so whats people's opinions on this generally? life bars that regenerate a la halo and CoD? or measured ammounts of health that can be regenerated by picking up health packs? obviously this depends on the game but what do you think? which do you prefer?
I have no problem with them, but at the same time, it really is unrealistic for someone to get shot, and after say 10 seconds be back to perfectly good health. I like games such as counterstrike or TF2, though TF2 you can be healed. You take fire damage over time, and once your damaged, your damaged, though besides that number, there is no real impact or realism. I like how in left 4 dead when your low on hp, your moving slower, limping, and it seems a bit more realistic.
i dunno if "realistic" has anything to do with it. whether the system works well with the game is more important. L4D works well, but so does COD4. i have no preference really depends on the game
Health packs and a limited amount of health ala Doom, HL2 etc works fine. This whole "hide in a corner and suck your thumb" and viola! Healthy as ever. Nope, not a fan of.
Agree with this, it depends entirely on the game. I find no game is worse off for their health system, I just accept it as part of the package. Personally, I find that regenerating health systems make single player games too easy and prefer the added dimension that fixed health systems provide, but I also accept that they tend to work quite well in multiplayer games where they make things a more fast-paced. As for promoting the "sitting in a corner" approach, well that depends entirely on the player. For me at least, I don't change the way I play according the the health system, not consciously anyway. I find the sort of player that does that will do it regardless of the type of health system in the game. As for the realism of the various systems, none of them are particularly realistic which can't really be expected of most games as they aren't sims - they're supposed to be fun. However, of the games I've played that have been oriented more towards realism (not necessarily sims), I always liked the health system in the Ghost Recon games, where there wasn't a health bar, only different states of injury where if you were in the red you knew you would be dead if you took one more hit. It made it difficult in that you could only get hit a few times and each hit made the rest of the level progressively more difficult, but that was the whole point of the game and made you think about how you went about each engagement rather than relying on health packs.
I did like the Health System in Vegas 2. A few hits and you are dead, and a hard hit (that doesn't kill you) will make you limp about. I like the health system in fallout 3 as well, where getting hit in certain places will make accuracy/runspeed less, Adds a nice element of realism. The getaway: black monday (and possibly the first one) Had a good health system, you had no health bar, but could sort of guage how injured you where by how bloodsoaked your clothes were. To heal, you had to rest against a wall for a while, this didn't fully heal you, and was limited to a couple of times a level.
All are pretty stupid really, but realistic ones don't fit with most games. Personally I prefer the old-style health packs + numbers. The CoD way of having regeneration and infinite numbers of respawning enemies ****s me off immensely. I only put up with it for the epic storylines.
surprised no one has mentioned Far Cry 2, loads flaws but the health system was progressive and in a way rewarding when you were close to death. popping a bullet out of ur arm with forceps or cauterizing a wound mid firefight always added to the tension when you had to scrabble for some cover to do it. the only thing about the game that wasn't repetitive.
I thought that was the worst bit. I was hoping for a complex health system, but it was just meh. In fact the whole game was distinctly meh come to think of it... Such a disappointment after those wicked trailers.
I didn't really have an issue with Halo:CE, the armor and regenerating health worked well together, Halo 2 on the other hand was just way to easy. Fallout 3 did it best for how I like to play though, they gave you a few different ways to heal up, and the effect of crippled limbs was interesting.
I like the Battlefield 2142 system with the different classes, one of which has medical abilities. Not really a fan of self regeneration personally - having to work to recover is part of the fun for me.
This. Regenerating health sucks in theory, but in Halo it works really well. Running over health packs to heal up instantly because your health doesn't regenerate sucks in theory, but works great in Quake. Being able to only take one or two bullets before dying, no exceptions, sucks in theory, but works great in CS. Carrying precious health packs around with you to heal up when you really need it sucks in theory, but works great in Resident Evil. Having to return to health points to heal up sucks in theory, but works great in Half-Life. Having to carry around lots of little bits to use for different types of injuries and curing their different effects sucks in theory, but works great in Call of Cthulu. It totally depends on the game.
Well said Joe. Personally, I prefer a hard-line approach. One injury = PERMA death. No respawning, no retries, start again.
My idea was to have a mixed regen/unregen health system for example getting shot reduces your max health to 80% but takes away 50% of your immediate health which would regenerate (say in 10-20 seconds which is fairly slow) but wouldn't go above the 80%. But what Joe said.
That's a pretty good idea Ending. I agree with Joe though, there are always games which manage to use the various systems well. Then again there are always seriously awful ones.
I think a fairly simple system is good. Something like the Deus Ex health system is my ideal for most games. Obviously some FPS just needs a quake like system of running over medpacks and the numbers going up. I hate regenerating health though. It's just so horribly dumbed down and consolish. It's like they have to make it so even the most retarded special 3 year olds will be able to make it through the game.
In reference to the FC2 health system; it was fantastic for MP but never that well implemented in singleplayer. FC2 is one of those games that has all the right features and all the wrong balancing.
