Poll: Healthpacks vs. Regenerating Health

[Shio]

If health packs win, we have some liars amongst us; regenerating health wouldn't be in video games if people didn't like it and therefor by into it.

Or, brace yourself, the majority of the players that prefer regenerating health don't go to gaming forums like these.

Considering how average the members here are, it's a safe bet the people that use this site are also the ones buying Halo and Call of Duty.

Err... the mainstream target audience of Halo and Call of Duty is hardly the kind to spend any significant time on a website dedicated to criticism and analysis of the video game medium and industry.

No doubt there are people here who do play and enjoy the series, but I very much doubt they're a majority.

Make a "Halo sucks" thread and check that theory out, lol.

 

[Custard_Angel]

Scanning this thread and the poll results I feel confident that I really liked that part of Far Cry 2.

A good balance between both parties.

I'd like to see it in more games and tinkering to the system to see if it can be improved further.

 

[Elemental]

Healthpacks.
Though I wouldn't mind a very slow regeneration which would take 5 minutes (real time) to go from 1HP to 100HP in combination with healthpacks.

Deus Ex

Generally speaking I'm on Team Regenerate. I've never been a big fan of tripping over first aid kits. It just means I have to run around before and after every fight looking for pickups. Little more than busywork in my opinion.

However, Far Cry 2, for all it's faults, had the best health system I've ever seen in a game. I wish more developers would use it.

Can you remind me how that system worked? It's been a while since I've played it.

 

[A Free Man]

I voted I don't care only because there wasn't a better option. I actually do care but my positioning is that it depends on the game and how the health system functions within game play. As long as it is smooth I won't really mind. For example despite much of the almost hate of CoD's health regeneration system and games like it I find that it works quite well in CoD. However if you take a game like say TF2 the health packs become part of the strategy of the game and that works just as well. It just depends how they are implemented moreso then what effect they actually choose.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I hate the particular Hybrid system in Far Cry. It was complete bullshit when you got hit by the car gunners and they took away a pixel width of health over 1/4 of your bar. Personally if you want to go hybrid it has to be something like PDZ but that's just me or actually Halo 1 health was pretty on the ball. Also I think BC 2 had a good regen system.

OT: I don't care.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

RH promotes more "realistic" approaches to encounter and advancing more cautiously in firefights. thus it shifts the focus more on the actual battles than the scavanging for ressources.
The downside is that gampleay becomes more static, and in many games you spend as much, if not more time staring at a chest high cover wall until your healed than actually shooting stuff. Thus, it's basically a mechanic that encourages passive behaviour.

I have to disagree with you here. Health bars demand conservation of health, cautiousness and great attention. With regen if some bad guy hits you with a lucky shot, no biggie, cover AWAY! If you have a health bar, every time wound counts, you have to be careful, assess each battle and work out how to most efficiently clear it while retaining the most health. I argue that the opposite is true to what you said. Regen health means, if you survive this fight, all the damage you took is meaningless. Meaning you can run and gun an enemy sniper nest and as long as you are not outright killed, you suffer no penalty. You can ignore wounds because, as long as they are not fatal, they mean nothing to you.

On the other hand every pistol shot counts in health packs, you can die from a thousand tiny cuts if you are not careful, you have to conserve health, think VERY carefully about your actions, and cant just run in and gun because that tends to lead to greater health loss and as such less efficiency that leads to that "low health great challenge" situation you described.

I think THIS is more realistic, you cant charge a machine gun, take 99% damage, take it out and be fine. That is NOT realistic mechanics. Feeling the bite of every tine scrape add up IS realistic mechanics.

 

[Morgan Howe]

medipacks = slower methodical game play.
Regerating = faster, more risky game play.

by necessity, games that have regen health have less health, and game with out regen have more health
i think medi-kits speed up play, not having to hide and take a break every time you get shot, instead just running over a health pick up seems much faster to me, also you often need to take risks to get TO the medkits.

 

[Stavros Dimou]

Both can be good,but they offer a different gameplay experience.
Which experience someone prefers is a matter of taste.
I like both games with medpacks and games with regenerative health,I think that what makes the difference is if the overall gameplay and style of a game is suitable for a system.

Health regeneration forces you the tactic of hiding behind something for some time and then hopping out and shoot.

Healthpacs forces you to explore around the area and the tactic of being more careful because health isn't unlimited.

So we are actually talking about "hiding and then shooting" versus "exploring and reserving".

Personally I like somewhat more the health packs system because I like exploring the levels a developer made. The factor of exploration is also a part of what makes me like that much games like The Elder Scrolls.
With regenerative health some other trends came along. Developers started creating more linear levels since there wasn't any reason any more for complex large areas to exist,so exploring in FPS games started dying when regenerative health started becoming a trend. I like exploring. And I think it's not something only RPGs should offer. The fun of exploring around,and the reward you are getting when you find a hidden stash or a secret area is much satisfactory.
Usually modern games with regen health doesn't offer me the same level of satisfaction older games did. I just don't feel rewarded enough by most of today's games,and staying for a longer time in one position makes me feel bored easily.

