Poll Question 035 - Which type of health system do you prefer?

Call of Duty 2’s and TimeShift’s recharging health was a very nice feature. It prevented the player from having to scramble around for health in case they ran out.

Well… I think that the recharging system like in Halo and the aforementioned games requires less micromanagement and allows the player not to concentrate on numbers or bars too much. Not to say the other systems are bad, but I find the auto-recharge easier to use.

To expand on that last comment. If the only reason regenerating health is being used is so “you don’t have to look for health packs”, I couldn’t care less; I want to see it being use to take the genre in different directions, not just to fix some (IMO completely negligible) flaw.

@MMAN:

When Halo was first introduced, it was praised for having rechargeable shields. Similar health systems leaked into other games (CoD2 and TimeShift), and it prevented the player from becoming “cannon fodder” once he ran low on health. This also added a tactical element to the game; the player was forced to decide when to rush attacks and when to retreat in such a way that no consequences are inflicted.

@Hoosteen

I’m talking about games like Halo, while it does add depth, it’s still mostly just fighting gun/melee toting grunts who’s attack patterns tend to be pretty simple overall (even if they do have some of the best AI around); I’m talking about something like having enemies who can pull off completely unexpected tactics, or just some totally different approach to an FPS. Such as you being very agile compared to your enemies and having to use completely different tactics to capitalise on your strengths and make up for whatever weaknesses you have as balance (as opposed to just being “average”), with the regenerating health allowing you to be able take a lot more risks than you would in a game with that style that didn’t use it; I support regeneration because I think it is an extremely interesting angle to look at for ways to innovate FPSs without completely changing them into something else.

Personally I don’t mind which one a game uses, but I think both have their strengths. I was impressed with COD2’s system. It heightened the tension in battles because you knew that it could take just a few shots to kill you. You get shot a couple of times and you panic a bit. It forces the player to think about what they’re doing, use their surroundings more tactically, and make sure that every shot counts.

Combining this with a lack of quick saves (only using autosave checkpoints) makes for a very tense game indeed, which is exactly what COD2 achieved.

I like regenerating health as well as health packs, so I came up with a sort of compromise.

Your health/shields/whatever regenerate when you’re out of combat, but the amount you can regenerate decreases with each hit you take. Health packs heal you to full and allow you to regenerate to 100% again. This protects the player in case of a few mistakes, but encourages them to keep moving rather than relying on their regen too much.