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Health Regeneration in Games :(

D

D3MO

Banned
Health Regeneration in games is nothing new. I think Halo started it for FPS's on Consoles...but w/e...

I can understand health regeneration in games like Halo or R:FOM where they have a reason as to why their health can regenerate (MC has the super awesome spartan armor, Nathan was infected by some bugs and gained Chimeran powers)...but in games like COD4....its really unrealistic....I mean I take a barrage of bullets, hide behind a car (and granted a grenade or said cars doesn't blow up) 10 seconds later I'm up and ready to fight like nothing happened.

I think health regeneration should have to be justifiable.

Sure its better than running to get health packs, but it makes the game less challenging when I can just hide behind something for a couple of seconds. I miss the good old days when you have a pixel of health left, and there's no CHECKPOINT in sight, and you have to make a run for the health pack...made the games more worthwhile.

This walk 10 feet, encounter, checkpoint, regenerate lost health, rinse, repeat, gameplay is not doing it for me

What does GAF think?

EDIT: I'm not a fan of healthpacks either, but they make the game more challenging.

1 Health Bar, or a set of amount of bullets should be enough, maybe if u find a healthpack you can play a little minigame where you can recover up to 25% of your health, but no more than that. It would make the game actually challenging.
Also get rid of CHECKPOINTS, or cut down on them. I don't need a checkpoint every 2 minutes. Each level should have a max of 3 checkpoints.
In COD4, I don't play conservatevly at all, just run around and shoot, if I die, i don't lose much...
 
for multiplayer i think its fine (especially in CoD4 since you can die so easily)

i don't have much of an opinion on singleplayer. I think certain games balance it will (like rainbow six vegas)
 
I normally don't like it for single player. Multiplayer I don't mind it. If it needs to be in single player I like the way Resistance did it where your health bar is split into fourths and you can only regenerate health in each of the four segments and only if there is some health left.
 
D3MO said:
Health Regeneration in games is nothing new. I think Halo started it for FPS's on Consoles...but w/e...

I can understand health regeneration in games like Halo or R:FOM where they have a reason as to why their health can regenerate (MC has the super awesome spartan armor, Nathan was infected by some bugs and gained Chimeran powers)...but in games like COD4....its really unrealistic....I mean I take a barrage of bullets, hide behind a car (and granted a grenade or said cars doesn't blow up) 10 seconds later I'm up and ready to fight like nothing happened.

I think health regeneration should have to be justifiable.

Sure its better than running to get health packs, but it makes the game less challenging when I can just hide behind something for a couple of seconds. I miss the good old days when you have a pixel of health left, and there's no CHECKPOINT in sight, and you have to make a run for the health pack...made the games more worthwhile.

This walk 10 feet, encounter, checkpoint, regenerate lost health, rinse, repeat, gameplay is not doing it for me

What does GAF think?
Click to expand...

I think it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. Also, make up your mind.

How is gathering magic health packs any more realistic (in your words) than regenerating health? It's just different ways of the same crap. I can name some equally intense battles in games where you regen health as I could back in the days of health bars and HP packs.

How do you make regenerating health "justifiable"? It's pretty damn cheesy that Master Chief has SUPER ARMOR or Nathan is infected with THE CHIMERA as well.

I think it's just picking nits. Go play some older games if the urge hits. They haven't gone anywhere.
 
Key word here:
Health Regeneration in Games
Click to expand...

It's still a game..
They are just adding ways to make the game less irritating..because in the end, receving a bunch of bullets, just to heal while hiding in a car is as unrealistic...as dying and reappearing at that same spot or a few spots before..or be dying and magically regenerate life just by touching some white box with a red cross in the front....

Unless you want now for games that when you're killed it's game over..and you have to buy another copy of the game and start playing again.. :p
 
It's ridiculous in most games as mentioned (with the scifi exceptions) but as dumb as it is there's nothing better out there. Health packs, whether you walk over them to instantly heal or apply them to yourself from an inventory menu, are no more realistic and in many cases are even more harmful to immersion in the game.
 
I prefer it over health packs, but yea it can defidentely make the game too easy unless it's a one-shot kill more or less kind of game (RS:V)

There should be a counter-balance, Gears for example should have had destructible cover to compensate.
 
I don't see the problem with it really. People say it isn't challenging yet I need more than a few hands to count the number of times I've died in games like Halo, GoW, Rainbow Six Vegas, and so on.

If the game is designed well enough then how the player stays healthy shouldn't even be an issue.
 
D3MO said:
Health Regeneration in games is nothing new. I think Halo started it for FPS's on Consoles...but w/e...

