Inventive or creative health systems in video games

[Demolition_Human]

What were some creative health systems in video games?

I think the health system in the Infamous series was pretty creative with the health system. You just need to absorb electricity to get your health back and to recharge your powers!

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Cryostasis's 'heat=health' system, because you are radiation man!

 

[Foolery]

Not terribly inventive, but I did enjoy the survival system in MGS3 Snake Eater. I liked how you had to fix your broken bones, gunshot wounds, cuts, etc. with actual medical supplies.

 

[Parasondox]

Not terribly inventive, but I did enjoy the survival system in MGS3 Snake Eater. I liked how you had to fix your broken bones, gunshot wounds, cuts, etc. with actual medical supplies.

I miss that kind of game play health cause it made you think twice about engaging in combat and how to handle it without getting wounded. Rather then the whole "Let's hide behind cover and automatically regenerate without any back lash to it"

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Not terribly inventive, but I did enjoy the survival system in MGS3 Snake Eater. I liked how you had to fix your broken bones, gunshot wounds, cuts, etc. with actual medical supplies.

I miss that kind of game play health cause it made you think twice about engaging in combat and how to handle it without getting wounded. Rather then the whole "Let's hide behind cover and automatically regenerate without any back lash to it"

Exactly. In MGS3 every time before you engage an enemy you had to ask yourself will you be able to treat your wounds afterwords. Is it worth fighting or should you try to slip by undetected? That's the kind of gameplay that sadly doesn't exist anymore. Ubisoft had the opportunity to do something similar with Far Cry 3. It could have been a real survival game. But no. They had to make a simple, dumb FPS where you just have to find some herbs. They don't want to make the game inaccessible to anyone. Luckily, Ziggy's Mod on PC took care of that: http://farcry.nexusmods.com/mods/63//?

 

[StriderShinryu]

I still really like the system in the first Halo game (non restoring life bar under regenerating shields). It not only plays really well but it also fit the game conceptually.

 

[nuba km]

Resistance fall of man, your charatcer's health was separated into quarters and would only regen the current quarter your in apart from that you would need to pick up health vials. Also the game explains why a human being has regening health which is nice.

 

[Spiritofpower]

Dwarf Fortress.

Hit points? What are you talking about? You die when you bleed out, suffocate, or take a good hit to the head. Why would your life and death be determined by a bunch of points which will keep you in perfect condition until you run out, at which point you die instantly?

 

[King of Asgaard]

Not terribly inventive, but I did enjoy the survival system in MGS3 Snake Eater. I liked how you had to fix your broken bones, gunshot wounds, cuts, etc. with actual medical supplies.

Seconded.
I've yet to see a health system quite like it in terms of how visceral it is. And you can't forget the stamina, where you had to catch and eat animals to keep going.

 

[Forobryt]

For all its flaws Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth had a good one. Bandages, splint, antidotes and sutures for different injuries and no instant healing. And the game didnt pause whilst you did it enemies still could move around when you healed.

Broken leg whilst running from guys with guns? better find somewhere they cant see you before you try and fix your leg or they will just shoot you whilst you work.

Of course if you ran out of the correct items to fix yourself you had to be careful not to get hurt until you could find more. Was nothing worse than slowly bleeding out as you played because you ran out of bandages.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Far Cry 2 had an excellent system which combined both non-regenerating and regenerating health, and is one of the best health systems to date.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I like how Vampire: The Masquerade does it. Your health regenerates over time, once your health is in the red it will take forever to even start regenerating while high health recovers quickly and everything does quite hefty damage. However drinking blood recovers health as well as your blood points (mana essentially) so spamming blood packs from your inventory is inefficient if you have full mana but low health

If you can get some cheeky blood sucking mid combat you can get health quickly but make yourself an easy target if any of his friends are in the area, running head on at someone and hitting the feed button is not going to work unless you spec unarmed combat a bunch and any damage knocks you out of feeding.

I think I may have broken it by winding my playstyle into being invisible at all times with almost max level invisibility. I did think it was the kind of thing you used only for 100% no kill stealth runs but once you can run around normally you can be a sneaky bastard even mid combat. You duck out of sight for half a second and your invisibility comes back on, 100% successful feed attempt from stealth and a stealth kill system and you get a damage boost on your first attack out of invisibility for boss battles, it's the ultimate hit and run bullshit ever. You get the blood cost from repeated casts of Obfuscate back ten times over because you're just running behind people and eating them.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Dungeons of Daggorath had a clever "heartbeat" system based around physical exertion. Every time the player moved, attacked or took damage, their heartbeat would increase. If your heart started beating too fast you would black out for a bit, usually resulting in death if monsters were nearby. The only way to decrease your heartbeat was to stop and catch your breath in a relatively safe spot.

Not only did I feel it was a clever health mechanic, but it also contributed to the tension in the game. Hearing your heartbeat escalate as you desperately tried to run from a powerful monster made for one hell of a nerve-wracking experience.

 

[Folji]

Far Cry 2 had an excellent system which combined both non-regenerating and regenerating health, and is one of the best health systems to date.

Health systems like that establish a really interesting solution for health that just... works! That and setups like the first Halo went for before health regen got all popular, which is kinda just two different takes on the same idea! You got a regenerative first layer, so you can screw up a few times and that's okay or you can take some risks and not have to pay big. But if you don't watch out, the damage becomes permanent until you can fix it. It's a good middle-ground! And way better than duck-and-cover health regen. Seriously. >.>

 

[skywolfblue]

I like Dead Space's Health-bar-along-the-spine. It's a very plausible thing to have when you're often working with heavy and dangerous equipment, others can immediately see if you're injured and how badly. So it'd make sense that nearly everyone working aboard a starship would have one.

 

[oplinger]

Call of Cthulu Dark Corners of the Earth has the best system to me.

You heal up like in MGS3, with the bandages and splints and such, but if you broke your leg, you'd hobble around, if you broke your arm you couldn't use your gun, as you bled out hobbling down a hallway, your vision would blur and turn black and white, and you'd eventually collapse and die.

..I like it a lot, and I think more games should use a system like that. The game had no UI, so these effects were the only way to know you were injured and such.

 

[Parasondox]

Not terribly inventive, but I did enjoy the survival system in MGS3 Snake Eater. I liked how you had to fix your broken bones, gunshot wounds, cuts, etc. with actual medical supplies.

Seconded.
I've yet to see a health system quite like it in terms of how visceral it is. And you can't forget the stamina, where you had to catch and eat animals to keep going.

Then if you leave the game for a few days and come back, they all get rotten so you have to go back out and hunt for some more. GOD DAMN IT!! I miss games like this.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Ah yes. Banjo-Tooie had Snowball Banjo. Your size indicated how much health you had and the tricky thing was that you needed to actually hurt yourself sometimes so you could go into small areas. You could refill your health with the usual honey combs or by rolling around on the snow and being in an area with high temperatures would cause you to lose health.

 

[Voulan]

I actually quite enjoy the Borderlands system. Your shield regenerates based on its make, and once that is gone your actual health is hit, which doesn't regenerate. Unless, of course you've invested some skill into the right things. And then of course when you do go down, Fight for Your Life gives you a chance to get back into the game instead of die, which costs you money as some incentive not to.

I just think its a clever take on the usual regen health systems in most FPSs.

EDIT: And then of course there's the chance to revive teammates. I think all multiplayer games should have that, to create some form of teamwork. Like in Far Cry 3, that also uses shouts to amp up other players' health or health regen.