Poll: Which health system in FPS games do you like more?

[300lb. Samoan]

The proper one: health packs. Health starts at full, slowly runs down to zero as you encounter more opponents. It's a resource to be managed, just like ammo.

If you can prevent dying just by fucking off to a remote corner of the map, then what the hell is there to be worried about?

 

[munx13]

Health packs

Regenerative health feels almost like cheating to me

 

[beemoh]

I want to see Master Chief recover from SMG fire by scarfing down a baked chicken.

You can bake chicken?

That you can. Grill it, (stir-)fry it, broil it, bake it, you name it!

#Birdseye Potato Wa-ffles are waffly versatile.

 

[Anachronism]

Good old traditional health packs. Sure, they're not realistic, but then neither is having your horribly perforated torso healed back to normal by hiding under a table for a few seconds.

I replayed CoD1 after I'd finished 2, and the first thing I thought was about how much I'd missed having a health bar.

 

[Pyro Paul]

Left 4 Dead health packs/pain pills.
realistic and functional.

a med pack heals... if you take a couple of seconds to heal yourself. pain pills temporarly take off the edge, but eventually ware off. regenerating health is kind of stupid because it removes the fear of god in ya. in games like halo and gears of war i just ran head long into combat completely disregarding anything tactical or stratigic... chest high walls... cover... team work... yeah screw all that, i'm fn' invincable, i'll just run up insert business end of my shot gun in their rectum and pull the trigger and be done with it...

and even on the 'nigh impossible' difficulties of said games i did just that with near impunity.

 

[Lukeydoodly]

I like both.

 

[Megacherv]

Health-packs and armour like in Quake, UT and Doom.

 

[fix-the-spade]

HEALTHPACKS!

Or a hybrid system in the style of Halo:Combat Evolved. Whereby you have a recharging 'buffer' of health but under that is a section that does not regenerate until you find a health pack.

With health packs your available health affects the way you play. My biggest gripe with regenerating health is that it enables the player to face every single firefight in an identical manner to the previous one, which rapidly makes the game incredibly dull.

It's also nearly impossible to properly balance regenerating health. The player is either an unstoppable juggernaut who can rampage through every level without pausing for breath, or so pitifully weak that even a slight mistake is punished by instant death. Neither is much good for gameplay.

 

[Jupsto]

DUDE far cry 2 all the way, the game had many flaws but the health system was the best ever. love pulling out bullets or putting out fires in first person. all the syringes are a bit lame in singleplayer but health system in multi is sweet its just pure patching yourself up, don't need health packs or nothing. its like regenerating health but you have to make it regen during which you are vulnerable. really imersive too.

fallout 3 was terrible. you just pause the game and can spam heals as much as you like. theres not even a real time animation for healing yourself like medipacks in kotor. makes the game ultra easy. as soon as you can buy a load of stimpacks you win the game. BORING. how about some sweet injection animations like far cry 2.

 

[Jupsto]

I like the health system in Far cry 2 where you have a limited ammount of morphien, which health you back up to full health.
your health is in bars so if you get all of one bar depleted and half of another the second bar will returnt to full however the first bar will stay empty.

yay someone agrees! also when you get really low health your health starts going down... ie bleed to death until you heal and stop bleeding. alot more realistic than most games where you can run around with 1% hp feeling absolutely fine.

 

[Kajt]

The health packs in Left 4 Dead by far, the most realistic one so far.
EDIT: Rime?

 

[Scruffy]

ACE [http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/A.C.E_Advanced_Combat_Environment] for ArmA or Occupation Source [http://www.occupation-source.com/] for HL2/CSS.

The first adds to the hitpoint based system with handicaps from ArmA a bleeding-, consciousness- and pain-system. When you get shot you get damage, maybe a handicap (arm->worse aim, legs->no walking), start to bleed and feel pain. Either from bloodloss or pain you can blackout if you survive. A bleeding has to be stopped with bandages, morphin helps against the pain, if too much blood is lost your heart will stop and you need epinephrin immediately. When your wounds are severe only a medic is able to fix them. Before treating someone you first briefly check his condition and then get the proper options (if bandage/morphin/epinephrin is available in your inventory) and you can drag the wounded to safety first or load them up into a vehicle to get them to a medic ASAP.
The second one has got the whole injury stuff based on an even more complex ballistics model with the bullets and fragments travelling through different body parts and causing cavity damage.

But basically I just want a proper result from being wounded. A Serious Sam game would suffer from a detailed system, but regeneration would remove any effect of being shot at. To sum it up:
No healing but fixing > Medic > Health Pack > something worse > regeneration

And I'd like to add: There is no need for a health bar even when not using regenerative health!

 

[D0WNT0WN]

I like the mix like in Riddick and Resistance: FOM.

 

[implodingMan]

It depends on the game I think. I would have liked for Grand Theft Auto 4 to have had some kind of regenerating health. More than once I had to drive off half way though a mission to go buy a hotdog or something to heal my numerous bullet wounds. It really broke the flow of a few of the levels.

 

[IsoNeko]

Halo: CE.

Healthpacks but also regenerative. You rely on your shield, then when your shields down, you've got a limited amount of health before you die. There are also health packs all around the level to top yourself up after a fierce fight.

 

[Cheesebob]

A mixture, such as Chronicles of Riddick or Far Cry 2

 

[Johnn Johnston]

I feel that it is impossible to pick a definitive choice; it depends on the speed of the game you are playing. For example, Halo has large numbers of enemies and a quick succession of encounters, whilst Half-Life has longer levels and more travelling and the occasional puzzle between fights.

 

[leburn]

I said both, but it really does depend on the game. I just couldn't see regenerating health work on games like RE5 or Left 4 Dead. Actually Left 4 Dead is by far the best example of being as realistic as possible with health management.

Regeneration works great for war games like Call of Duty where so much is flying by your head.

Then you have the system that works great for that particular game and works ideas around that. Like how in Crysis you have regenerating health because your nano suit has the ability to heal you (also like Halo). Games like Quake or Unreal Tournament also work great with a Health Pack since you also have things like the Keg-O-Health and what not.

My favorite health systems have to be in games like FarCry 2 (allow you to take hits, but if you take a critical hit you need to heal yourself), Left 4 Dead (as you take damage you move slower and slower until you either heal up or take some temp Pain Pills) and even MoH: Airborne which uses the 3 bar health with regeneration for each bar. FarCry 2 basically took this a step further by making you do surgery on yourself. I even like that when you die you are not actually dead and one of your friends will save you. Adds a hint of realism cause I don't actually like to die .

Also I find that with Health Packs I actually do more running away or taking cover than with regenerating health, so I guess it's different with me.

 

[Moormur]

I shoot for health pack because I think it makes the game much, much more difficult. You approach a game differently if you know that after a few seconds of no combat, you will regen your health as opposed to when you have a very, very finite anmount of health.

 

[MystikMtnManaT]

I really like both. I think the original Halo had it down with the combination of a regenerating shield and a small amount of actual health after that.

However if I had to choose one I'd have to say health packs, rechargeable shields are very easy to exploit in games therefore not as enjoyable.