What have gamers got against regenerating health?

[leaderproxima]

I just dislike the thought of health in video games altogether really, only because the realism is sometimes quite fun. I know the video games are supposed to be different to real life to make it fun but if it was realisted how would a box of bandages heal you in a couple of seconds.

I wanna see a game where throughout the entire you thing you have have 1 health diagram, its not a bar because you cant measure human health with a bar. This diagram is a human, each part of the body changes colour when it is broken and it takes real time to heal if it heals at all, this one diagram is all the character has for the entire game so for a challenge the person would die if something were to inflict a fatal wound or if the damage sustained was too much for them.
It could add in some funny mechanics like say your leg is shot, instead of what normally happens (The character can still walk, or in the case of halo ONE HIT KILL!!! WTF) the characters leg would be broken until it heals in in-game real time. Im not suggesting that you have to wait 4 actual human weeks for a bone to heal in game but 4 in game weeks which could be relative to each game.

A lot of you would disagree but i would find that game fun and challenging to be honest. Im not a fan of 'lives', respawning and regenerating health unless its in a completely unrealistic game like Ray-man or Prototype where you actually have a reason to be able to regenerate.

 

[TacticalAssassin1]

Every time this threat comes up I can't help but say again that Far Cry 2's combination of health bar and regen is the best I've seen. Look it up guys.

 

[Joccaren]

Mainly because it usually takes a lot of the challenge and fun out of games for me.

I don't like it when a game literally just hand feeds me the way through - like with regenerating health. I prefer it when I have to plan how I go about things to ensure that I don't get into that situation where I'm on 1% and a horde of enemies infront of me. If I do get into that situation, I relish it as when I finally get past it, I feel like god.
In multiplayer, I can understand it a bit more. Have everyone on even grounds at the start of every fight, and have pure skill determine the outcome. Me, I prefer non regenerating health, and no health packs - or rare ones if there are health packs. Sure, this means you can be taken out easier after one fight, but it also means those players who are 'pro' and win pretty much every conflict they get into, then regen all their damage and enter another fight, get taken down a notch and are actually able to be stopped by shooting them enough.
With regen, if you're vsing someone like that, you die. You come back. They're on full health again, and they kill you again. And again. And again.
With no regen, no health packs, you die. You come back, they're on half health. You die, you come back, they are 1 shot from death. You kill them. Your perseverance is rewarded.

Another thing that I hate about health regen is that it always means low health - or almost always anyway. If you have rapid health regen in a game, odds are you take less than 10 shots from almost any weapon to kill. And odds are a lot of those weapons are automatic.
It wouldn't work fast regen and high health, as then you could be practically invincible. Duck into cover and regain a 30 second fight's worth of health.
It wouldn't work slow regen high health. People hate being told to wait and bide their time, and would rather just run in and shoot generally. [Yeah, over generalisations. Sadly, I'm pretty sure they are true for a large number of people].


Basically, it comes down to not liking the same things you are. You seem to want to just get into the action, I prefer to wait, plan, then make a calculated strike that requires both my skill and my tactical planning to get through. I can't just run in, shoot everything, take cover, get back to normal, then repeat. I have to carefully approach each encounter, and be careful not to take too many risks that cost me valuable health.
Regen health just generally makes things boring for me.

 

[thedragon232]

What I would like to see is more of Far Cry 2 and Chronicles of Riddick, where heath will regenerate to a degree. This will create a scenario of low heath but sufficient enough get back into the fight.

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

It should depent on the selected difficulty. Gamers with short amounts of playtime and beginners have a chance to reach the end while others get the challenge they want. From regenerating health and checkpoints up to rare/none med-packs, aggressive enemys and no save points within a single level.

Most developers don`t give these choices or is there a game which features this kind of difficulty system?
Most of it depends on the game itself and like already stated regenarating health seems odd in a tactical more realistic shooter.

What I would like to see is more of Far Cry 2 and Chronicles of Riddick, where heath will regenerate to a degree. This will create a scenario of low heath but sufficient enough get back into the fight.

This is a good combination of both to me.

 

[Scow2]

regenerating health gets rid of 90% of all survival aspects of the game, as you can go in guns blazing, and then wait behind a wall for a few seconds, and then go out again doing the same thing, and it's just stupid.

