Poll: Health in video games

[Erttheking]

Ever since I joined this website, I've noticed that the concept of regenerating health tends to come under fire a lot. Some complaints that I've heard are "It breaks the immersion" or "it takes challenge away from the game," or simply "it's generic" and so on and so forth. Personally I don't see what the big deal is, in my opinion if you're advertising your game at the top of your lungs and one of your main selling points is that it doesn't have regenerating health, which I have seen a couple of times, then you must be scrapping the barrel of the creativity bin if that's supposed to be a selling point. Personally I don't see what's so great about non-regenerating health, mainly because of a couple of bad experiences with it, such as in my old x-men legends game when I ran out of health potions and got killed by the same boss over and over again, or in Half Life 2 when I was at the last bit of my health when I tripped a checkpoint and to get to the nearest health pack and had to run through a Combine sniper's killzone. Also I don't get what people mean when the say it takes the challenge away, in order to heal you have to seek cover, something that the enemies in a game are usually less than willing to let you do, and how is that less exciting than hunting down a health pack? Besides when you think about it, not having regenerating health is a cliche in itself, and some people seem to say that games break away from generic games and are great because of things like this, even though it's just a cliche that they prefer to another cliche, but then again this whole thing is opinion based. So my fellow members of the Escapist, what do you think is better? Do you like regenerating health, no regenerating health, or do you not really care?

TL;DR Don't see why regenerating health gets so much hate on this site, don't see why no regenerating health gets so much love on this site.

 

[Something Amyss]

People like old things. I don't think much more needs to be said.

 

[isometry]

In a way having any health at all is wimpy, back in my day everything was a one-hit kill.

But as for my preference, I like slowly regenerating health but in some games it's too fast. Like in Mass Effect 2, health regens so fast that it makes things seem repetitive because the battle is effectively "reset" on such a short timer. I don't want to regenerate to 100% after 5 seconds of being in cover.

 

[Honey Badger]

Depends on the game, really. Some games need fast regeneration or you would be dieing all the time, while other games have zero regeneration and health pots instead.

 

[Erttheking]

In a way having any health at all is wimpy, back in my day everything was a one-hit kill.

But as for my preference, I like slowly regenerating health but in some games it's too fast. Like in Mass Effect 2, health regens so fast that it makes things seem repetitive because the battle is effectively "reset" on such a short timer. I don't want to regenerate to 100% after 5 seconds of being in cover.

What about Zelda?

 

[Lightning Delight]

Can we have both? I really like how they handled it in Mercs 1.

You have 100 HP. When you are hit, you lose HP. You must find a health pack to restore HP. If your HP goes under 20, then it will slowly regenerate back up to 20 if you don't take any fire.

I really liked that system because it used good aspects from both health systems.

 

[Al-Bundy-da-G]

People like old things. I don't think much more needs to be said.

You're right, and in ten years they'll complain how regenerating health was better than having to mime apply bandages with motion controls.

 

[AJax_21]

Every modern shooter should have Far Cry 2's health system. nuff said.

But seriously, having regen or not mostly depends on how you design your level and combat encounters.

 

[Nuclear_Suspect]

Payday: The Heist does it EXACTLY how i like regenerating health (If I have to have regenerative health)

You have 2 health bars (Although they aint really bars) one outer layer which regenerates fast if you dont take damage and then your other health bar which does not regenerate (Which takes damage after the first one is depleted).

This balance allows you to play carefully and still be useful even if you're nearly dead, as in you can still take some quick shots and then take cover.

 

[skywolfblue]

People like old things. I don't think much more needs to be said.

Pretty much this. Nostalgia glasses rosy over the flaws of the old systems, while it's easy to criticize what is up and current.

Regenerating Health encourages "I'm a vulnerable person" cover-based gameplay, Health Packs encourage "I'm a god who can take a million bullets" get-out-there-and-shoot gameplay. Neither are "wrong", just different flavors of the gaming Popsicle.

 

[2fish]

Depends on game.

Fast brainless run and gun can work with regen or health packs, horror health regen takes away from it. If the point is to make you play smart then regen is bad or atleast hurting what you are trying to build.

I don't mind Skyrim health regen as it is slow, some games the regen is so fast I wonder why they don't just give me 5 health bars.

The number of health packs or speed/size of the regen are what mark the games "tone" healthwise. either works but it must match the tone of the game.

 

[Zhukov]

I'm fine either way.

Although I do think more games could adopt the Far Cry 2 formula.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I like Halo CE health.

 

[Thaius]

Anyone with even a basic comprehension of game design understands that both have their benefits for different situations. Regenerating health, for instance, allows the designers to design each area knowing exactly how difficult it will be for the player, as opposed to the possibility that the player will end up getting stuck on one part of the game because they have low health and no health packs. Health packs, on the other hand, provide a bit of extra challenge and require a bit more awareness of the player's health since they need to actively be ready to apply the curing item. Both work best in different situations; it's fine to have a preference, but anyone saying either is inherently better or worse than the other simply doesn't know how game design works.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I don't know as someone who tends to be quite sneaky and tactical in games, regenerating health kind of makes me feel immortal.

I like health potions I think but it really makes little sense either way if you think about it.

Crysis is kind of cool in that they utilise the suit as the reason you can 'heal up' more games could use things like that to explain health issues I think.

Horror games should never have regenerating health.

 

[agentorange98]

I know regenerating health is a little over done but it's a really useful tool for developers, it allows them to know how much health you will have when you walk into a room and they can plan accordingly, you don't get stuck with your last save when you had .5 health right before the giant spider death room and have to restart the level to see it through

 

[TehMountainMan]

One thing off the top of my head: non-regenerating health encourages players to improve their abilities at the game, while regenerating health reassures players that it doesn't matter if they're bad, they can get through without improving their skills. Another thing: non-regenerating health reinforces the danger one faces in games and adds to the tension the game may or may not be trying to invoke; this point works in accordance with the former.
Also, forgive me for being so brash when I say this but your point about needing to seek out cover being a part of the challenge (or possibly being the ONLY challenge) is just plain wrong. In modern First-person and third-person shooters (admittedly MUCH more prevalent in the latter), there is virtually no challenge at all in finding a place to heal. Developers have, more or less, made it a point to never make it a challenge. Who can blame them, though, because making it difficult to get to cover is not only more of a challenge to do fairly and in a balanced way than finding scarcely placed health packs, but it also breaks the game more than the mentioned scarcely placed health packs, as skill can nullify the need for such items. That was a pretty badly constructed sentence, I apologize.

 

[TehMountainMan]

Payday: The Heist does it EXACTLY how i like regenerating health (If I have to have regenerative health)

You have 2 health bars (Although they aint really bars) one outer layer which regenerates fast if you dont take damage and then your other health bar which does not regenerate (Which takes damage after the first one is depleted).

This balance allows you to play carefully and still be useful even if you're nearly dead, as in you can still take some quick shots and then take cover.

Sounds like Goldeneye on the N64, instead you automatically have body armor and it regenerates. Is this about right?

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

God dammit. This again? The response, as ever, is that different systems work well in different games.

 

[Kae]

I'm just going to say it as it is and this is how most people think anyway, the only reason I prefer non regenerating health it's because I'm used to it, ever since I started playing videogames it's been like that and it just feels weird and strange to have to stand there like an idiot to regenerate my health instead of looking for a health pack which makes just about the same quantity of sense but it's just what I'm used to.