Poll: Regenerating Health, a Poll

[shaboinkin]

Health packs
I like a challenge.
When you do have 5 hp at a checkpoint, you actually got to think about how you plan to make it out alive. There's no challenge to regenerating health (unless you are playing halo/cod on it's hardest setting, which all is just damage x10000 + more things trying to kill you

 

[tomtom94]

bring back health bars - they're a far better system than the current "you can take two thousand bullets if you just wait a few seconds to heal" thing we get in games nowadays.

Proof? I'm currently playing Resident Evil 4, and it is hard, because I have to keep healing.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

My personal preference is health packs. But, I would say the best health system I've seen to date is that of Mass Effect 1. The combination of the two just topped that game off. I liked having the ability to just put my health right back up and the choice to add in regeneration when I'd leveled up enough to unlock it. It made the game easier when it got difficult.

 

[Pearwood]

Survival horror - no
Single player FPS - either works if done well
Multiplayer FPS - yes
WRPG - yes
JRPG - no
SRPG - no
RTS - no healing full stop

 

[SturmDolch]

I prefer not having regenerating health I guess. I found Bad Company 2 got it perfect, although they should have included a health bar instead of just the fancy red effects on the screen. You regenerate health after being out of combat for a while, but slowly. There are also medics that can drop health crates that heal you faster. You still have to manage health.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

Depends on the genre, but I'm one to think that there's a lot of genres and games wherein regenerating health doesn't even work.

Halo might have done it well, but in Call of Duty or Battlefield, it's pretty fucking stupid. I'd like to see the third Bad Company do what the original Halo did. IE: Knock off a bit of health that cannot be regenerated unless the player applies a first aid kit to himself.

In RTS games like Halo Wars, where Spartan's had regenerative health(alright SHIELDS), and the other units didn't? Are you kidding me? You're trying to cram the Halo formula on a CONSOLE RTS and you can't figure out that shit like this doesn't work? REALLY? Or were they too busy trying to jerk off the Halo brand?

 

[Cyrax987]

Depends on the game, like a game like Fallout 3 I was glad that it didn't have regenerating health. that game wouldn't be as exciting if I could hide behind stuff and regenerate since what made that game so awesome to me was searching for supplies and being very cautious in that game.

That game wouldn't be that crazy if I could run behind a building and recover to full health.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

I prefer not having regenerating health I guess. I found Bad Company 2 got it perfect, although they should have included a health bar instead of just the fancy red effects on the screen. You regenerate health after being out of combat for a while, but slowly. There are also medics that can drop health crates that heal you faster. You still have to manage health.

Ever played Bad Company 1? The Assault Class had a regenerative syringe that, at the squeeze of the R1 button, could instantly heal you. That game also had a Half-Life-esque counter for your health, but the problem was that there was no regenerative syringe for the other classes in the game, so if you were stuck at like, 20 percent of your health, and you weren't playing in the assault class, you were pretty much fucked.

If anything, that was the thing that made me a little bit jaded about the sequel, because that was a great idea that was marred by really piss poor execution and balance in the first Bad Company, and it upsets me that they took out that element, because it's already hard as fuck to tell whether or not you're okay or not without a visual cue only until after you get killed, or get used to it and listen for when the audio of the game changes to let you know you are about to die.

 

[The Free Wind]

Ah, the semi-age-old argument. In reality, sitting still is the WORST thing you can do if you're actually wounded, as you'll still bleed to death. On the other hand, med-kits are equally ridiculous in the speed at which they can be administered and take effect. The middle ground would be segment-based health regeneration, like in Aliens Vs Predator (2010).

 

[Sixties Spidey]

It especially feels redundent in BC2 as you have medics with medpacks.

The campaign had it worse. Don't get me wrong, the game was great, but the whole health system felt flawed. There was one unbearably hard sequence in the game where you're supposed to avoid a mortar strike, and I remember getting hit head on with the strike, and still somehow survived, yet the last time I tried that, I got killed.

 

[jojolagger]

I prefer games with slow health regen. It rarely effects you in combat, but stops you from needing to run into combat on the verge of death.

 

[Timmy HarleQuin]

Well I can answer this from two points of view:
Trying to actually complete a game, I adore regenerating health because if I died so many damn times with regenerations health, I would have been raped in the face without it.
Skillfulliness wise, going through a game without regenerating health is a lot more satisfying, although reach a checkpoint with red-flashy health is a complete *****.

 

[Giest4life]

If done right, then it can be awesome. Like in Half-Life, and Half-Life 2 it's done superbly, however, I think it only works because--for me--the game is on whole big set-piece. But if'm playing multiplayer, I NEED it to regenerate.

 

[Burck]

I move for a partial regeneration system- up to 20-40%, depending on play-style.

Regenerating health encourages tanking and other ridiculous tactics that have been abused, but at the same time, I despise having to scrounge for limited numbers of health packs. It messes with the meta-game too much.

Unfortunately, your poll doesn't give this option. :/

 

[Gabriel Xollan]

I love games that allow for both. A natural health regain mixed in with items. Sorta like Peace Walker. You can't place stock in either, but allowing for the use of either one makes for better play. Eventually you run out of rations and health takes more than a minute to regenerate leaving you to have to hide from the enemy for as long as it takes to get better with the exception of say using the rescue box!

 

[thethingthatlurks]

I like my health bars. They remind me to be careful, and to watch our for healing items, and hence be more attentive to the world as a whole.
Regenerating...dunno, I like it on my characters in Diablo 2, but that's about it. And to the people who absolutely MUST have it multiplayer, you do realize that it takes the skill out of it, right? I mean, you could wound an enemy, die, and then still finish off the wounded guy on your next respawn. Guess I was spoiled by the earlier Battlefield titles...

 

[firedfns13]

So I was playing the game S T A L K E R the other day, because I just got a PC with some good gaming specs and everyone recommended it.

After about 15 minutes of gaming I realized 1 pretty big problem, the game didn't have regenerating health. Now I have seen all sorts of conflicting opinions on this site, but for me nonregenerating health is normally a deal breaker.

I hate searching around for health, and is there a worse thing in gaming than a checkpoint where you have like 5 health?

So anyways what are your thoughts on this?

Games like STALKER shouldn't have regenerating health (er, it should toggle, seeing as it is one player and shouldn't ruin anyone's experiance) because having to search for health kits and bandages absorbs you more.

STALKER is a game about atmosphere, and it does an excellent job (or at least COP does) of making you afraid of venturing far away from base.


Games like Halo and Call Of Duty should have regenerating health because they're faster paced and health packs just encourage more camping.

 

[zHellas]

Depends.

Sci-Fi or Fantasy games, yes.

"Realisitc" games, no.

 

[Lamp Salesman]

It does depend on what kind of game it is. Personally, I liked the way things were done in Full Spectrum Warrior. You had a whole squad, but effectively only one hitpoint each. Was nice and tactical, especially since once you lost your, say, grenadier, you had to change your strategy to suit the new situation.