Enough with the red screen.

[ender214]

I actually really don't mind them. I think the idea behind it isn't realism but that you are getting punished for being shot, since the regenerating health meters nullify most penalties for taking damage. This allows the person who snuck up on you a chance to finish you if they shot first, as opposed to allowing you to whirl around and just shotgun their face point blank for making a misstep.

 

[ilspooner]

Health bars are good. I liked that they were in fallout 3.

 

[theSovietConnection]

It isn't, which is exactly what I was trying to say. The base premise isn't realistic in the least so it's a bit silly to go HUURRRGGHHH WELL THIS IS MORE REALISTIC like a lot of people who argue that one is better than another because...well, either way it's still pretty damn unrealistic. For the record I like a similar system where your health bar is broken into chunks and when one is drained it's gone until you pick up a health pack or something to refill it but as long as you don't lose it entirely the latest little block will regenerate when you're out of combat like in Transformers: War for Cybertron.

Ahh, okay. Apologies for misreading.

I also like Enslaved's variation, where you can upgrade your health to regenerate, but before that still use medpacks.

 

[Lesd3vil]

Sometimes I think realism gets in the way of enjoyment. And it especially doesn't help when you see people complaining that the game was less enjoyable because it was unrealistic... I mean come on! A bullet wound would create immense trauma and take surgery and weeks of physical therapy to regain anything like 'full health', and that's IF you didn't bleed out or die from the shock.

Fact is, I don't play games to take one or two bullets and die... I play games to decapitate crowds of braindead zombies while weilding a zweihander single-handedly, or to storm fortresses and overturn evil empires all by myself, all the while taking so many bullets I'd be three times my original weight after I started... Because it's fun, NOT because it's realistic

 

[beema]

It seems that we agree, I try to argue the same point but the only thing anyone ever says is, "Health bars aren't realistic.."

I think magically regenerating health is much more unrealistic than health that you replenish with medkits.

Neither are realistic, but at least the 2nd one is somewhat on a conceptual level what happens in real life (you get wounded, you have to heal yourself).

People who cry realism on this debate are ridiculous. It's a video game and some things just can't be realistic. Realism is: you get shot, you spend a month in a hospital before you go out again -or- you die. That's just no fun.

I was under the impression that game designers went for the "red screen" in order to have more flowing, dynamic gameplay, without have to pause and hunt around for medkits. This argument never really appealed to me though.

Whatever. We'll see what they come up with next.

 

[Blind Sight]

I've been wondering to myself lately if there's an alternative to both systems. Any ideas?

Sometimes I think realism gets in the way of enjoyment. And it especially doesn't help when you see people complaining that the game was less enjoyable because it was unrealistic... I mean come on! A bullet wound would create immense trauma and take surgery and weeks of physical therapy to regain anything like 'full health', and that's IF you didn't bleed out or die from the shock.

I had quite a laugh pointing that out to some of my old roommates, they were saying how realistic Modern Warfare 2 was, so I turned it down to casual and just ran at Russians and knifed them while they poured bullets into me. I then said "now tell me, how long would you survive in reality doing that?"

 

[Zhukov]

Nah. I prefer the red screen.

Not because of anything related to realism or whatnot but simply because it allows me to gauge my health without looking away from the action. When I play games that have health bars, I almost never look at them.

However, some games take the whole red screen thing a bit too far. I recently played a rather crappy title called The Saboteur. The damn thing would completely blind you with red when you were at about 30% health. It was ridiculous.

 

[Super Toast]

It seems that we agree, I try to argue the same point but the only thing anyone ever says is, "Health bars aren't realistic.."

I think magically regenerating health is much more unrealistic than health that you replenish with medkits.

Neither are realistic, but at least the 2nd one is somewhat on a conceptual level what happens in real life (you get wounded, you have to heal yourself).

People who cry realism on this debate are ridiculous. It's a video game and some things just can't be realistic. Realism is: you get shot, you spend a month in a hospital before you go out again -or- you die. That's just no fun.

I'm with this guy. A realistic health system in a game is impossible.

