Last week I took a look at Heavy Soldiers and how they’re becoming a more common sight in games now, so I thought I’d take a look at regenerative health for Cookie Cutter this week. A game mechanic that’s so recycled that most gamers don’t remember what a health bar is or, if they started gaming recently, know what one is at all.
Back in the olden days of gaming, nearly every game you came across had a health bar; otherwise you probably just died after being hit a set number of times. You had to dodge enemy attacks as much as possible to conserve your health throughout the levels, and collect items scattered around to replenish it. Nowadays, though, this concept is rarely seen, replaced by regenerative health systems.
I’m not quite sure exactly which game did it first, but if everyone was asked to remember the first game which prominently featured a regenerative health type system, it would probably be Halo: Combat Evolved. In Halo, you had a health bar and a shield, with enemy fire depleting the shield first. Once the shield was down, any further hits you took lowered your health bar – however, if you could avoid being damaged for a short while your shield would fully recharge, protecting your health once again. I wouldn’t peg regenerative health completely down to Halo, however; whilst it was hugely successful and extremely influential in the shooters genre, it wasn’t a new concept.
So, then, from 2001 onwards, nearly every shooter (and even games in other genres) has featured a variant on the regenerative health system. If you were to scan over your game collection, concentrating on those released in the past few years, you’d find a high percentage of them have it in place. Most gamers probably think of Call of Duty when it’s mentioned, where the edges of the screen go red when you’re close to death and then return back to normal if you evade fire for a few seconds. In games like Uncharted, the screen gradually loses colour as you lose health, giving you a visual indication of your status.
Some games do try to break the mould, even if only slightly. In Far Cry 2, the health bar is divided into segments. If the player takes damage and then finds cover, the health bar will refill to the top of the segment it’s currently in, but not all the way to the top. To fully replenish health, the player must use a syringe, which can be picked up from wall mounted health stores. It’s typically the genre which defines what exact health system is used. Straight up kill-fests like CoD normally feature a standard regenerative system, as searching for health packs and the like would ruin the pacing. Games like the aforementioned Far Cry 2 feature the segmented bar, as there is a greater emphasis on realism and healing your own wounds. More horror-orientated games like Bioshock and Dead Space go for your standard health bar, and rely entirely on medikits for healing.
Does this take the skill out of the games? Maybe. In games with health bars you’re given fewer options in any given situation, so if you lost a lot of health earlier on in a level you’re going to find it harder to progress later on. Regenerative health allows you full health all the way through the level, provided you can find some cover when you’re hit. As a by-product of this, the harder difficulties in the games can be ludicrous, where enemy behaviour and skills are taken to the max – a couple of shots can kill, so you’re not even given a chance to heal. If you put them on lower difficulties, though, you may as well be invincible. As some gamers are so used to it, they don’t know how to deal with a health bar. Running in all guns blazing and then ducking into cover to heal no longer works, so the skill of not being hit is something of the past.
As for the future of regenerative health, I believe it’s here to stay. Most developers are including it in their shooters now, and as more sequels to these franchises get released, it’s going to be endlessly recycled as it has been for just under a decade. Any new franchises are going to stick to what’s successful, so it’s not likely we’ll see a return to the glory days of raging at the “GAME OVER” screen.
mynameisblair (75)
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In certain genres I think regen works like in trigger happy FPS like CoD but in platformers along the line of tomb raider or something I quite like health bars because it adds tension and fear to the game, also anyone remember Lives in games? where have they gone?
Yeah, it’s genre-dependent really. Horror-type games normally have health bars for the tension, but nearly every FPS has some form of regen health system. If they don’t, they’re in the minority.
I don’t mind hugely which is used as long as it’s done well. A good example is the RIG in Dead Space, where your health bar is beautifully integrated into the suit. Far Cry 2 had those awesome healing animations as well. The regen in the newer CoD games works because it’s just mindless shooting, but the earlier ones (like CoD1) work better with a health bar because of the pacing.
I am playing Bioshock right now and I love it like this.
But I hate when you are confronted by a huge enemy, only to find you have no health kits or money. Still, it really does add something to the game.
That’s where the skill comes in
I remember having to slog it out with a health bar. I also remember lives. Those were the days. Men were real men, women were real women, and pixels were real pixels.
Regen depends on the game/world/genre and if it fits in with the context, but it works so well when it’s done properly.
It certainly helped me out a lot in Resistance. I think it’s a good system.