Poll: Healthpacks vs. Regenerating Health

[V8 Ninja]

While I haven't played Far Cry 2 or any other games that use the feature, I think the hybrid system works the best to be a challenge and not too frustrating.

 

[tehroc]

Liked what they did inn DA2 Health potions for in combat, but as soon as the combat ends full health. This makes sense as if health regenerates in combat it just end up kiting, or hiding until health is back up. Full health afterwards as it means you don't waste time tracking back 'home' to top up health or standing about waiting for 300 health to come back 1 point per second, or wasting potions you'll need when the next thing want to wear your guts for garters.

I personally hate that, but then I'm old school and think attrition and managing resources is a very important part of RPG gaming. Fully resetting health/mana bars defeat any sort of suspense or skill.

 

[smithy_2045]

Depends on the game. Neither are inherently better than the other.

 

[Scrubiii]

There are some kinds of games where regenerating health is necessary. In a game with health packs, the players health bar needs to be large, otherwise they would need to spam health packs every other shot to keep themselves alive. However, in cover based shooters, players have to have a small amount of health in order to make sure that they use cover, thus regenerating health is necessary in games like Gears of War and Mass Effect.

 

[Korten12]

Health bars will always be better than regenerating health. Period.

It's pretty much the only thing I curse Halo for. I do rather like the serious, yet it gave us the pox that is regenerating health.

Halo, at least the first didn't have regen. It had a shield that recharged, but you needed health packs to heal your actual health.

 

[Alcamonic]

I was hoping for a healthpack system like the in the DN3D game.
When I first saw the EGO meter I thought it would be some new healthsystem they invented:

Dukes EGO meter goes down when he is hurt, as its getting bruised. However! To restore his feeling of manliness, he can make out with a babe or kill a pig, this will refill his meter.

So excited, but... I got sad when I realized it was just a normal screen-gets-bloody-ala-CoD cover shooter.

 

[Schadrach]

I went with the hybrid choice. Far Cry did it really well. To those of you who voted for healthpacks:
Have you ever had to restart the same sequence a million times because you only could take one more hit before you died and with no healthpacks around you where forced to go into the battle and die over and over again because it autosaved right before the fight. Does that sound like fun to you?

Honestly, most of the old school FPSs I've played before Halo (when the 2 weapons thing became a thing) and before regenerating health became widespread didn't checkpoint you like that. Or at all, except beginning of current level (and comparatively shorter levels that current FPSs). So if you managed to mismanage your health enough to be unable to complete the level, start the level over. Or show some skill and pull off something badass (my nephew actually shows the difference between generations w.r.t. gaming -- he ragequits whenever he tries to play old nintendo games because they are "impossible" [as in NES, as in the reason they coined the term "Nintendo Hard"]).

The obvious problem being that this is Duke, he's supposed to be an over the top action hero badass. He's *supposed* to be a walking armory. He's supposed to be able to handle an open firefight with half a dozen or more enemies. In short, he's not supposed to be a random CoD grunt with some one liners.

 

[SoranMBane]

I like the hybrid health system. Besides Far Cry 2, Resistance 1 and Condemned 2 also did that, and I thought it was a pretty neat concept both times. I can't tell you the number of times I died needlessly in Half-Life 1 and Opposing Force because I had to attempt a room full of enemies at below 10% health, and it just makes those otherwise decent games more frustrating than they should be. Half-Life 2 pretty much avoids this problem by being way too easy, with enemies doing less damage and health packs around every corner, so all I can take out of this is that the straight health bar/health pack system is nearly impossible to balance properly. At the same time, straight regen health takes out the desperate feeling of being low on health and scrounging for health packs, so some sort of compromise is almost necessary.

If a game doesn't go for the segmented health option, they should at least have the health bar regenerate to a set level when it gets too low (the Fear games are a good example) or even allow the player to carry health packs with them to use in emergencies. Being able to carry health packs is especially effective in a game with some sort of inventory system, where you might very well be asked to decide between the ability to heal yourself in a hairy situation (carry health packs), or your ability to avoid that hairy situation in the first place (carry ammo), and I think we can all agree that meaningful choices like this are a good thing. Having a mechanic that allows you to heal yourself, like in Oddword: Stranger's Wrath is also interesting, but it negates any possibility of the consequences of one battle carrying on to the next, which I find to be an unfortunate sacrifice.

