Poll: Health Bar or Regenerating Health, what is your stance on this new trend?

[Pseudonym2]

I don't like health bars because you end up dying from one hundred paper cuts all one at a time (and you have to spend 20 minutes looking for a health pack only to find you can't go back where they were) . I don't like healing either because every time you get a paper cut you have to spend 5 - 10 seconds waiting for your health to come back which breaks the flow.

The best would be Prince of Persia of Ultimate alliance where you can reuse health stations of keep fighting Respawning monsters until they give you more health.

 

[Drong]

The thing to realize here is that games aren't hard anymore. They aren't. Anyone saying they are either wasn't there or is a liar. Between quicksaves and health regen and more gameplay options (cover, blind-fire, the ability to simply sidestep something) video games are less about controller-snapping difficulty and more about having a fun ride through to the end. To that end, I'd say that, while Bioshock's route made it too easy, the choice here is really only between easy or still easy but slightly longer.

Ok hard games, Stalker now that game was damn hard, no quick saves, no autosaves and very little health full stop not to mention death being a quick and likely prospect (oh and just about everything upto and including the landscape itself trying to kill you) yes you can save at any point but it's such a pain going back through the menu's you are unlikely to do it often.

The original Farcry on the PC, even with full armor and health you still die frighteningly quick and you have autosaves but only autosaves so no quicksaving your way through the game, and you have to use lots of ducking and leaning round cover or its another trip to corpseville.

Thats just the two i have played recently and both have been around for a while however there are more hard games out there, they are just not quite so mainstream.

 

[Chavyneebslod]

There was also this one turn based game, I can't remember what it's called, but, what happens is, lets say you get hurt, BADLY, well, your health bar will slowly go down, and you have to do something about it before you run out of HP.

I think you are referring to the UFO series, although it was a bit irritating because you had to research and manuafacture medkits before you could save your team members in the early stages of the game. This would provoke a blitzkrieg against the remaining aliens before your soldier died (If a soldier is wounded during a mission, they are instantly sent to sickbay after it is completed.)

I think regenerative health slows down gameplay, especially when coupled with the 'Duck and cover' element that is being introduced now (see RB6: Vegas, Gears of war) I would constantly find myself hiding behind cover as soon as I got hit on the harder difficulty settings, letting my team mates take care of the enemy and patching up said team mates if they got 'downed'.

I think a Deus Ex health system is appropriate. But devs don't realy have the patience to implement something like that. Bullet hits tend to be split into 'headshots' and 'everywere else-shots' Having a leg shot affecting a character's speed or an arm shot affecting aim is just too much effort, I suppose.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

The thing to realize here is that games aren't hard anymore. They aren't. Anyone saying they are either wasn't there or is a liar. Between quicksaves and health regen and more gameplay options (cover, blind-fire, the ability to simply sidestep something) video games are less about controller-snapping difficulty and more about having a fun ride through to the end. To that end, I'd say that, while Bioshock's route made it too easy, the choice here is really only between easy or still easy but slightly longer.

Ok hard games, Stalker now that game was damn hard, no quick saves, no autosaves and very little health full stop not to mention death being a quick and likely prospect (oh and just about everything upto and including the landscape itself trying to kill you) yes you can save at any point but it's such a pain going back through the menu's you are unlikely to do it often.

The original Farcry on the PC, even with full armor and health you still die frighteningly quick and you have autosaves but only autosaves so no quicksaving your way through the game, and you have to use lots of ducking and leaning round cover or its another trip to corpseville.

Thats just the two i have played recently and both have been around for a while however there are more hard games out there, they are just not quite so mainstream.

It's cool if you weren't there for the 8-bit days. You can disagree with my vote for the Bioshock-esq health management if you like, but the fact that games are much easier now is indisputable. Even today's touted "hard" games wre only moderate by the standards of yesteryear.

And really, considering that controllers used to have to be built to take being repeatedly thrown into walls, we should be glad that those days are over. I was a better gamer then, probably, but I have more fun now.

- J

 

[steveo_justice]

Here is an interesting idea, perhaps sparked by the monty python pic; there would be NO health, and wherever you'd get shot you'd lose a limb or an organ or something, and you'd only die once you ran out of limbs. Thats a new game mechanic right there.

 

[Icedrake402]

In order to not break the game, regen should be slower than a pregnant yak and only up to a certain amount. I believe it was 25% in both Max Paynes, and Ninja Gaiden DS gave back only a portion of the health lost in the fight.

I liked that. Mercenaries did the same thing, and it made being injured tense (you can probably withstand a few hits, but a heavy weapon or explosive could instantly kill you) without the tedium that occurs in games with no regeneration. Quite a few times in various games, I finished a really hard, dramatic fight on 5 health or whatever. The next ten minutes involve huge amounts of quicksaving / loading until I run into a health boost, because a single tiny hit is going to kill me. Enemy 500 feet away gets lucky when spraying fire? Reload. Surprise attack from behind? Reload. Run into a colourful environmental hazard that does minimal damage and wasn't supposed to be a threat? Reload.

I like either sort of health system more when the game at least tries to explain why it works like that. Crouching behind a wall for a minute and regenerating might be silly, but it's no dafter than stepping on a medical kit and absorbing magical healing through your foot.