Get shot in head, wait for jam to drop of face, continue as if nothing happened.

What's wrong with adding in health kits, or a proper permanent damage system like ARMA II? It just seems that they're will fully making their game less intense, fun, and logical.

Adding health kits rather than regen is excellent for making the player actually use a single iota of his/her brain to come up with a decent strategy.

Not true. While regenerating health does remove some Strategies and gameplay elements, it also adds a great deal of other options. I have never played a game with Regenerating Health that allowed you to survive a headshot - that tends to be the domain of games WITHOUT regenerating health, where it's "Get shot in head, you're still good".

Furthermore, regenerating health also makes combat a lot more dynamic: When you play a game with static health as an ablative bullet-sponge, you get a lot of "Free" time to stand and gun things down, then can medpack-up. It also makes encounters less thrilling on an individual level, because they have to be balanced so it's possible to beat them from last checkpoint on a sliver of health. However, with health re-generation, a single shot from an enemy will disrupt your plan and force you to re-think and keep ahead of your enemies. It also allows more diverse encounters: Prior to Halo's introduction of regenerating health as a core mechanic, Enemy AI was never a strong priority (Also, gamers had been clamoring for more in-depth use of cover, not that people remember that anymore).

Also, "Fun" is not one of the adjectives most people would use to describe "ARMA 2". And they are willfully making their games less "Logical" because it's really, really NOT fun. ARMA is a recruitment tool and combat simulator.

Bottom line is: Having non-regenerating health will not make your game Half Life 2. And having Regenerating Health will not make your game Halo or Call of Duty 4.

 

[Indecipherable]

I hope these points haven't been covered already, I've only gone through the first 4 pages or so.

Having regenerating health takes away that suspense element where you may have to go through a number of encounters without an opportunity to recover and fear 'a death of a thousand cuts'. You don't quite know how much further it'll be before you can catch your breath and heal (ie: find a medpack).

But to me there's a lot of benefits to the system too:

1. You can easily assume the difficulty of any encounter. It makes that balancing aspect so much easier.

2. If there's a save/load option at any point in the game, you can effectively play it as regenerating health because you can dismiss the effects of any encounter and redo it until you understand exactly what is going on and pass it flawlessly.

3. As for the 'realism' in squatting behind a chest high wall to recover, it's no more realistic than finding a small white box with magic health dust in it.

I do feel that regenerating health makes for a more casual, run and gun feel to the game, and it has its place in games that want to adopt that style. It has a place, just not in every FPS.

 

[Innegativeion]

I can't speak for others, but here's why I don't particularly like it:

It seems like an easy way to cut a lot of corners in encounter layout. What I mean is, the developer doesn't need to think very hard about how to make a combat scenario intense or challenging when the player can just duck behind cover and wait for more health. There's literally NO risk-reward, punishment for poor play, or sense of urgency. They can just dump a bunch of grunts or what have you in a ravine and make sure there's a rock for the player to duck behind. BAM, the illusion of a dangerous encounter AND we've artificially lengthened the game by making the player wait whenever they're hit.

I'll use the quintessential game-as-an-argument against regenerating health; Half Life(2(ep1,ep2)), as chances are you've at least heard of them if you like fpses. These games, on harder difficulties, felt like a constant fight for survival. The player meets a lot more emotion in this situation than in, say, halo. Think about it. I'm not sure if you've played it, but if you have you'd know that incredible sense of relief and victory when you found a shield charger, or a large supply of medpacks. You'd know how intense things can be when you're cornered by elite combine soldiers and can't afford to take another shot. Your mistakes actually mean something. The game forces you to become emotionally invested in winning and surviving or it kills you. And your deaths are almost never unfair. You have a lot of health. Every loss is your mistake.

Mass Effect 3, (or maybe even an earlier game) found a happy medium in it's whole regenrating shield-over-statichealth bar deal. So if we absolutely MUST have regenerating shields, I'd rather it done that way. At least then mistakes are actually punished. There's a penalty for poor play.

What I would like to see is more of Far Cry 2 and Chronicles of Riddick, where heath will regenerate to a degree. This will create a scenario of low heath but sufficient enough get back into the fight.

