Healing

[Fasckira]

I recall playing Action Half Life where you had to bandage yourself to stop the bleeding otherwise you left a trail of blood that others could follow, always thought that was a neat thing!

 

[mysecondlife]

This is so weird. Gordon Freeman is doing all the talking and not Erin.

 

[CaitSeith]

With Freeman, I always assumed that 'Health' was an indication of 'how much the HEV is currently equipped to deal with'...a medkit wasn't healing you on pickup, it was re-stocking the suit's internal medical systems, which were frenticly working to keep Gordon upright and mobile all the time. He'd get shot, and the suit would immediately expend whatever it had on hand to seal the leak, and be quietly working on that until it was 'good enough' any time Gordon wasn't actively being shot some more.

That sounded like Super Metroid. The death animation is literally the armor exploding into pieces, leaving Samus exposed to harsh enviroment with nothing but her underwear.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Personally, I always assumed that medkits were foot-activated boxes of nanobots that spring to life, suture your wounds and pump you full of anesthetic, then drop to the ground, batteries and supplies expended. I don't care if nothing else in the setting would allow that, it's the only way I can think of them working in-universe.

So what about the original Call of Duty's flask and trauma kits?

In modern-esque military shooters, I've always seen them as a magical (or 'futuristic', if you prefer) universal blood transfusions with artificial clotting agents to seal old wounds. And I've always seen old games with life counters as if the protagonist is a clone, with a clone bank in a mobile laboratory and deployment vehicle that they bring to every theatre of operations.

That being said, I think one of the few games that did healing well is VtM: Bloodlines... precisely because you weren't a squishy human ... you were an undead monster with no discernibly working organs or cardiovascular system. Relying on regular intervals of oral blood infusion. So ... you know ... bullets did fuck all. Not like you need most of your organs intact if you're undead.

Of course, healing over seared or sliced flesh requires the blood of the living. Because of reasons ... which, just as magical as a videogame medikit, seem somehow a little less unreasonable a notion to believe. That and there is something piquant about getting the equivalent of a medikit by jumping onto a mortal and bleeding them to leave them in a state of near (or total, if you're a douche) hypovolemic shock.

Just don't get the same level of fun when you quaff a potion, or run over a medikit. I suppose it's a perfect example of making all elements of the game a gameplay mechanic.

That being said, I also like the Alice games of health rejuvenation ... this idea of 'meta-essence' as you cleave through the demons of your mind to recover not so much 'health', but maintaining your sanity in an insane world. Equally enjoyable, and that was simply a case of touching 'medikits' too ...

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

Yes, health regeneration doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But I'm very glad that someone thought of it, and now it's in all the video games, because otherwise there would be a lot of badass moments that couldn't happen. I'd rather have less health more often than start out with a demigodlike amount of health and have to fight people later when one wrong sneeze will kill me. Or start out with a normal amount of health and restart any time I get hit by anything.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

...Is it weird that I see this and think of Freeman's Mind? Am I the only one?

Yeah, the whole "medikits to restore health" thing in old video games is weird when you think about it...

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

Personally, I always assumed that medkits were foot-activated boxes of nanobots that spring to life, suture your wounds and pump you full of anesthetic, then drop to the ground, batteries and supplies expended. I don't care if nothing else in the setting would allow that, it's the only way I can think of them working in-universe.

So what about the original Call of Duty's flask and trauma kits?

In modern-esque military shooters, I've always seen them as a magical (or 'futuristic', if you prefer) universal blood transfusions with artificial clotting agents to seal old wounds. And I've always seen old games with life counters as if the protagonist is a clone, with a clone bank in a mobile laboratory and deployment vehicle that they bring to every theatre of operations.

The problem with blood transfusions it that it requires you to actually do something to get the benefit; you can't just sprint over a bag of blood and absorb it through the soles of your boots. Nanobots don't fit in most settings, but neither does the fact that you're a hovering gun and camera who can't see his own feet.

 

[Shiftygiant]

I can't be the only one who read this first in Ross Scott's voice, then again in the Snipers.

 

[Elijah Newton]

I hope "Garden Gnome Wolverine" becomes part of common parlance, along with 'spunkgargleweewee' as a genre descriptor.

Nobody uses that outside of a small group of posters on Yhatzee's videos on The Escapist.