I can understand health regeneration in games like Halo or R:FOM where they have a reason as to why their health can regenerate (MC has the super awesome spartan armor, Nathan was infected by some bugs and gained Chimeran powers)..
Click to expand...

FUCKING SPOILER!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH... I don't have a PS3 yet, and this is the one game (released so far) that I am eager to try out. >:(

Anyway... I love health regeneration. I'm happy that it's in Ninja Gaiden 2.
 
Kuroyume said:
FUCKING SPOILER!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH... I don't have a PS3 yet, and this is the one game (released so far) that I am eager to try out. >:(

Anyway... I love health regeneration. I'm happy that it's in Ninja Gaiden 2.
Click to expand...

it happens like right away dude, its no big deal...and the games been out for like a year...
 
Kuroyume said:
FUCKING SPOILER!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH... I don't have a PS3 yet, and this is the one game (released so far) that I am eager to try out. >:(

Anyway... I love health regeneration. I'm happy that it's in Ninja Gaiden 2.
Click to expand...

:lol :lol :lol

It's 5 minutes into the game. You'll live.
 
Sandman42 said:
I wouldn't say so. Backtracking for health packs is not my idea of fun.
Click to expand...
.

Then again the Half-Life games use healthpacks but recharging stations are abundant. It's a nice balance I think. Really I'm not even sure how this is an issue. You pick up RE4, watch Leon get stabbed, sliced, and shot by a hundred things. He chews on a few herbs and he's good to go. The ultimate prototype X-1000 Superjet can be blown up by a single bullet in 2D shooters, and a fighting game character still has no problem moving after having his neck broken in the middle of a fight.
 
Sandman42 said:
I wouldn't say so. Backtracking for health packs is not my idea of fun.
Click to expand...

I'm not a fan of healthpacks either....I think 1 health bar is enough...makes the game worth playing and realistic
 
I'm actually kinda dissapointed that there will be some health regeneration in Ninja Gaiden II. I thought Itagaki prided himself on hard difficulty. I hope that this can be turned off in Hard mode or something...
 
I like the health system in Uncharted, it gives me one less thing to worry about. When it starts going gray I try to find a safe spot and hope I can survive, then if I make it I can run out without walking on eggshells or hunting for health pickups or whatever
 
I don't like it in fast paced online FPS games; part of being good at a classic fragmatch is being able to use the map's health/armour points to your advantage during a fight (ie picking up health packs during a battle while strategically ensuring your opponent cannot); anyone that lives by UT games will tell you this.
 
then a game like that will come out and there will be threads stating "wtf, i died in the same place ten times! why can't there be health regeneration in this game?"
 
twinturbo2 said:
I'm actually kinda dissapointed that there will be some health regeneration in Ninja Gaiden II. I thought Itagaki prided himself on hard difficulty. I hope that this can be turned off in Hard mode or something...
Click to expand...
Ninja Gaiden was the worst for health packs. If you forgot to buy mad amounts of elixirs before a boss battle you wouldn't stand a chance.
 
Sandman42 said:
Ninja Gaiden was the worst for health packs. If you forgot to buy mad amounts of elixirs before a boss battle you wouldn't stand a chance.
Click to expand...

how dare the game demand you get good at it
 
twinturbo2 said:
I'm actually kinda dissapointed that there will be some health regeneration in Ninja Gaiden II. I thought Itagaki prided himself on hard difficulty. I hope that this can be turned off in Hard mode or something...
Click to expand...
I'm not terribly worried. The partial health regeneration is intended to help newbies on the lower difficulties (you'd be surprised at the number of people who never beat the first boss in the original), but once you crank up the difficulty I'd imagine the regeneration won't take away the challenge.
 
I don't like it in most games because its so easily abused, and it can really negate a whole bunch of other things a game will do right (AI, weapons, level design) just because you can have maximum health for sitting still and doing nothing for five seconds.

Reisistance did it pretty well though, as you could still lose life but only regain a bit back at a time without pickups.

and while we're on the subject of misplaced realism, I really get sick of not being able to have more then two guns at a time.
 
twinturbo2 said:
I'm actually kinda dissapointed that there will be some health regeneration in Ninja Gaiden II. I thought Itagaki prided himself on hard difficulty. I hope that this can be turned off in Hard mode or something...
Click to expand...

Have you watched the videos? The health regained is only a small percentage. It's not like you can just run around for awhile until your entire health meter is filled up.

Also lolz at the elixirs comments. I was the same way until I reached the mission mode in Ninja Gaiden Black and was able to beat bosses + other crap getting thrown at me with little to no elixirs.

