Poll: Favorite health system

[kommando367]

What is your favorite health system in games.

Personally, I like the full regeneration system because the disadvantage of having taken damage from an attack can be more easily remedied than with other systems.


There are 4 basic types

Segmented with limited regeneration
Examples: Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and Resistance: Fall of Man.

Description:
This is where you have "multiple layers of small health meters".
If you take a little damage, that damage can be regenerated completely if you avoid taking more damage.
However, if you take damage beyond 1 or more segments, damage to those lost segments cannot be regenerated, and the damage you took temporarily decreases the size of your health meter.


Full regeneration
Examples: Gears of War and Resistance 2

Description:
Where any amount of damage can be completely regenerated as long as you are still alive and avoid taking more damage.

Shield and health
Examples: Mass Effect 1 and Halo: Combat Evolved

Description:
Where you have a shield that can regenerate on it's own and block damage to health, but if the shield is "broken through" due to damage taken, all subsequent damage is taken by the health meter (which requires a medkit or a games equivalent to heal) until the shield regenerates.

Health meter
Examples: God of War and Devil May Cry

Description:
All damage taken requires a medkit or a games equivalent to heal it.

 

[Tupolev]

There is no best one. It depends on what the game is going for.

I mean, my favorite FPS (Halo CE) uses a straight shield-and-health system, but I would hate to see that system used in, say, Half-Life 2.

 

[b1aksh33p]

I enjoy the shield and heath system since it makes more sense (in a sci-fi sort of way).

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Full regen. I don't understand the masochistic desires for health packs that many gamers seem to have. How exactly is hunting for a health pack fun or interesting in any way? Full regen isn't at all realistic obviously, but realism takes a backseat to fun for me.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Injury by hit location.

 

[Omikron009]

It really depends on the type of game. In most RPGs, I prefer a health bar. In shooters, on the other hand, I like shields and health. It keeps the game difficult, but not frustrating.

 

[Jelly ^.^]

A publicly funded health system running alongside a private one, with full basic health insurance for all citizens, with generous government rebates on premiums for the poor who choose to take out private health insurance, and prods in the ribs for the rich who don't.

Treasure Island Dizzy's health system. THAT was gaming.

 

[tombman888]

I'm prefer a health meter, but thats because i usually play games where this appears (ie:team fortress 2)

 

[Sacman]

The Deus Ex system... each part if the body can take damage... and taking damage on certain parts has certain effects... damage on arms lowers accuracy and melee damage, damage to head results in death etc...

 

[Spencer Petersen]

I remember one game with a health system that I rather liked. You had a standard health bar that decreased when hit, but if when you take damage you start to bleed. You can take a few seconds to bandage yourself which stops the bleeding. The only way to fully heal is to visit a doctor so it puts much greater pressure on avoiding damage and staying out of enemy fire.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

I've always preferred the health system in Halo 1. Though segmented health bars are okay as well.

 

[Admiral Stukov]

The fifth option.
The Deus Ex system, each limb have it's on health bar.

 

[Hisshiss]

Not sure if were only talking in terms of shooters, as my favorite system is rarely used in them and more akin to RPG's, but I prefer a fairly large health bar with limited but constant regen, and then other means of healing to deal with the immediate and larger chunks. kind of like the passive regeneration in warcraft and alot of diablo style dungeon crawlers.

Allows for passive regen to help recover from mistakes, without making all your health fly back up instantly, meaning the game doesnt have to make enemies 2 shot you in order to balance it out.

 

[Crazie_Guy]

It's not just the hunt for healing after a fight that matters. It's how it affects tactics in a fight. Full regen is the most simplistic, brainless way to play. You just have to shoot stuff and duck when you start seeing red, repeat ad infinitum, and then let the game carry you to the next stage. snore. Having limited health throughout an entire fight on the other hand, requires tactics and skill a few steps beyond what you ever need in GoW or the like. There's a reason HL2 is the thinking mans FPS.

So yea, I prefer plain old health bars.

 

[ZephrC]

Well, it partly depends on the style of game. They all have advantages as disadvantages, and they all work better in different circumstances, but over all I personal favorite would have to be the shield and health setup. It punishes you for really screwing up without letting you get slowly nickle and dimed to death like a health meter by itself or leaving you bizarrely crippled like the health segments. It also encourages a slower, more thoughtful pace, which is something I find seriously lacking in a lot of games.

Actually, I really don't think I like the health segment thing much. It seems too irritating and arbitrary, and doesn't really make any sense. It's just overall the worst of the options.

 

[The Evil Foxy]

While the full regen system is used in most of the games I currently play, still my favorite system is the Segmented regen system. This makes you think about sponging-up bullets more than that with the more forgiving full regen system while retaining some realism.

Probably the system I've liked the most was the one in Far Cry 2 with the syrettes one could use to replenish the segmented health.

 

[zombiestrangler]

I personally prefer Full Regen. Something that pisses me off, though, is that developers have done away with a meter or health bar long with regen health and replaced it with what I like to call,"Bleeding from the eyes." I'd like that to stop now. Bring back the health meter; it is very useful. A short bar tells me a whole hell of a lot more than just a darker shade of red on the edge of the screen.

 

[Romidude]

Metro 2033 style, it's like Call Of Duty in the sense that the only indication of your health is visual effects, but it takes several minutes(Or so it feels like) to regenerate, and you can use a healthkit if you need it.

 

[joshuaayt]

Health meter, I guess- Deus Ex did it perfectly, with the meter for each body part, and an overarching big meter (assumedly, it represented blood loss). Losing all health to a body part would degrade its functionality (and, if you lost both legs, lower the camera for crawling.

This was a fantastic, immersive system, hampered only by the fact that you could quite possibly destroy every body part save one, and still kinda move around, as a disembodied head.