Poll: Healthpacks vs. Regenerating Health

[Daniel Janhagen]

I prefer health packs (or no way to regain health at all), because I don't like standing around, and I don't like it when other people stand around either. Regenerating health leads to a more static, standing-still game. Less run 'n gun, more stand 'n ... nothing, I guess.
Also, the regenerating health basically gives you a free reset if you mess up, and that's something I don't particularly like. If you mess up and get shot in the leg early on, you should still be hobbling when you face the boss, unless you accomplish something first (be it as simple as finding the room full of healing potions, expending one of your (limited) healing spells, or something more involved and/or extraordinary). Simply taking a few seconds should not be enough.

hiding behind a rock like a wimp because you?re being shot at should definitely NOT boost your ego.

Indeed.

the people that use this site are also the ones buying Halo and Call of Duty.

I've played both (a bit), but haven't bought an fps since Serious Sam, and don't enjoy newish fpses at all. It was never my favourite genre, but it's just been going steadily downhill as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Telperion]

OT: I personally like the approach of the Halo games. The ones that used health packs, that is. It offered a hybrid that worked. You have regenerating health on one level, in the form of shields. Those come back if you get to cover. Below that though, you have health. Your health can only be taken away if your shields are gone, but even if your shields come back up, you don't get any missing health back until you find a medkit. And medkits offer a slight bonus in that if you grab one while your shields are down, they'll recharge while your health climbs back up.

O' yeah! I only ever played Halo: Combat Evolved, but that game had a really nice health system

 

[Sleepy Sol]

Just based on modern convenience, regenerating health. Not really an opinion most will share with me, but I like to keep playing the game instead of scrambling for the nearest health pack.

 

[Strazdas]

Healthpacks.
regeneration health = hide behind a rock if wounded while enemies are wasting ammo shooting at it and then just jump up with full health. infact in SNIPER i was under sniper fire inside river and it out-generated their hits. that was silly. Regeneration isnt new, it was tried in the 90s and was dropped, now its rising again.

 

[ACman]

Health charging stations perhaps? Healing by hiding behind a wall has always felt a little lame and the health kit roundup is a pain in the ass.

Charging health/shields felt right in Halo. It feels very wrong in COD, MOH et al and removes any semblance of challenge. One of the few FPSs I've been really challenged by is Goldeneye 64. No health pickups. Get from one end of the level to the other with x amount of health and maybe a body armour pickup. It felt right. I would cower at the corner of a door with my last sliver of health trying to trick guards into running in to a carefully aimed headshot.

Any reason why this wouldn't work for COD and MOH?

Perhaps you could have a medic for the levels involving regular forces who you have to report to to heal and special operations gus just have to get through the level with the health they've got.

 

[Ajna]

Health charging stations perhaps? Healing by hiding behind a wall has always felt a little lame and the health kit roundup is a pain in the ass.

Charging health/shields felt right in Halo. It feels very wrong in COD, MOH et al and removes any semblance of challenge. One of the few FPSs I've been really challenged by is Goldeneye 64. No health pickups. Get from one end of the level to the other with x amount of health and maybe a body armour pickup. It felt right. I would cower at the corner of a door with my last sliver of health trying to trick guards into running in to a carefully aimed headshot.

Any reason why this wouldn't work for COD and MOH?

Because COD and MOH tend to be based on enemies that have the advantage of large numbers and infinite ammo, while your one advantage is the brain stem necessary to find cover.

 

[Davey Woo]

The only health system I'd be completely happy with would be a better version of Fallout's limb damage. I don't like Health Pack systems because I always spend most of the game on <50% health and I endlessly look for more health kits (promotes exploration I suppose but I just don't like it) And I don't like regen health because it's boring and not as realistic as many people seem to think it is.

 

[Fredrikorex]

Some games work better with healthpacks and some with regenerating health but I think I like healthpacks more, not that regenerating health is bad, it just feels more boring.

 

[ACman]

The only health system I'd be completely happy with would be a better version of Fallout's limb damage. I don't like Health Pack systems because I always spend most of the game on <50% health and I endlessly look for more health kits (promotes exploration I suppose but I just don't like it) And I don't like regen health because it's boring and not as realistic as many people seem to think it is.

Health charging stations perhaps? Healing by hiding behind a wall has always felt a little lame and the health kit roundup is a pain in the ass.

Charging health/shields felt right in Halo. It feels very wrong in COD, MOH et al and removes any semblance of challenge. One of the few FPSs I've been really challenged by is Goldeneye 64. No health pickups. Get from one end of the level to the other with x amount of health and maybe a body armour pickup. It felt right. I would cower at the corner of a door with my last sliver of health trying to trick guards into running in to a carefully aimed headshot.

Any reason why this wouldn't work for COD and MOH?

Because COD and MOH tend to be based on enemies that have the advantage of large numbers and infinite ammo, while your one advantage is the brain stem necessary to find cover.