D3MO said:
I'm not a fan of healthpacks either....I think 1 health bar is enough...makes the game worth playing and realistic
Click to expand...

So what happens when you die? I mean you can't really fall back on a checkpoint since you only have one bar of health. I'm not sure if people are interested in playing 10 hour long games just to die towards the end and start all over(though I'm well aware there are games out there specifically for that purpose).
 
The Lamonster said:
I see your point, but come on - Ninja Gaiden's bad guys are fucking cheap as hell.
Click to expand...

If their cheap, you be cheap as well. That's how I got through the hard fights. Do a boss battle 10-12 times for fun, learn from your mistakes, pick up on his moves, then the 13th battle win without getting hit once.
 
The Lamonster said:
I see your point, but come on - Ninja Gaiden's bad guys are fucking cheap as hell.
Click to expand...

yeah, i just disagree with this. anyone who puts some effort into understanding the mechanics of the game and its combat system can eviscerate ninjas and demons without getting touched.

when i think of health regeneration, i just think about how fucking pissed i would have been if a game like re4 used it
 
Kuroyume said:
FUCKING SPOILER!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH... I don't have a PS3 yet, and this is the one game (released so far) that I am eager to try out. >:(

Anyway... I love health regeneration. I'm happy that it's in Ninja Gaiden 2.
Click to expand...

I feel the exact opposite. I can't believe TN is putting in health regeneration.
 
Screw that! Games should be 100% realistic. If you get hit with one bullet in the leg, then your character should move alot more slowly, in pain. If he gets another, then he should only be able to crawl, very slowly. If he gets it to the head once, it's game over. You start over. Period. In real life, you don't "save".

Not really.
 
The only way I'm cool with health regen is if there's a shit-ton of enemies thrown at you, Smash TV-style. Halo does that at the higher difficulties, so I'm good with that series. I hope Ninja Gaiden II follows suit as well.
 
AtomicShroom said:
Screw that! Games should be 100% realistic. If you get hit with one bullet in the leg, then your character should move alot more slowly, in pain. If he gets another, then he should only be able to crawl, very slowly. If he gets it to the head once, it's game over. You start over. Period. In real life, you don't "save".

Not really.
Click to expand...

Counterstrike style or Deus Ex on Realistic Difficulty with additional body damage rules? Sounds pretty awesome, yeah.
 
I liked the old non-regenerated health systems, but I don't like map spawned health packs. It's lame to be in a gun fight and someone be able to run over a health pack and win the fight because of that. That's why I loved games like RTCW for Xbox, where there was a very viable medic class. They were not stuck with crappy weapons, they could defend themselves well, but they were not that powerful, but they could really help a team win matches.
 
The game has to be balanced accordingly. Halo is still very challenging and I die lots.
I like it way more than hunting for health packs and there's no chance of screwing yourself over (unless of course having depleted weapons and nothing laying around)
 
Resistance does it well IMO (4 separate regenerating health bars, accompanied by story elements), as does Halo:CE (shield & health).

Never liked the CoD2-4 way.
 
I'm very pro-regen. I think it's a fantastic feature and I'm glad that most games these days are adopting it. A great challenge can still be built around such a system and it allows for better scenario design (as the developer will always know the condition of the player at a certain point). With a classic health pack system, a scenario can totally change depending on how much health you have and it can nearly break the game. If you checkpoint right before a room with 5% health, that room may be virtually impossible to clear. If you reach that same point with 100% health, however, you might blast right through it. Balancing for such a health system is more difficult and can result in an uneven game. In fact, I know it did as it was becoming a huge complaint of mine near the end of the 90s. Halo was a breath of fresh air in this regard.

It may not be realistic, but I think quality of gameplay is more important that realism in most cases.

I think GRAW2 deserves special mention, though, as they introduced a very nice health system. Rather than regenerating your own health, you have a medic with you throughout most of the game who can do the same thing (though he has limited supplies). This works well with the design of the game.
 
AtomicShroom said:
Screw that! Games should be 100% realistic. If you get hit with one bullet in the leg, then your character should move alot more slowly, in pain. If he gets another, then he should only be able to crawl, very slowly. If he gets it to the head once, it's game over. You start over. Period. In real life, you don't "save".

Not really.
Click to expand...

You know, if implemented right this would be a damn good game :lol
 
Either way is fine really, but only if done right. Bitching health packs at convinent locations is as dumb as bitching about healt regen.
 
Saint's Row got it right, eating a hamburger behind cover is one of the greatest things to ever happen to videogames :lol
 
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