I may have done another thread about it, long ago, but it may be time for an update now.

I love games that pit you against AI opponents that have a face, a name, an identity. As opposed to clones of disposable cannon fodder baddies, often conveniently masked. Battling them or even being defeated by them, I like the bugs bunnish "of course you realise this means war" moment, where your antagonism for that particular collection of pixels and codes has time to focus and grow.

The easiest way to provide this is through narration, in an adventure game or RPG, where, say, some big baddie pups up and escapes until the final confrontation. This works (Sierra-on-Line's Manhunter: New York is a good exemple), but it's completely scripted, and somewhat cheating. It doesn't allow you, as a player, to designate your own nemesis.

An opposite way is to ensure a difficult opponent will stay the same (an ufo sprite appearing at the same location during each run), and thus, becomes familiar enough to you for a sense of personal threat, anticipation and revenge. No personality, just your own projection, and a mere pattern letting you identify a specific enemy.

But my favorite kind were attempts at giving a real identity (and projected personality) to AI opponents that last enough for a real duel or two. Like :

- Using 'wanted posters' to motivate you to go after a precise character. Technocop did that for its end of level bosses, and Elite:Frontier (or many sandbox games featuring bounty hunting) gave you named targets to chase around the system. I suppose the Assassin's Creed games would apply.

- Giving a face to your opponent. Hoverforce/Resolution101 had a little screen in your cockpit, showing you the facial expressions of your target.

- In general, making your opponent durable or recurring, but recognisable. You can get enraged by a specific driver in Carmageddon, even though you only recognize the car. Actually, many arena games can provide this feeling, even if it's just about a certain colored triangle in Ebonstar. In a way, it's also the case in Civilization-likes, where the opposing nations are personified by portraits of historical (or fictional) figures.

- Games where your unchecked opponents grow in power. Soldak Entertainment loves to do this (in Din's Curse, Depth of Peril, etc), but you've also the enemy generals of Total War, which may get your attention and rage, and, I suppose, various political opponents in grand strategy games à la Crusader Kings.

- And of course, the most developped capitalization on these feelings is the apt-named nemesis system in Shadow of Mordor (it's mentionning this game in the "prejudiced" thread that reminded me of that whole question), a game largely built around this personalization of opponents, and growing (mutual) grievances.

So. Considerations about this nice little feeling of growing to know, hate, define and enjoy an individual enemy in a game, whether it's pre-scripted or emerging. But main questions : which games do offer, or have offered, this feeling, be it on purpose or through your own re-interpretations of the screen's events.

Also : bonus hark a vagrant reference.

(Also : bonus bonus.)

Interestingly enough, this is actually not what I prefer. I actually prefer the main villain in a game to be a monster that is not given much, if any, personality.

With that said, I think that re-using major bosses can be an interesting game mechanic. Here's a boss that you already fought, only we throw in some twist that makes it harder, or that forces you to use a different strategy. I liked the re-appearence of the four fiends in Final Fantasy's final dungeon. (With that said, I actually don't like the boss refights in Mega Man games; maybe it's because I just don't like boss fights as much in that type of game?)

In the game Remothered: Tormented Fathers, there are only a handful of characters as enemies for the whole game. It's sort of like Hello Neighbor where the game consists of sneaking around a house and solving puzzles while stealthily avoiding these characters. You can't kill them but you can distract them in several ways. But to say anything else about the characters would be to spoil the plot, since the story is all about them. groze's review on the gamecard sums up exactly how I feel about the game.

the Wing Commander games

Just want to point out that in Master of Magic, not only do the AI wizards have their own names and strategies, but both you and they can hire heroes who also have their own names, skills and fighting styles.

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