 

[Irriduccibilli]

I went with the hybrid choice. Far Cry did it really well. To those of you who voted for healthpacks:
Have you ever had to restart the same sequence a million times because you only could take one more hit before you died and with no healthpacks around you where forced to go into the battle and die over and over again because it autosaved right before the fight. Does that sound like fun to you?

Honestly, most of the old school FPSs I've played before Halo (when the 2 weapons thing became a thing) and before regenerating health became widespread didn't checkpoint you like that. Or at all, except beginning of current level (and comparatively shorter levels that current FPSs). So if you managed to mismanage your health enough to be unable to complete the level, start the level over. Or show some skill and pull off something badass (my nephew actually shows the difference between generations w.r.t. gaming -- he ragequits whenever he tries to play old nintendo games because they are "impossible" [as in NES, as in the reason they coined the term "Nintendo Hard"]).

I was thinking of Deus Ex. That was really something that bothered me in it. I always managed to quicksave in the worst possible times. I actually think Medal of Honor (Frontline I think it was) managed to autosave in some horrendous places. Anywho, I will always prefer the hybrid health systems that I mentioned in my last post.

 

[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.

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.

My point was that you will get a lot of responses.

 

[Look-a-Hill]

I wouldn't mind seeing an approach similar to later Metal Gear Solids tbh. A slow regeneration if you're prone but with the ability to quickly heal through rations too. And then there's the whole added element of burns and excessive damage which means you need to apply bandages or ointment otherwise your health stops regenerating or actually depletes slowly.

Probably not something a more casual FPS would be keen on, mind.

 

[aarontg]

I do consider both of the options to be double edged swords. On one hand you have a system that is much more forgiving and is much easier to program the game around as you don't have to anticipate the player's current health level. But then again it takes out a certain excitement when your low on health in a tight situation and it feels overly ridiculous that anything that doesn't kill you outright will be shrugged off in a matter of seconds. Personally I think the best example of a health system is in just cause 2. I don't hate farcry 2's system but I always did curse when ever I lost that one pip of health from a stray bullet. I think just cause 2 has a good balance between permanent and regenerating damage.

 

[Metal Brother]

I don't have a preference between the two. I've played and enjoyed Crysis and Crysis 2, but grew up playing Doom and Quake and other old-school shooters. They're both fine, if done well.

 

[Luthir Fontaine]

We havent had a good health pack system in a while

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

I think it is best when you carry health items that heal over time like in hadcore mode in Fallout New Vegas. I did like the far cry 2 system.

 

[Yossarian1507]

Hybrid. Never played FC2 or Riddick, but the same system was used in the first Resistance game, and it worked really well.

 

[Amondren]

For me depends on the game. Fallout 3/New Vegas I prefer having to scavenge. Saints Row 2 has good use of Hybrid because food regens your health.

 

[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.

My point was that you will get a lot of responses.

And mine is that those responses would come from only a fraction of the Escapist community's active users.

 

[emptyother]

Healthpacks means you can take chances. You have more freedom to move out in the open.
You rarely need conservation of health, because there is usually a heap of healthpacks both before and after the encounter. Except when it isn't... Pretty soon you are down to 1 hp, you are pinned by enemies, and you have to bet it all on one last-ditch effort to kill them or die..

Regen health means you can take short sprints trough open area, take a few bullets, find a covered position, stay pinned by enemy fire until you have recovered enough. Then fire back, take a few shots, cover, wait, get flanked, flee your cover, getting shot even more (everything blurs red) while you blindly trying to find a better cover, or you will be dead..

Real life means you can take an undefined amount of bullets (12 bullets without flinching isn't uncommon) or die instantly of one lone stray bullet (These inconsistensies in damage will probably be fixed in a later patch. - God).

I like both healthpacks and regen! But prefer real life. It makes the gun much more dangerous for both sides of the conflict...