10+ Best AI-Powered Games in 2024: Artificial Intelligence in Gaming

Games are getting smarter. With each passing year, developers are finding more and more ways to use AI in games and provide players with a more immersive experience.

Whether you’re talking about AI-powered AAA titles or AI-generated video games, there are plenty of options to choose from.

Below, we’ll look at the top 10 best AI-powered games in 2024. This list focuses on games that use AI to great effect to provide an engaging playthrough.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. 10 Best AI-Powered Games in 2024
3. More of the Best AI-Powered Games to Play in 2024
4. The Bottom Line
5. FAQs
6. References

Show Full Guide

Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. 10 Best AI-Powered Games in 2024
3. More of the Best AI-Powered Games to Play in 2024
Show Full Guide
4. The Bottom Line
5. FAQs
6. References

10 Best AI-Powered Games in 2024

10. Rain World

Rain World is a 2d survival platform game with one of the most interesting uses of AI. Players can step into the shoes of a slug cat, an alien creature attempting to survive in an alien world comprised of over 1,600 rooms.

In this game, AI empowers creatures to act independently, reacting unscripted to their environments and ecosystems. When a predator fixates its eyes on another creature, you might just find an opportunity to escape.

9. F.E.A.R.

First person shooter F.E.A.R., released in 2005, is widely regarded as one of the top examples of how to use AI in games effectively. In F.E.A.R., the player is called upon to help contain a supernatural phenomenon while fighting off waves of clone soldiers. It’s still a contender for one of the best FPS games even now.

What makes F.E.A.R. a classic among AI-based games is its use of automated planning, which gives NPC clone soldiers the ability to think independently and react to the player’s movements intelligently. This means NPCs will work together to flank your position, bombard your position with grenades, and even reposition if an exchange is working in your favor.

8. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, released back in 2001, is arguably one of the most iconic games with AI we’ve ever seen. Players are tasked with evading terrorist soldiers on a freight tanker and an oil rig, using a mixture of stealth, disguise, and brute force.

What makes this a classic among AI-powered games is how complex and real its interactions with enemies are. It feels like deciding to attack or incapacitate a guard has real-world consequences.

For instance, when the player is undetected, enemies will walk predefined patrol routes and check in over a radio. If the player makes a sound, the guard will come and investigate.

Likewise, if the player incapacitates a guard, another backup guard will come and check the area. If the guard finds a body, they will sound the alarm, and a more heavily armed search team will come to investigate.

7. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

When it comes to the Elder Scrolls series, Elder Scroll IV: Oblivion might just hold the crown for one of the best and most comedic uses of AI in games. In this open world RPG, the player must traverse Cyrodiil to close Oblivion gates, interacting with NPCs that maintain daily routines of waking up, going to work, and going to sleep. It all gives the best games on Xbox Game Pass a run for their money content-wise, too.

However, what really makes this game stand out is the “radiant AI” system and how NPCs react to each other and their environments. Just walk around a city and you’ll hear NPCs engage in everything from pleasantries to bitter arguments, which leads to some quite funny and unusual moments – both in and out of combat.

6. Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition

Microsoft’s Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, released in 2019, provided a much-needed update to the 1999 real-time strategy classic, Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings.

In this game, the player is tasked with building a civilization and army to fight against other players and AI foes from the Dark Age to the Imperial Age. Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is one of the best online AI games where users can play with and against human players and/or AI in the same lobby.

The AI is sophisticated enough to manage its own economy, train military units, and pursue a range of strategies that will push the player to the limit. It’s worth noting that the AI will even collect resources without cheating.

5. The Last Of Us Part II

The Last of Us Part II, an action-adventure game released in 2020, is one of the top post-apocalyptic games with AI ever released. In this game, the player steps into the shoes of protagonists Joel and Ellie to navigate a world filled with infected and hostile human enemies.

What makes The Last of Us Part II stand out among other AI-based games is how relentlessly enemies will pursue you, flanking you where possible, to the point where you feel like you’re playing against an organized human force rather than simple NPCs.

4. Starfield

Starfield, a space RPG released in 2023, is a textbook representation of how incorporating AI in video games can dramatically increase scale. In this instance, Bethesda used algorithmically generated environments to create an open world with almost 1,700 planets to explore.

That being said, while the scale of these worlds is impressive, the use of procedurally generated landscapes has been criticized for replicating locations across multiple planets and for repetitive interactions.

Nonetheless, it’s worth a playthrough based on how vast the world on offer is and will likely provide a key reference point for how Generative AI and video games can come together in the future.

3. Resident Evil 7

When Capcom released Resident Evil 7 in 2017, it was unclear if a first-person take on the longstanding Resident Evil series would be well-received. However, the game proved to be a financial hit, and part of that is because it is one of the best games with AI antagonists we’ve ever seen.

In Resident Evil 7, the player must help Ethan Winters search for his missing wife in an isolated Louisiana Mansion while being stalked by a murderous family and an array of monstrosities known as the molded. The AI that powers Jack and Marguerite Baker while they relentlessly pursue you throughout the house provides a top-tier stalker experience.

2. Red Dead Redemption 2

Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2, released back in 2018, is a perfect example of AI being used to build a world that feels lived in. NPCs not only react to the player’s actions and their environments in a realistic way, but they also maintain their own routines.

This means that if you follow an NPC, you’ll see them going off to work, taking lunch breaks, drinking at the end of a long day, and going to sleep. These touches sound small, but they help to make the world feel like an organic time capsule of the Old West. In short, few AI games are as effective as RDR2.

1. Alien Isolation

Since its release back in 2014, Alien Isolation has gained a reputation for offering one of the most nail-biting first-person survival horror experiences ever produced. Set aboard the Sevastopol space station, the player takes on the role of Amanda Ripley and must attempt to evade the menacing Xenomorph.

The Xenomorph uses AI to relentlessly hunt down the player. A director AI points the creature in the player’s general direction, while the alien itself uses sight and sound to deduce your exact location.

Alien Isolation also stands out among top AI learning games, with the Xenomorph AI working out how you’ve been evading it – and learning to ignore distractions like flares and noisemakers the more you use them. No wonder why it’s our pick for the best horror game in 2024 too.

More of the Best AI-Powered Games to Play in 2024

The Bottom Line

As you can see, many games use artificial intelligence to create a more immersive experience. Nine times out of 10, the best AI-powered games understand that less is more and will stick to giving enemy AI some basic nuance rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.

FAQs