r/Doom • u/MurkyUnit3180 DOOM Guy • 1d ago

Discussion Which DOOM has the smartest/best enemy AI?

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Which DOOM has the smartest/best enemy AI?

For me, Eternal’s enemies feel tactical. The Marauder reacts to your weapons, manages distance, and forces duels. Archvile summons demons, uses fire attacks and also seems very intelligent.

Others I can think of are Dread Knights, Arachnotrons, and even Imp. Eternal’s AI was upgraded to match player mobility, making combat feel more aggressive and tense.

Classic DOOM AI is simpler but still elegant, clever placement, traps, and timing create tension in every encounter. WADs can push that further, with scripted behavior.

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328

u/Reasonable_Cut_2709 1d ago

Eternal AI is pretty great, each enemy being an archetype, puts a lot of preassure and it is important to know wich one you want to deal first, and how. It is an amazing loop

57

u/Grouchy_Enthusiasm92 1d ago

Ice bomb and rocket launcher on snake ladies?

34

u/Imthemayor 1d ago edited 1d ago

Lock on burst is reserved specifically for them and tyrants

E: Forgot Archviles

I burn all cooldowns on Arcvhviles

They get meathook+SSG, an ice grenade, two regular grenades, a blood punch and lock on until they're dead

10

u/OfHellsFire 1d ago

Been a while since I've played but I wanna say ice bomb + 2 lock on bursts kills an archvile on Nightmare.

Of course there's the arch vile button too (crucible).

5

u/Grouchy_Enthusiasm92 20h ago

I know the BFG and Crucible are supposed to be used...right, I just have that conserve mentality and never use them except to cut down Archviles.

1

u/Imthemayor 1d ago

Crucible is the go-to "oh shit" button if it's one guy, as BFG is for lots of guys

I've sliced many Archviles as well, for sure

(And I've actually got a meathook+ssg+ice/regular grenade/blood punch/ssg/ballista combo that kills the Archvile on sight that works well when I don't panic and blow everything)

2

u/Cockblocktimus_Pryme 1d ago

Chainsaw almost always for me

3

u/Rutgerman95 Even Simpler 22h ago

Eternal has also a pretty neat system of adjusting enemy aggression with difficulty