Health Bars, or lack of

[StarStruckStrumpets]

Realism in games = Boredom.
Health Bar < Realism = Fail.
Health Bar - Realism = Fun?
Fun = Good Game!

I want them back. I can't stand waiting for tomato sauce to slide off of my face or my red-eye syndrome to go away before killing things again. Do I remember a time where CoD had a health-meter? Or was that MoH? I don't know, but I want them back. They're so much fun. It allows the gameplay to be more fluent as opposed to laying in a ditch until bullets pull themselves out of your body.

 

[WolfThomas]

I liked Condemned 2's (similar to Farcry 2) three small cubes of health, you take damage and the cubes empty, as long as there remains at least some health in a cube it will eventually regenerate. If it goes below a cube it remains there. So 100%, 66%, 33%. Pain killers restore a single cube.

Also dieing and reloading a checkpoint brings you back to full health, not that noticeable as you don't often fully die. But it avoids crappy situations where your stuck in a death and load loop.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

And then there are the games where you hoard all the healing items and just recklessly attack the boss without even bothering to learn their patterns as you have enough stock to heal yourself 20 times over.

Many epic final fights have been reduced to me just standing there wailing on my boss because I've played cautiously and choose rather to redo a checkpoint instead of use my med-kit

I'm talking about Call of Duty style health packs. In Call of Duty, there will occasionally be health packs laying around and the only way you can pick them up is if you need them and you can't take more than you need. Or maybe even Dead Space's where the only way to heal is to do it in game and you're vulnerable while you try to heal up. I didn't really like the BioShock 2 system because it made the game way too easy.

 

[G-Force]

I'm talking about Call of Duty style health packs. In Call of Duty, there will occasionally be health packs laying around and the only way you can pick them up is if you need them and you can't take more than you need. Or maybe even Dead Space's where the only way to heal is to do it in game and you're vulnerable while you try to heal up. I didn't really like the BioShock 2 system because it made the game way too easy.

I'm just playing Devil's advocate.

I think that many games that have Re-gen health have the mechanics and intensity to make the game still challenging and even work within the scope of the game's theme. Uncharted 2's Nathan Drake is known for being reckless and the player is encouraged to fight like how he does.

You have regenerating health
Pretty descent blind fire abilities
Can melee every enemy type except heavy weapons users

The main draw of regenerating health is that game producers can have the player focus on each firefight and doesn't need to take needless breaks in the action to look for health kits. Advocates for regenerating health might argue "realism" but I think it's true strength is pacing. You're always rushing to the next encounter and running through hails of bullets and the last thing you want to do is stop playing cause the action is getting real hot. With regenerating health puts players on the offense while health bars favor a more defensive strategy.

 

[TheEarlOfGrey]

The original Bad Company has a health meter if that counts. Bad Company 2 does too I think, but you die so quickly I dont notice.

 

[Singularly Datarific]

What about regenerating health that only regenerates a small amount, so there is still consequence for being an idiot, but you can't get killed from experimentation.

 

[sean.A7x]

Some games are good with some are good without

i think they work good on bioshock 2 and borderlands

but i also think MW2 works well without

edit: i think far cry 2 has a really good health system where it's in portions and it regenerates to the top of the portion but you need to heal to regenerate it fully

 

[Retro704]

i like the regenerative health, and not to be a nennie about, i dont give a *censored* about realism its a damn game, isnt it?

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

From a single player I prefer regenerating health, but I can tolerate health bars depending on what kind of enemies I'm fighting. Serious Sam style enemies for example, would work with either system, but what was great about serious sam was almost all enemy attacks where avoidable, because very few enemies had fast moving projectiles. Meaning you could run out into the open guns blazing and mow down 100 guys like a badass, while not getting hit once.

However, if your enemies use bullets, I think regenerating health is much better. In Half life 2 I would constantly come out of fights with the combine with under 20 health, and at that point you know you're going to die in the next battle. Let's be honest, if an enemy has any kind of rapid fire weapon, there's no way to "dodge" that. You're either behind cover and not being hit by bullets, or you're out in the open and getting shot. If your enemies do damage to you that's going to effect you later, having unavoidable damage is a bit unfair.

In Multiplayer however, Regenerating health or at minimum a surefire way to heal yourself is a must. A human enemy is DEFINITELY going to get some shots in on you, and your chances of killing a competent enemy after you've taken sustained damage is extremely low. The next fight you get in the other guy is going to destroy you with little to no effort.

The only think I don't like about regenerating health is that it obstructs vision. I would prefer something like halo's "shield" bar.
(this applies solely to FPS games BTW, any other type of game I usually prefer health bars)

 

[dududf]

I Miss them, I am okayish with regenerating health but the "low hp watch out" warnings are awful

Look at mass effect 2's near death one.. it is just so damn obstructive. The "sound fades heart pounding" like in the intro would have been much cooler.

Mass Effect 2's low health thing made me giggle, because it was 3rd person.

So it'd imply that you've been shot so much that blood is now on the Camera 4 metres behind you.
_____________________________

Far Cry 2 anybody?
Perfect.
Halo 1?
Perfect.

 

[xXGuitarShredXx]

I think it all depends on the level of challenge in the game. For example in a game that's designed to be extremely difficult a health bar, in some ways, adds to the difficulty. However in a game that is made to be more forgiving, regenerating health is acceptable IMO.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Health bars > regenerating health