitation. More dynamic bodies doesn't need to translate into smarter artificial intelligence. Rather, all we want is a realistic combat experience. I hope that I'm wrong here and Capcom decided to put in some extra effort on the zombies but so far, it looks like my dreams are dead in the water. When shot, zombies just seem to stop for a second and maybe move their upper bodies back slightly (even when shot in the lower body?).
And what about overall zombie interaction? I'm incredibly curious as to what Capcom has decided to do with zombies. One of the most stunning elements of next-generation games like Bioshock and Darkness (360) is the sheer amount of effort the developers seemed to put into enemies' personality. Depending where they are in the environment and what objects are around them, baddies will respond in drastically different ways. I really wonder how far Capcom will push for something similar.
At a minimum, it'd be nice to have the ability to influence the environment yourself. The destructible furniture that appears in what footage we've seen of Umbrella Chronicles seems like a great start. It's great that we can have some sort of in-depth interaction with the environment... but will the zombies? Can they grab broken chair legs that you leave for them and use them as a weapon? I guess this is more of a question for those who've had the opportunity to get their hands on UC, but do the zombies seem to be aware of each other to any extent?
Anyhow, I hope I didn't go off on too many tangents or venture too far into the realm of speculation. Despite what hesitations I may have about Capcom's approach to Umbrella Chronicles, I think the game looks absolutely fantastic. The day I can experience a horde of zombies charging into my Wii-mote directed shotgun shells is one that I'm looking forward to with much anticipation and high expectations.