Poll: Regenerating Health or Non-Regenerating Health?

[nukethetuna]

Being able to regenerate your entire health bar definitely cuts some of the challenge out. Regenerating only say... the bottom 25%, or maybe only half of whatever damage you've taken recently would be pretty cool, though.

I don't mind when regenerating health is a perk that you choose at the exclusion of something else, though.

So I guess I prefer limited healing items. It's quite the adrenaline surge when you're down to your last hits, hoping that a health pack or save point is around the next corner.

 

[Something Amyss]

Of course, the best way is a hybrid. Far Cry 2, far from the best game ever, but easily the best health system I've seen in a game.

I think a hybrid would be my preferred choice, too.

 

[Creator002]

Neither are a big deal to me. Really depends on the game. Some games wouldn't be the same without regenerating health. Call of Duty would be worse if you had to worry about finding a health pack (speaking about multiplayer, for single player this would work). The gameplay is too fast-paced to worry about keeping some counter or bar at 100%. You die in about 3 hits anyway, so there's no point. If you get shot at, you're usually going to die, no matter what.

That being said, a slower paced game, like Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, GTA and so on make sense by having health packs. You have the time to duck out during missions to get health items and such.
So, basically, I feel the faster you feel you have to move forward in a game, the more sense it makes to have regenerating health.

 

[Dawns Gate]

I prefer non-regenerating. I find that it makes the game that much more intense, having to search for health kits and whatnot.

 

[Vrach]

So, you know, the whole Call of Duty and Battlefield thing has rolled around again, and I'm expecting them to be absolutely no bloody challenge whatsoever. Just the other day, I bought Half-Life 2 off of Steam, having never played it before (shock, horror, etc.), and I was astounded to find that the game proved quite a challenge on harder difficulties, mostly because I was constantly being hammered down to 3 HP within minutes of every stage and had to go around saving the game after every wave of enemies I survived. I probably had the most fun with Half-Life 2 since the mid 2000's, mostly because it was really damn hard. I know this has probably been asked a billion times on The Escapist forums, but do you guys prefer Regenerating or Non-Regenerating health?

Be...cause saving the game every few seconds is so much more challenging than just being booted to a checkpoint with full health? Which, incidentally, gives you enough health to last a good 3 shots (and I ain't talking sniper shots here) in a game where you can easily be faced with quite a number of enemies?

Yeah, not really, all it does is make the game more annoying by forcing you to be careful with your saves. Dropped to 3 health? Why the fuck go on, just load the game and do that part again. Done it and managed to get up to full health with the healthpacks? Rightyho, let's go on.

Same shit, different packaging. And as a matter of fact, different product, Half Life 2 was designed to play much, MUCH differently on so many levels than MW/BF franchise. Not saying it's either superior or inferior, it's simply different. So yeah, how's about we don't compare apples and oranges?

To your original question, I prefer both options where they're best used. For stuff like MW/BF? Regenerating health thank you very much. I remember the old shooters that were similar to them that had health packs. Fuck that. Does nothing to improve enjoyment of the game. For games like HL2? Health packs are the way to go. Rare is a mechanic you can declare best for use in every game.

 

[Don Savik]

Regenerating health keeps the flow and movement going. I'm playing Serious Sam and lemme tell you how many goddam times im STUCK because I have 2 health and theres no medkits anywhere<---CUZ THATS SO FUN HERP DERP

And multiplayer matches where the guy fighting you just turns around mid fight and you have to chase him around the map while he tries to find health kits? :/ ugh

The ideal system is a hybrid of the 2, like regenerating segments, ala Resistance 1, Farcry 2, AVP2. Those are good.

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

I liked Stranger's Wrath style of health.

Where you press and hold a button when not in combat to slowly regenerate your health at the expense of your stamina gauge.
So you can regen health to your hearts contempt, but only at the push of a button and only if you have stamina left.

