Hi! This is Game Maker's Toolkit, I'm Mark Brown.
There's a lot to like about the new Doom game. But something I really appreciate is the way
it handles health.
Not just because it has an actual life bar and health packs, which are almost retro throwbacks
in 2016, but because it forces you to play the game in a different way when you're running
low on health.
You no longer want to shoot enemies to death, but instead force them into a stagger before
racing towards them for a brutal melee finisher - because these so-called glory kills always
reward you with a few, precious orbs of health.
Where most games tell you to run and hide when under fire, Doom tells you to play aggressively
and move towards enemies - not away from them.
It's a nice reminder that a game's systems will change how the player acts and feels
- and that includes the way the game handles health. And so, with that in mind, it's worth
asking: why do so many games use the exact same system?
You get hurt, the screen goes black and white or gets covered with strawberry jam, so you
hide behind a block of concrete until the invisible health bar magically restores. This system is
everywhere, but is it really the best way for games to do health?
Well, first, we need to figure out how we ended up with this ubiquitous system. Because
early action games certainly didn't work like this.
Classic games were designed for the player to be able to avoid or counter any attack.
Enemies telegraphed their moves with predictable patterns, and projectiles moved slow enough
to be evaded.
Ex-Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi has said that the programmer for any boss monster
must be able to defeat that boss without taking a hit, before it can go into the final game.
So the health bar in these games is essentially representing your ability to make a mistake.
To miss the telegraph, or screw up a jump, or mis-time a move.
The games don't expect you to play perfectly, and so health bars give you a bit of leeway.
The challenge comes from trying to get to the goal without making too many errors.
But throughout the 90s, we started seeing a lot of first person shooters with enemies
who use hitscan weapons. This is when the enemy does an attack and, if you're in line
with their gun, you'll immediately take damage. Unlike the imp's fireball in Doom, you can't
dodge these bullets.
And then in the early 2000s, someone decided that if the game was automatically taking
health away from you - regardless of whether you're making a mistake - it's only fair
that the game automatically gives it back. That's PS2 shooter The Getaway on screen right
now, which has you leaning against walls to recover from bullet wounds.
Halo popularised the system, though it doesn't actually have regenerating health. Your shield
repairs itself, but Master Chief still needs to find medikits to restore health. It was
Call of Duty that codified the system we have today where you'll automatically restore lost
health if you stay out of the firing line for a few seconds, effectively making the
game about limiting your exposure to enemy attacks.
And you know what? Regenerating health has its advantages. It will make the player more
reckless and gung-ho, it will give the game a rip-roaring sense of forward momentum, and
the player is guaranteed to have enough health for every enemy encounter so there are no weird
difficulty spikes on their adventure.
But, what did we lose in the shift to regenerating health? Well, getting hurt no longer has any
long term consequences so it doesn't matter if you're being sloppy or playing really well
- it all evens out before the next encounter.
Compare that to a game like Dark Souls where a bungled fight means you'll need to chug
on your estus flask and risk running out of precious life juice before the next bonfire.
That game heightens the stakes of every enemy encounter, making you more engaged, and you're
rewarded for truly skilful play.
Dark Souls also has a palpable sense of tension when you're tip-toeing around with a slither
of health left, desperately looking for a bonfire and praying that some big horrible
bastard isn't hiding around the corner.
Having health packs also leads to interesting decisions. When do you use them? How many should you
buy from the shop, and how many can you fit in your inventory? Should you craft a health
kit or a Molotov cocktail? Should you combine that green herb with a red herb?
They also encourage exploration, as you must hunt down health packs or the crafting ingredients
to make one. And they can force you to move your butt if you're injured, and don't have
any health kits left on you.
Plus, they allow for enemies and traps that do smaller amounts of damage. With regenerating
health, every enemy must be capable of killing you but with persistent health you can have
things like the bear traps in Resident Evil 4 that do a small, but lasting amount of injury
to Leon.
But games don't have to just choose one or the other. A number of games, including Far
Cry 2, split the difference with a segmented life bar where you'll regenerate health but
only to the next notch in the life bar. You'll need to use a health pack to get the rest
back.
This has all the benefits of a classic health kit system, but with concessions made for
the use of hitscan weapons. And it stops you walking around with just one health point
- though there are other ways to fix that.
Half Life 2 will dynamically put more health kits in crates if you're nearing death. FEAR
always regenerates the last 25 percent of your life bar. The Arkham games have persistent
health during fights but you'll restore your energy when the encounter is over. And in
Mirror's Edge Catalyst you can rebuild your shield by running non-stop for a few seconds.
Or developers could try something completely different. Health can be a reward for a certain type
of gameplay, as we saw with Doom in the beginning. Games like Bloodborne and Warhammer Space
Marine and Metal Gear Rising do similar things with the goal of making the player feel like
an aggressive hunter.
Health points can also be turned into a currency, to increase the number of choices the player
can make. In F-Zero, you can trade health for boost. In Bloodborne you can turn your
health into bullets. And in The Binding of Isaac you must hurt yourself to pass through certain
doors.
We've also seen games where gaining or losing health can change the way the game plays.
Look at Mario. When Mario is at full health he can break blocks with his head, but getting
hit makes him small - and also capable of sneaking into tiny holes. Donkey Kong Country
does something similar, as getting hurt as Donkey Kong makes you switch to the much faster
Diddy Kong. And then look at Yoshi's Island where getting hurt completely changes the
game as you must now focus entirely on rescuing baby Mario.
The point is, many, many modern action games seem to have just settled on regenerating
health as being the default system. But while it might be perfect for some video games,
it's not always the right choice.
So maybe come up with a health system that has a twist that forces the player to act in a different way.
Maybe go back to health packs, or something in between. Or perhaps try something completely different.
I want to know about more games that do something interesting with health - please leave them
in the comments for this video.
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