Where have all the health bars gone?

[Something Amyss]

You were dying because of terrible controls and a bad system, not because of a lack of health bar. You can see the changes with more than just your "last legs," so it's also possible you just don't pay attention to things.

It's not about realism. It's about not having to micromanage health. It's about a streamlined interface for action games, and it's about fun.

 

[gigastrike]

They packed their bags and moved to Halo Reach.

 

[Dagnius]

I kinda miss the Health Bars too... The whole screen greying out and blood splotches covering the screen thing was cool at first but after about 10 or 15 games using them... bleh. I mean if they're going for realism 1 bullet would take you down or slow you down depending on where it hit. MW2 really got bad with the blood splatter when you jumped from a 6 ft ledge that was just enough to cause damage and enough blood squirted on your screen to seem like he just got a visit from Jason. --Rant Over-- Hah, sorry had to blow some steam this morning(afternoon). I hear Fable 3 is going without health bars now... I'd figure that's one game that would stick to them, being an RPG of sorts.

 

[Dexiro]

Quite a lot of games still have health bars, it's just that developers have found a different way of doing it so now it's kind of split 50-50.

I don't mind not having health bars but I can imagine it easily being annoying if you're seeing a lot of it.

 

[nuba km]

snip

rpg's (including things like fallout and borderlands)
fighting games
halo 3, odst, reach (haven't played the others)
and 'survival horror'
it's because halo had regenerating health and it was popular so dev's but regenerating health in all games and thought we don't need the bar to tell them they are dying just make their screen red and they know to hide in a corner, also they don't need it to find out if they need to use the med kit because there won't be any med-kits anymore.
future games that from what I know have health bars:
brink
bullet storm (really just guessing with this one but it is inspired by dukenukem)
dukenukem forever
fallout newvagas

 

[tharglet]

Some games do it well, some do it terribly. In Mass Effect 2, the changes are gradual and therefore you don't suddenly get blinded.
I dislike it when the screen suddenly gets covered in blood, you can't see a thing, and then you're dead. That just feels frustrating. In fact, if the blood is covering most of the screen, I want to be dead not alive and shouting at the stuff I can't see.

 

[darthzew]

People have already said Halo Reach, but it's a good example. It's probably the best health system in a game in a very long time. It may be the best ever...

Its the exact same one from Halo:CE. Cept its more forgiving. Why is everyone acting like this is the new shit every game should have?

It's not new shit. It's just shit we've been begging to have for a very long time.

 

[Souplex]

By "Health meter" do you just mean limited health, like every shooter before regenerating health became the norm, or do you mean health you can see?
If it's the former it helps gameflow.
In oldtimey FPSes like Doom, projectiles moved slow enough that they could be dodged. In modern FPSes however, bullets move at relatively bulletlike speeds. This makes it impossible to avoid all damage, and results in certain sections being rendered near-impossible if you reached a checkpoint with under X health. Regenerating health helps gameflow. I would argue however, that the best system is the CE health system, so you still need to be somewhat careful with your actions.

 

[quantumsoul]

I never really looked at health bars. You kind of get the feel of when your character is going to die. As long as the game controls good you should be able to get good enough to play it. In the case of Kane and Lynch well....is there a lower difficulty you can play?

I'm sure there's a way integrate how much health you have with out using bars. Maybe how much your controller vibrates?

 

[Wereduck]

I agree that regenerating health is a godsend for maintaining gameflow and that a HUD can be hard on immersion, but who said you can't have regenerating health AND a healthbar? It's helpful to know whether you've regenerated to 90% or 40%.
Immersion and gameflow be damned; unless you're sniping everyone from a quarter-mile away you expect to take a few hits. During intense firefights I'm usually too busy to be counting the blood spots spots on screen and it's just plain stupid for my first indication of real trouble to be the screen turning red when I'm 1 solid hit from worm food.

