User blog comment:Crazy sam10/Modern Warfare 3 Collection 3 + 4 announced/@comment-25496444-20120802162754/@comment-3140952-20120803071943

Again, I disagree with most of what you said:


 * Elite DO charge you when their health is low, they rais their arms into the air and star charging in a straight line so they can get close and punch you. They DO take cover, but only when cover is even around (unlike in most FF maps). You can easily see that in the level winter contngency at the end with the zealots. After their shields get dropped, most if not all elites will attempt to take cover, wheter they are alone or not. You will never see an unshielded elite run around the battlefield.


 * Grunts also DO take cover when their health is low, but most of the times on higher difficulties they have a tendancy to suicide bomb you if you killed their main elite commander. Grunts also work in teams, and can easily flank you as long as an elite is still alive. Once the elite is dead, they either run away, kamikaze you or just start to work completely independetly.


 * Brutes also receive a large buff. Unlike Halo 2/3/ODST Brutes, they now can actually be agile around the battlefield, albeit clumsy compared to the elites, they can actually evade grenades now, charge you only when their health is down (they don't make the Halo 2/3 animation for it though, they just start running at you). They also do take cover quite often, especially when they have no head plate. Chieftains hide because they have energy shields...


 * Can't say much for jackals, they have always acted that way, hide behind the shield and spam. Like all of the Reach AI, they can also flank when the player is in cover, unlike in ODST, they aren't in such a hurry to get to you that they even forget to shoot at you...And snipers are less cheap than their 2 shot ODST and Halo 3 cousins. Sniper jackals with focus rifles will shoot you through the smallest of opening, but they do very little damage thanks to the weapon. Also, they don't take much cover since they carry the cover with them. They only hide when their energy shield is depleted.

Honestly, for me Reach was very hard on legendary thanks to the improved AI, but it was actually fair this time around. No endless Flood, no incredibly tight and one way levels, no bullet sponge enemies a la Halo 2, Jackal snipers...don't even get me started on those, Brutes armed wih hitscan brute shots, etc. Most of the older Halos were incredibly cheap. The newer ones though, 3 and ODST, are a walk in the park. Most people would agree that ODST is the shortest and easiest Halo to date. You have to really want to die to actually get killed.

As for the whole AI thing, I've studied them well enough to formulate an opinon of my own: they are substantially better than any of their predecessors. They react to a lot more player actions, they work as a team and have many complex strategies. I really don't know where you got this whole "enemies don't hide" thing, when you actually play against them, they do. You must be blind not to see so. I really suggest playing Reach again on Legendary and you'll see.