 

[zombiestrangler]

You would not BELIEVE how tired I am from bleeding from the eyes in video games. I'm okay with regen health, but do it how Saint's Row did it sans red eye.

 

[RazgrizInferno]

I actually don't mind red screens if they're done well.

MW2 is an example of a red screen that was done horribly.

 

[Chamale]

I'd like a system without health regen. Injuries either kill you dead, leave you to bleed out in a few minutes, or impair you somewhat.
Rainbow Six was like that on the N64. It was possible for the character to be killed in a single shot from an enemy. The same was true in the first Battlefield: Bad Company's singleplayer mode. It was fun, because you had to use more planning and tactics than in most FPS games.

How's this for a first-person shooter's health bar: A little icon of your character in the corner that gets a red mark to indicate injuries. Getting shot knocks the character down into the dirt. After this, you either stand up and keep fighting, only to bleed to death if untreated, or you simply die there in the dirt. I think it would be good for an online multiplayer game, but also useful in single-player.

 

[FalloutJack]

The trouble with games that don't use health bars is that your realism is killing the point of gaming, which is to take yourself OUT of reality for a bit and have some FUN. Fun doesn't equal "I'mma gonna grunt and moan and scream and holler at a game that I take seriously 'cause it's HARDCORE, *****!". Fun is "Dude, did you see me paste those guards back there? That was so F-ing sweet! How much health do I have? Yyyup, I'm good. CHARGE!!". Realism games seem wrong to me, because real life is what should be real.

 

[Kollega]

I have to say, i like how original Halo and Borderlands handle this matter - you have a regenerating energy shield, but if it goes down and you lose bits of your health, you have to search for a health pack. Best of both worlds.

While a health bar is pointless in a game with regenerating health, I really, really hate the red/grey screen of impending death. Not even because it makes it hard to see. Just because it annoys me. I'd rather have an indicator on the inventory screen (Like old SH games' heart monitor type thing)...

Hey, that gives me an idea. What if instead of Jelly-Splatter-Of-Doom, there was a large indicator that gradually turns from green color to red as you get injured and then back as you regenerate health?

 

[Deguasser]

I play games to escape from reality, I want old style shooters like Duke Nukem, Serious Sam, and Doom.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

I lived in the olden games where most of the games had some sort of health meter which made users try and have a strategy when it came to beating the baddies.

 

[Reyalsfeihc]

If anything they should do distorted and darkened vision. Unless you're getting high during the middle of a firefight I'm pretty sure everything doesn't tint red.

 

[Miles Tormani]

I'd like a system without health regen. Injuries either kill you dead, leave you to bleed out in a few minutes, or impair you somewhat.
Rainbow Six was like that on the N64. It was possible for the character to be killed in a single shot from an enemy. The same was true in the first Battlefield: Bad Company's singleplayer mode. It was fun, because you had to use more planning and tactics than in most FPS games.

Bad Company 1 required more tactics in single player due to the health system? Interesting claim, considering I spent most of the second half running past enemies and repeatedly using the Life-2 instead of actually shooting people.

Not that it wasn't fucking awesome or anything, but not exactly an example of well-designed health systems.

I'd prefer a style similar to the original Halo or from Resistance: Fall of Man, either a regenerating shield and static health, or health that only regenerates up to 25-50%.

You know, for some reason, I never liked it in Resistance. Never really could figure out why. I think my personal problem was that because of the way the health system worked, one health kit would only restore 25% of your health, or 50% at best. That meant that you'd need two or three health kits just to get yourself back to full life, and it felt like it wasn't helping the flow of the game. Especially when you compare it to Halo, where the medkit is a full heal every time.

Of course, I didn't play Resistance 1 very much, so I may be talking out of my ass here.

On the other hand, I did like how Halo: Reach combined the two systems of partially regenerating health and placing a shield on top of that. Not that survival was very likely after your shields are down in multiplayer...

EDIT: Oh, and, red screen sucks. If you're going to have regenerating health, just make it a health bar that refills.