...and from time to time that red paint / wobble cam can make it awfully difficult to see who you need to be shooting (I'm looking at you, Borderlands - yes, I know you have a heathbar).

 

[gallaetha_matt]

The health bar got drunk at a party with all the other HUD functions and made a fool of itself being forever outcast from the group.

Uh-oh... I think I borrowed it's name tag at that party. I wondered why they didn't call me to ask for their bird bath back.

This whole thing might be my fault.

snip

snip

You've listed a lot of the games that I like to play. I'm an RPG and Hack and Slash nut, so to me the shift from HP and a standard health bar to red splotches and regenerating health was like the time I did the zipper up on my own testicles - jarring and frightening.

You were dying because of terrible controls and a bad system, not because of a lack of health bar. You can see the changes with more than just your "last legs," so it's also possible you just don't pay attention to things.

This is probably the case for me too. I'm notoriously dim-witted in a lot of video games, K&L is no exception - especially with so much going on.

Like I said though, Gears employed a similar 'no health bar' system and I mostly enjoyed my time with that game - even though I died a lot. So you're probably right about the controls being a bit of a factor in my newfound hatred of Kane and Lynch.

They also got some dude at Gamespot fired. If the entire internet could join me in some good natrued fist shaking in 5...

 

[Something Amyss]

This is probably the case for me too. I'm notoriously dim-witted in a lot of video games, K&L is no exception - especially with so much going on.

Like I said though, Gears employed a similar 'no health bar' system and I mostly enjoyed my time with that game - even though I died a lot. So you're probably right about the controls being a bit of a factor in my newfound hatred of Kane and Lynch.

They also got some dude at Gamespot fired. If the entire internet could join me in some good natrued fist shaking in 5...

KnL was certainly bad at what it did. Not awful, probably not the worst, but bad enough to take what seemed like a decent idea and botch it thoroughly. In fact, one almost has to respect the thoroughness. Gerstmann never should have gotten fired over calling that what it was. He was probably a bit harsh, but a better solution would be not putting out bad games and expecting glowing reviews. Gerstman got fired, but how many people can they really fire before there's a serious problem?

Also, you mention liking RPGs. I don't want regenerating health in RPGs or other similar genres for sure. Hack and slash could theoretically work with regenerating health, but I'm not sure I'd like it, either. It makes sense with shooters, especially the "all frosting" shooters that have little except constant action. It definitely doesn't work for all genres, though.

 

[gallaetha_matt]

KnL was certainly bad at what it did. Not awful, probably not the worst, but bad enough to take what seemed like a decent idea and botch it thoroughly. In fact, one almost has to respect the thoroughness. Gerstmann never should have gotten fired over calling that what it was. He was probably a bit harsh, but a better solution would be not putting out bad games and expecting glowing reviews. Gerstman got fired, but how many people can they really fire before there's a serious problem?

Also, you mention liking RPGs. I don't want regenerating health in RPGs or other similar genres for sure. Hack and slash could theoretically work with regenerating health, but I'm not sure I'd like it, either. It makes sense with shooters, especially the "all frosting" shooters that have little except constant action. It definitely doesn't work for all genres, though.

I can agree, seems like what works in one genre could destroy another. An RPG in which you had regenerating health could potentially break the game.

I'm actually beginning to think most modern shooters aren't for me. Not that they're bad games, because obviously people like them - they're just not to my tastes, as they say.

However, there's no reason why they couldn't combine regenerating health, a health bar and a first aid kit system for some games. I'm thinking specifically about Saint's Row 2. Hell of a fun game, and I still thought that the combat was hectic and challenging even with all the advantages you had.

 

[Danzaivar]

People realised that minimalism is the future, and applied it to HUD's.

I blame the popularity of Apple products for this.

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

Depends on the game, obviously. Some need them, some don't. Games often have other visual clues about your health (screen turning red around the edges, fading vision, stuff like that), so health bars themselves aren't that necessary anymore.