Sounds pretty similar to Goldeneye to me (Admittedly the guards in GE were pretty slow and stupid.). And there's no reason that cover shouldn't work as cover. It just shouldn't be an instant healing station.

 

[Daniel Janhagen]

Health charging stations perhaps?

We actually had that in Duke Nukem 3D: Going to the the toilet restored your health (once), or you could slowly regenerate by drinking water from a stream (which you could create by smashing the pipes of said toilet, or a fire hydrant).

 

[00slash00]

health packs. i remember playing the original half-life and being down to like 13 health and nervously sneaking around each corner, determined to get the first shot out so i wouldnt take damage, and the joy and relief i felt when i finally came across a healing station. regenerating health doesnt bring that kind of tension and it makes it so you dont have to think. you dont have to worry about how youre going to survive future battles after taking so much damage, because after a few seconds youre back to full health. its almost like having god mode activated

 

[ACman]

Health charging stations perhaps?

We actually had that in Duke Nukem 3D: Going to the the toilet restored your health (once), or you could slowly regenerate by drinking water from a stream (which you could create by smashing the pipes of said toilet, or a fire hydrant).

I thought you could just instantly get full health from a station that would be at regular points through the level.

Or, if you want COD-like realism, have a medic/don't have any health fills at all.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Play Super Metroid or Metroid Prime and a CoD game back-to-back and tell me which one has the better health mechanic

OTOH, health pick-ups don't make sense in every game. A good third option is taking some type of action to regen health a la Stranger's Wrath or Elder Scrolls games. That way you aren't hiding behind cover waiting for the strawberry jam to fall off your face, but you aren't going to get into an unwinnable fight because you couldn't find that one health pack.

 

[erbkaiser]

Far Cry 2 had a good health system.

In general, I prefer it if my health always recharges to a base amount so I have a chance of at least escaping, and an option to bring it up to full by using health packs or chargers.
Maybe the two should be distinguished into health and armour, but the principle is the same.

Recharge up to the survivability point, and use packs to get to a point where you can survive a few shots in a full-on assault.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Far Cry 2 had a good health system.

In general, I prefer it if my health always recharges to a base amount so I have a chance of at least escaping, and an option to bring it up to full by using health packs or chargers.
Maybe the two should be distinguished into health and armour, but the principle is the same.

Recharge up to the survivability point, and use packs to get to a point where you can survive a few shots in a full-on assault.

Yeap, for all the flak Far Cry 2 got I really liked that. Hell I was pretty entertained by it in general.

The main reason I don't like the 100% healthpack system is that at one point you'll be low on health, right in front of a part with a lot of baddies and no healthpacks around, and you'll be desperatly backtracking the level for one healthpack you missed. That's just not very fun.

 

[Reaper195]

Health Packs, I liked having perspective on when I was going to die, and not have to judge how shitty the visuals were turning on my screen. Or be like CoD, in which a single hit turns your screen red and then you A: Can't see like that old meme, and B: it's all fucking red, irrelevant of how many times you get hit so you don't know how close you are to dying.

I miss that old "OH FUDGE! My health is at bloody 3!"

 

[Kahunaburger]

Health charging stations perhaps? Healing by hiding behind a wall has always felt a little lame and the health kit roundup is a pain in the ass.

Charging health/shields felt right in Halo. It feels very wrong in COD, MOH et al and removes any semblance of challenge. One of the few FPSs I've been really challenged by is Goldeneye 64. No health pickups. Get from one end of the level to the other with x amount of health and maybe a body armour pickup. It felt right. I would cower at the corner of a door with my last sliver of health trying to trick guards into running in to a carefully aimed headshot.

Any reason why this wouldn't work for COD and MOH?

Because COD and MOH tend to be based on enemies that have the advantage of large numbers and infinite ammo, while your one advantage is the brain stem necessary to find cover.

Although you could also make an awesome tactical shooter (and they've made a few like this) where you are fighting smaller numbers of enemies without regenerating health and with tactically flexible tools that work as equalizers. IMHO, a big-budget version of this would be an awesome shooter experience. You'd have higher stakes and higher tension - same principle as why Die Hard is a better movie than Die Hard 4.

 

[CommanderKirov]

Regenerating health is better suited for ultra realism cover based shooters.

Health packs are better suited for ball to the wall action shooters like Serious Sam.

 

[DanielBrown]

Going with Regenerating Health. I won't have to stare at a health meter all the time and I don't have to rely on finding health packs. Might be lazy of me, but I believe that the regenerating health system was a step in the right direction for shooting games.

 

[sephiroth1991]

I think it depends on the context, a horror game would fall flat with regenrating because it would weaken the fear factor if you heal over time and a Stealth game would loose its alot of the tactics if you health would heal over time after being seen. Shooters I'm kinda in middle, it makes sense in Multi player aspect for balancing reasons, however it doesn't make sense in a single player where its just you and the AI.

Overall I'm pro-Health packs and Hybrid.