Eponet said:
How do you feel about out of combat regeneration?
It does have some merits in that it allows the designers to know that the player will be in the same state at the beginnning of each encounter, and thus tailor things appropriately. Additionally, it also avoids some of the issues that come with regenerating health (Winning via popping up and down doesn't work, and the tension of each individual situation remains the same)
Well this is, again, a game flow decision.
Games that lack strong exploration incentive (for any number of reasons) should use out of combat regeneration to keep the player moving, or to free up his/her attention for other matters (Gears of War does this constantly by showboating graphics/events).
Having to hunt around for health is only tedious when the level isn't designed with exploration in mind.
I actually had fun scrounging up Healing Items in Deus Ex, if only because you can drop them into the environment and not have them look so out place (unlike, say, a glowing magical box laying in the middle of the hallway). Used in this context, limited health provides a reward for the player instead of a tedious chore.
In a strictly linear game (again, like Gears of War) limited health would require the player to backtrack through "spent content". I actually do this frequently in just about every Halo game I've ever played (not for health, but specific weapons).
How does this relate to out of Combat Regeneration? Well, adding that feature in still limits the design space; it's a compromise. You ensure a consistent "default" state to promote pacing and gauge encounter difficulty, but at the same time, you still run into some of the trappings of regenerative health (linear level design vs exploration).
Healing out of combat may improve the tension of individual encounters, but not the experience as a whole.