Closest thing to that in a more recent game would be farcry 2

My opinion on those big green boxes on the floor with a red cross painted on, the traditional instant use health kit, are a thing of the past.. I do not want to see them in modern games.
What I would like to see more of in compromise of regenerating health, is inventory health kits.
Carrying them around makes more sense than using them on the spot, or having resealing bullet hole skin.

 

[VeneratedWulfen93]

Gotta go with hybrid health systems or generaly interesting ones like Space Marine and PROTOTYPE both having regenerating health in a way but the process is accelerated in the former by finishing enemies and the latter by absorbing biomass from foes (or civilians)

 

[thepyrethatburns]

The problem with regenerating health isn't the regenerating health in and of itself. It's how it's used in the same manner as Rubberband AI is used in racing games.

In the beginning when health did not regenerate, developers actually had to take time to balance their games. You had to take the time to figure out how many enemies could deal what type of damage on the varying difficulty levels and how many health packs were reasonably needed. When health started regenerating, a lot of developers tossed the concept of game balance right out the window. Who cares if you have a room full of 20 enemies that, due to a bug, are super-accurate even on easy? The player can just pop off a shot, hide, regenerate, repeat. It's much easier than fixing bugs or game balancing to different skill sets.

With multiplayer, it's also a mixed bag. On the one hand, it means that you don't have to scramble for health packs all the time or give opponents easy kills. On the other hand, it's made camping a lot easier since you never have to leave your spot to heal up.

So, in the end, it comes down to how it is implemented. I prefer non-regenerating health solely because a lot (not all of them) of the games that use regenerating health use it as a way to avoid game balancing or playtesting. As a system in and of itself, I don't have much preference.

(And I do rather like the Transformers: WFC system.)

 

[InGrindWeTrust]

I think that it basically depends on the genre or other mechanics of the game. Regenerating health makes for a more smooth-flowing experience, whereas non-regenerating makes a game feel harder and more tense. It depends on what atmosphere a game is trying to cultivate: should the player be running and gunning recklessly into every crowd of enemies he sees, or should they be carefully planning out their strategy every time they turn a blind corner, wary of what lurks there?

I have some very vivid and pleasant memories of the tension of non-regen health from when I was a kid, desperately looking for a spare health canteen in Medal of Honor (everything up to and including Rising Sun, before I lost faith in them), or rooting around in every nook and cranny I could find for another hit of painkillers in Max Payne 2. Such a simple mechanic, but one that adds so much.

I think Borderlands straddles the two systems pretty well: it never just straight-up regenerates your health, but certain shields, class mods or perks can do it for you if you seek them out. There's always a price though: the perks need you to fulfill certain criteria, like killing an enemy, to get the regen payoff, and the regen-friendly shields always have much poorer other stats than their non-regen counterparts.

 

[Terminate421]

Depends on the game. For something like gears, I want regenerating health. For something like Dead space, I do not. thankfully, halo mixes this system efficiently

 

[Nudu]

False dichonomy. Why does the entire genre have to do the exactly same thing in every game? Both offer a different experience, and while some might prefer one to the other, one is not inherently better. Halo wouldn't be better with health packs and Half-Life 2 wouldn't be better with regenerating health.

 

[Aircross]

ultimately I think its dependent on the intended market of the game:

campaign/single player/offline: non regenerating

online/competitive multiplayer: regenerating

For online/competitive multiplayer, the developer could always have a medic class.

 

[SnakeoilSage]

Non-Regenerating Health, regenerating armor. That's my favorite.

Of course med-packs you can carry with you that don't instantaneously absorb into your body would be fun too. The oirginal Duke Nukem had the right idea with a percentage-based kit. Bioshock... eh. A little too easy.