 

[Moromillas]

Definitely prefer health packs. The issue I have with regen would be the insane amount of health gained from it so quickly, so the only way to kill the player would be to repeatedly pound them with high damage shots or surround them. It also trivializes taking damage because, well, who cares when you can just regen it back later, and within a few seconds.

Maybe if the regen was, I donno, something like 1hp per second then maybe taking damage wouldn't be so trivial.

 

[player3141]

I like games with healthpacks that you can carry. Wasting health packs when you are at 90% health is annoying. Espcially when you are at 20% 5 minutes later with no health pack in sight.
I think its safe to say that the game went with health regen because the game is also on console and they want to appeal to new players (COD and BFBC fans)

 

[Shydrow]

This is a horrible question seeing as it is a game design choice and should be thought about to see what adds to the gaming experience.

 

[That Greek Guy]

health kits are awesome because they allow for gameplay variety.
When you have low health you are more careful. You make quick headshots and take cover.You search the level for items and then in a small corner you find 2 health packs, armor and a few rockets.

Then its clobbering time.
doom and half life fans know exactly what i am talking about

 

[SuperCombustion]

Healthpacks are good for fps' but I think health regen is better for a game like saints row 2. It all depends on whether you want to challenge the player or entertain.

But for crying out loud, make some kind of milestone between level segments which completely heals you, scavenging for health while the bullets are flying is NOT fun...

 

[PlowmanMk]

I really dont understand everyones fascination with gaming trends (ie health packs V Regen health, realism V action, graphics v gameplay, 2 weapon minimum V infinite inventory).

To me, it is better off just to accept the differentiation and variation between games. Why would we want all games to be exactly the same?


I dont mind whether games use health packs or not. They have their pro's and con's - all that matters is if they are integrated correctly. That said, I really enjoyed Far Cry 2's 'hybrid' system.

 

[JediMB]

If health packs win, we have some liars amongst us; regenerating health wouldn't be in video games if people didn't like it and therefor by into it.

Or, brace yourself, the majority of the players that prefer regenerating health don't go to gaming forums like these.

Considering how average the members here are, it's a safe bet the people that use this site are also the ones buying Halo and Call of Duty.

Err... the mainstream target audience of Halo and Call of Duty is hardly the kind to spend any significant time on a website dedicated to criticism and analysis of the video game medium and industry.

No doubt there are people here who do play and enjoy the series, but I very much doubt they're a majority.

Make a "Halo sucks" thread and check that theory out, lol.

If I make a "Halo sucks" thread I'm naturally going to attract the attention of the people who do like Halo. People who don't care aren't likely to enter the thread, much less post in it.

 

[Zhukov]

However, Far Cry 2, for all it's faults, had the best health system I've ever seen in a game. I wish more developers would use it.

Can you remind me how that system worked? It's been a while since I've played it.

Sure.

- You had a visible health bar. The bar was broken into five equal segments.
- Avoiding damage would cause regeneration, but only to the next segment. So, for example, if you were knocked down to two and a half segments, you could only regenerate back up to three full segments.
- You could recover all your health by using a health syringe. You could carry five syringes at a time. (You could upgrade your syringe capacity later on, but I never did.) Syringes could be used at any time, including while driving.
- If your health dropped below one segment (20%) then you would start bleeding out. This could be prevented by performing first aid. (The exact procedure depended on what kind of injury you had. It could be removing a bullet, relocating a joint, bandaging a wound, patting out a clothing fire etc.) However, the first aid took about five seconds to perform, and would be interrupted by further damage, so you had to find a somewhat safe location. First aid would get you back up to two segments (40%).
- (Incidentally, the first aid animations were utterly brutal. See for yourself [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaFxErhm8CU].)
- You could take a fair bit of damage before dying. Even on harder difficulties, enemy snipers took about 3-4 shots to kill you outright.

So yeah... heh, quite complex.

 

[babinro]

Regenerating health actually renewed my faith in first person shooters. I'm personally bad at this genre of gaming, and so I play on easiest difficulty and move up from there if possible. I've never beaten Goldeneye, Turok, Perfect Dark due to trouble dealing with health management (PC games I can beat due to quick saving every 5 seconds which is the equivalent of god mode).

Resistance 1 really got me excited about FPS again because of the hybrid quartered health that regenerates. This turned out to be an excellent system that I can get behind on consoles. I still suck at shooters, but I was able to beat Resistance on its highest difficulty eventually.

COD4/Borderlands are the only FPS's I've played with regenerating health. I find both games to be challenging, but fair. I can't beat them on high difficulties, but neither do I feel a grind. Also, eliminating the need to backtrack and scrounge in FPS's cuts down on the gameplay time and keeps the pacing fun at all times.

 

[Valdus]

Regenerating health. I don't want a poorly timed move to screw me over for an entire level if I struggle to find health packs. Theres a reason why, despite the large surge of "realistic" shooters, that we have a system like this despite not being that realistic - it works, it actually means you aren't screwed due to a bit of bad luck.

"Health packs" aren't realistic either - RL isn't like Bleach were some bandages can cure you of all your injuries in the space of a few minutes.

 

[Your Fearless Captain]

I like health pick ups, ah la Half-Life.