That certainly explains my behavior, then. I'll stop when it doesn't make me chuckle anymore and the monniker isn't deserved by the games which inspired it.

 

[OZAuCkn7J28sHLCv]

You've got it all wrong:
http://www.screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2005-09-07

(Never thought that would be relevant again)

 

[Something Amyss]

What counts as verisimilitude in games has always killed me.

Unless I hid behind cover, of course.

 

[hentropy]

This is why I only play realistic games like Fallout, the best way to heal there is just like real life: sweet, plentiful drugs.

 

[Burnhardt]

This is why I think Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, has the best health system I've seen in game.

Your squad you're in has a corpsman who'll heal you on command, or when you go into a 'near death' state when you run out of health. However he has a limited number of supplies and so can only heal you a certain amount of times per map or mission on the hardest difficulty.

The only time health kits appear in game is a section when he's occupied healing a mission specific NPC.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Oh, thank the Maker, there's video game characters and jokes about them again!

With Freeman, I always assumed that 'Health' was an indication of 'how much the HEV is currently equipped to deal with'...a medkit wasn't healing you on pickup, it was re-stocking the suit's internal medical systems, which were frenticly working to keep Gordon upright and mobile all the time. He'd get shot, and the suit would immediately expend whatever it had on hand to seal the leak, and be quietly working on that until it was 'good enough' any time Gordon wasn't actively being shot some more.

That's an intriguing theory, and it makes more sense that Thunderous' nanobot theory (sorry, dude).

You forgot the most important Medi-kit feature: It's eco-friendliness by completely and instantly bio-degrading after use.

Spoiler

That strip reminds me that we need more Stolen Pixels around here. The same guy who made that writes a weekly column on the Escapist; surely he can also do his old comic strip! Because MovieBob writes 3 columns here, has 2 video series, and writes regular news stories, mostly about movies, TV, and comics.

I recall playing Action Half Life where you had to bandage yourself to stop the bleeding otherwise you left a trail of blood that others could follow, always thought that was a neat thing!

They did that in Metal Gear Solid too, back when the only healing methods were MREs and Bandages to stop bleeding, before Snake Eater cranked it up to the Cure Menu, which is the most realistic healing method I've ever seen in a game (take THAT, CoD!).

 

[otakon17]

I think Yahtzee came up with something called a "Luck meter" which would gauge how near a miss a shot would be. And when it ran out, next thing that hit you would probably kill you.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

All these pain killers aren't actually keeping Max from bleeding out.

That makes me want to start working on a Massive Liver Damage mod or a Blood Poisoning mod. If the same concept were applied to the classic Resident Evils, then half the main cast of the first three games should be locked in a psych ward, based on how many herbs they've smoked. There's gotta be some serious neurological damage in there.

"Leon! Shoot the goddamn zombie, already!
- Lucy in the sky-y-y-y-y with diamonds... Aaaaaaaaah-aaaaah!" *insert copious amounts of drool*
- Leon! Shoot him! SHOOT HIM! SH-AAARRRGGGHHHH!"

 

[Infernai]

...Is it weird that I see this and think of Freeman's Mind? Am I the only one?

Nope. I actually read it in the "Freemans mind" Gordon Freeman voice.

 

[Meximagician]

Sadly, SMOD's Gordan Freeman was only available for one comment: "OM NOM NOM!" It should be noted that he was last seen with a combine metrocop's severed arm in his maw. Nonessential NPCs are being warned to stay away from SMOD Freeman at all costs.

 

[Malbourne]

I don't see words like "verisimilitude" in enough web comics. I must be looking in all the wrong places.

 

[Right Hook]

Brothers in Arms almost had the healing system right, usually you'd simply be "At Risk To Being Hit" by stepping out of cover.

Occasionally you'd get shot and take large amounts of damage that you couldn't heal from (unless I'm wrong, I don't think that game had med-packs or they were at least rare).

Sometimes you'd get shot one time and the injury would be to somewhere vital and you'd die on the spot.

I think the perfect system would balance how open you are to damage, slowly upping the rate based on distance and length of time out of cover, which would lead to you getting shot. Sometimes just to wound you, causing permanent ill effects for that level like slowed movement or poorer aim. Other times killing you, especially if you've sustained prior wounds or it just happened to hit a vital. The percentages would all be tweaked based on your difficulty level and this might not work as well in a multiplayer game.