Ah, that must be where they got it from, then.

 

[Elamdri]

Some games don't allow stealth.

No shit sherlock, maybe the devs behind those games should TRY ALLOWING STEALTH, never forcing it, but making sure the option is there, and as I've pointed out, the devs should be able to design levels around the minimal amount health you have for a fight assuming you got a medkit before it. If there is never any consequences for being shot, never a risk of the player being flanked, only one type of enemy and never the ability to simply try sneaking past the enemy, if you can't make more than one type of enemy (reskins don't count), then the game is going to only have the same firefight over and over again, and that's boring, no matter how many assault rifles throw in.

Ok, first off, way to be a prick.

Second, I would rather have a well designed shooter or a well designed stealth game than a poorly designed shooter/stealth game.

Finally, stealth games require extra effort in the level design to ensure that it is possible to sneak past the enemies. Most studios aren't going to put in that level of time and money and resources.

 

[zeit]

Putting pressure on the player adds to the fun. With regenerating health, you lose those frantic moments in the game where you're running around low on health spraying everything that moves.

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

Plus, with non-health regen there's always the Halo nightmare scenario of being stuck at a checkpoint, hordes of nasties bearing down on you, no health packs in sight... and 1% health remaining.

That's just a sign of bad level design. Regenerating health makes games incredibly easy and takes away any realism a game may be going for. "scrambling" for med-kits is part of experiencing survival, I don't feel in danger when I heal like Wolverine.

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

Because Yahtzee doesn't like it.

End of story. I don't honestly give a damn.

 

[Scow2]

ARMA is a recruitment tool and combat simulator.

Arma's the game. VBS is what your thinking of.

And 'fun' is subjective. The pure intensity of the more realistic shooters = fun for alot of ppl.

You make it seem like just because a game doesn't have health regeneration, it's forced to make you a bullet sponge.

It's either Bullet Sponge, "Do it again, Stupid", or (In some games) a "Hop to next NPC"

 

[Snotnarok]

Then there's no risk, there's no difficulty there's no tension

Oh no my health is low! I better just sit here for a few minutes! ...Okay now I'll gun down all of these guys. Heath regen games just wind up having the player spam reload when they die at a difficult part rather than taking a few bullets and learning to be careful.

It makes the game lack any sort of tension since you know you'll recover your health in a manner of seconds.

In RPGs would it be better if your character just recovered health slowly? Or after every battle?

I'm not saying regening health doesn't work it's fun in some games but, try dropping that mechanic in TF2, you'll kill half the classes and all the teamwork.

 

[Snotnarok]

Then there's no risk, there's no difficulty there's no tension

Oh no my health is low! I better just sit here for a few minutes! ...Okay now I'll gun down all of these guys. Heath regen games just wind up having the player spam reload when they die at a difficult part rather than taking a few bullets and learning to be careful.

It makes the game lack any sort of tension since you know you'll recover your health in a manner of seconds.

In RPGs would it be better if your character just recovered health slowly? Or after every battle?

I'm not saying regening health doesn't work it's fun in some games but, try dropping that mechanic in TF2, you'll kill half the classes and all the teamwork.

 

[Skratt]

Depends on the game. I loved the Half-Life HEV Medic Station on the wall thingy, even though I am pretty sure you better be paying me a helluva amount of money to work in a place where these things are required at every turn of a corridor.

In a typical dirty brown shooter it's sometimes kinda nice not to have to run around smash mouthing a bunch of candy bars and shit.

TF2 it would not work. Not having regenerating health is actually a nice game mechanic.

I remember when I was playing some ye olde FPS game, I forget the exact one at the moment. But I commented to my roommate at the time how there never seems to be enough ammo and health packs. Her response: "learn to aim and don't get shot so much dummy".

Best advice ever.

 

[gideonkain]

Part of what makes the old FPS games so fun is that your Health plays into how you play the game.

In Halo you can just charge in, fire bullets till your screen tint is too red and duck behind a wall, in Quake when your wandering around with 18 health your hoping that there is a health pack around the next corner...but it's always a Demon, or worse yet a Shambler!!!

 

[rutcommapat]

To me, it's just lazy. Don't need to spend much time properly balancing a game when your blood simply gets sucked back into your body, right?