 

[Lazy Lemon]

i've not played deus ex but that sounds like a good idea. otherwise, just stick with health bars. it's sort of ironic really, because they're so unrealistic, but if you're on low health you have to start playing more realistically, you can't just run around taking bullets.

 

[cyber95]

I have died countless times in Half-Life because I was low on health.
Still, I prefer a health bar. It ups the challenge, and makes a game not just "SHOOT SHOOT HIDE SHOOT SHOOT HIDE", because you have to actually think about whether or not it's a good idea to approach it from whatever angle.

I admit, Halo does it fine. I have been bashing it for the longest time without playing anything other than the multiplayer (I was bashing the campaign mode), and then I finally got a chance to give it a shot, and it doesn't suck as much as I thought it did and I'm going off topic now.

In conclusion, my English teachers told me to end my essay style writing by restating the first point, so I like health bars better.

 

[fat american]

I have to say that if you just want mindless run and gun and you don't want to have to worry about "well what's my health?" Then regen is nice, but if you want to have to be a little more tactical because there aren't any health packs near by, then health packs are good. I don't necessarily prefer one or the other but one thing that really irks the hell out of me about healt packs is it can get hard to notice when you're about to die. In Half-Life the nice lady in the suit talks to you but sometimes that can get drowned out by gun fire. Where as in regen the only way you can tell you're about to die is extremely apparent(it's kind of hard to miss blood red screens and a heart thump). So my standing is whichever halth system fits the game and what pace of the game you want it to be.

 

[tthor]

health bar, gives a little bit more of a realistic feel to the game

 

[Conqueror Kenny]

I always liked health bars. For example: during a boss fight you shouldn't be able to hide in a corner and get your heath back, it makes games far too easy. Not like there are any good boss fights nowdays anyway

 

[Greatfrito]

While I love the Deus Ex style "where you're hit, counts" health system, and wish it would be implemented in more games, regenerating health is a good "gameplay" method, just because it keeps things moving along at a good pace, and allows the encounters to be more intense over longer periods without arbitrary health packs.

Now, a realistic injury system I'm also totally for (Deus Ex style probably would work for that.)

 

[Bocaj2000]

Now, a realistic injury system I'm also totally for (Deus Ex style probably would work for that.)

I agree completely. There's no reason why that system can't be implemented in modern games. I mean the regen system had it's run, however it's outdated, as are health bars. Vegas 2 does an alright job at realism with - a burst of shots to penetrate armor - headshot=death.

But it would be cool to walk into a room limping and take out three guys with a pistol in multi-player before getting a headshot. A real 'gunz-blazing' kind of thing.

 

[geldonyetich]

What, no "all of the above, as appropriate" option?

 

[hypothetical fact]

The Halo health system where you get a regenerating shield that disappears very quickly and a health bar. Regenerating health on its own takes away the feeling of danger that you get from having low health; a health bar on its own means that in far too many cases you end up backtracking for medkits.

 

[implodingMan]

I'm sorry, but "new trend"? Halo 1 came out 7 goddamn years ago. If we put the beginning of popular FPSs at the release of Doom in 1993, which was 8 years before Halo, then this trend has been around for almost half of FPSing.

I don't really care which one a game uses, as long as it is implemented well. I can't see Half Life working with regenerating health (although you did have regenerating health in the short section before you acquire the HEV suit in Half Life 2), but in COD regenerating health works well because of the constant need to push forward in the game. Scrounging around for health packs while constantly under fire would be annoying (and was annoying in COD 1).

 

[joystickjunki3]

Halo made sense, as did Crysis. But I'd cry if Gunstar or Metroid had rengerating health. It would take away from the whole experience.

Anyway, I'm basically saying that I don't mind regenerative health as long as it doesn't get carried away (like if every game and its mother starts using it... oh, wait) or make the game too easy.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

There should be a "depends on the game" option. In my opinion there's strengths and weaknesses to every health system, the right one depends on what kind of feel the game is going for.

For intense action the regenerating health works well. It keeps players concerned with tactical play but doesn't overly punish mistakes and break flow.

For "adventure shooters" (ie, Half-Life 2 or BioShock) a health bar works well. It gives a sense of continuity to battles and punishes for stupidity. You may be able to simply over-power any enemy you come across but you won't be able to do that over and over.

Other systems work for other feels as well, but those are the major two.

 

[Silver Patriot]

I think Halo does it best a regenerating Shield bar with a reason to be there and a Health meter which does not. (I am pretty sure that Halo 2 and 3 does not have regenerating health you just don't see it.) For games without a health bar you should have health points and games like CoD4 should have medics like some of the old WWII games do. Halo 1 annoyed me with clusters of dead marines around conviently placed health packs in area's (The library for instance) where they never should have been. (but to games credit I usally wanted a health pack way to much to care about why it was there and at least they tried to explain it.)

I have to say that I think Operation Flashpoint did it best when it came to health meter (followed be Left 4 Dead) with it's sort of damage specific areas. If you fell or were shot in the leg you broke your legs if you were shot in the arms you were impared in your aiming. Sniper bullet to the chest, you die.