 

[Fishdog52]

I feel like there should definitely be a hybrid of these. I like how in Marvel vs Capcom method of health, where about half of the damage you take is temporary, and very slowly regenerates. It seems like that if you get hit to a certain degree, there should be no way to just walk it off, but would need to get to a checkpoint or doctor or something to fix. Though, it seems like the game itself determines what is more appropriate. Regenerative health makes more sense in Halo because it isn't your body that is healing, it is a shield that is protecting a very squishy blob inside of it. Likewise, when magic is involved, you can easily get away with magical healing, although I would prefer very rapid regeneration to spike heals.

It seems disconcerting that a person can take a shotgun blast to the face only to duck behind some cover for a few seconds and be good as new. There needs to be a penalty, even if it is minor, to reinforce that getting shot is something to avoid, not simply ignore because it annoys you briefly.

 

[DBLT4P]

ultimately I think its dependent on the intended market of the game:

campaign/single player/offline: non regenerating

online/competitive multiplayer: regenerating

For online/competitive multiplayer, the developer could always have a medic class.

no one ever wants to be the medic/healer, especially not the people who play online shooters.

 

[RuralGamer]

I prefer hybrid, mainly because I've yet to play a game that messes it up, unlike the two.

Things I hate about regenerating health;
1) Can be badly done in a game by making it impossible to see what the heck is going on (a la Gears of War's stupid cog or MW2's 'jam-on-the-face')
2) Can be done badly by making there no flipping indication you're taking critical damage save a tiny indicator in the corner before *boom* dead (also known as the Mass Effect 1 approach; one of my few criticisms of that game)
3) Can make some games stupidly easy
4) Can make games stupidly boring waiting in cover for health to regenerate (see CoD4 Veteran Mode)
5) Often poorly implemented (i.e. too much health/unfairly little health or regenerates too fast/soon)
6) Developers often rip it wholesale from other games, even if it won't look/work as well in theirs

Things I hate about non-regenerating health;
1) It can be badly done (i.e. not allowing you to carry health items, when you really need to be able to, which you may accidentally use during tense fire-fights)
2) Referring back to the previous one; can result in what I like to call 'blind-luck' scenarios where, for example, a you had no chance of seeing/hitting sniper will rip 95% of your health off, forcing you to die because you can leave cover without being finished off or camp till all the bots are dead)
3) Is often used to artificially harden games
4) Can make games boringly stupid because you may have to wander through the whole level to find more health in order to be able to progress
5) Often poorly implemented (i.e. generous health items which heal too fast or ridiculously few which are practically just elastoplasting over serious injuries; have even played games where items regenerate your health stupidly slowly, practically becoming a rationed regenerating health)
6) Developers use stupidly hard to find items for health regeneration or copy it from other games (read: use exactly the same items, even though something else would have been more creative and feasible)
/rant

 

[BlackWidower]

I've only played one game with regenerating health. Advent Rising. I never needed to worry about health except in the early game, where I didn't have regenerating health and had to continually find health stations. The regenerating health made the game way too easy.

 

[geK0]

Depends on the game; I usually don't like being able to hide behind cover for a few seconds and be fine, it takes away a lot of tactical thinking when you have unlimited attrition.
The ideal system to me would be to divide damage into portions of temporary, semi-permanent and permanent damage. Temporary damage would account for the majority of damage (about 50-60%); if you take a lot of hits at once you die, but if you retreat you can recover a fair portion of health. Semi-permanent damage would be a fair portion of damage(30-40%) and would not heal passively, health boosting items will heal semi-permanent damage. Permanent damage will account for the rest and wont be recovered with health boosting items.

This way, you have a bit of attrition, but can't just shrug off bullets or miraculously heal to perfect condition when walking on top of a medkit.

 

[Panzervaughn]

I'd like to see both more often. Dead Island had a setup where you would regenerate up back up to 1 node of health, but would have to find items to get back any higher. It was OP at some points early in the game, where you could get knocked over by thugs infinitely with no problem, cause you'd go 10%, 2%, 10%, etc. But that rebalanced later on.

It lets you continue on very carefully, and stressfully, without being knocked dead by the next wasp that brushed against you. but anything that gets through your defenses proper will take you down.