Regenerating Health
Regenerating Health is a concept that appears in 314 gamesRegenerating health is a gameplay mechanic which automatically refills the players health bar after successfully escaping damage for a set amount of time. It is typically seen in Western RPGs and modern first- and third-person shooters.
The concept of regenerating health is very simple: instead of requiring the player to find med kits to recover their health from injuries, the player's wounds will automatically heal if they can avoid taking any more damage for a set amount of time. This allows the player to be in top condition at the beginning of every skirmish, and lets them to play the game on a battle-by-battle basis.
Origins
Halo: Combat Evolved is often credited for the first appearance of regenerating health. However, not only wasn't it the first, but it did not even have regenerating health. Halo featured a traditional health system, as it was the player's shields that regenerated. Subsequent games in the series, starting with Halo 2, added true regenerating health, although the original system made a return appearance in Halo 3: ODST and continued on in Halo: Reach.
In truth, this popular method of health control appeared long before Halo. The 1992 first-person shooter Faceball 2000 for SNES and Sega Genesis had it. It also was used in the relatively unpopular comic book game, Wolverine: Adamantium Rage, which was released on the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis in 1994.
Types of Regenerating Health
There have been multiple types of regenerating health.
Some games have a health bar like normal and is depleted like normal, but when in critical condition your health will regenerate which will then stop at a certain point. Once this has happened you must grab a health pack to continue any further in your healing process. Prey is an example of this style; if your health is lowered to below 25%, it will regenerate back to 25% and then stop.
Others use segmented health bars, which will regenerate up to the next segment. Resistance: Fall of Man is an example of this style, with the player's health regenerating up to 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%, depending on which segment their health was lowered into. Again, using health items to restore the lost portions.
Another kind of game will have no segmentation and your entire life supply regenerates. This means when walking around in non-combat areas you are always at full health. These games have no need of health pickups, and often do not even show a health bar of any kind. In such cases, your closeness to death is mostly determined by indications of your character's pain, causing any combination of blurriness, red coloration, desaturation, and audio muffling. Since the player is already at the brink of death and typically in an intense situation when these audiovisual impairments occur, they often serve to seal the player's fate. The Call of Duty series is perhaps the most well-known example of this technique.
There are, of course, singular examples which don't quite fit into any of the above categories. In Just Cause 2, for example, the player's health will always regenerate a set amount from the point at which they stopped taking damage; whether this leaves them barely hanging on to life or fully healed depends on when they manage to get to cover, similarly to the segmented style. However, med kits will always fully heal their bar the rest of the way, acting similarly to the Prey-like style.
Origins
Halo: Combat Evolved is often credited for the first appearance of regenerating health. However, not only wasn't it the first, but it did not even have regenerating health. Halo featured a traditional health system, as it was the player's shields that regenerated. Subsequent games in the series, starting with Halo 2, added true regenerating health, although the original system made a return appearance in Halo 3: ODST and continued on in Halo: Reach.In truth, this popular method of health control appeared long before Halo. The 1992 first-person shooter Faceball 2000 for SNES and Sega Genesis had it. It also was used in the relatively unpopular comic book game, Wolverine: Adamantium Rage, which was released on the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis in 1994.
Types of Regenerating Health
There have been multiple types of regenerating health.Some games have a health bar like normal and is depleted like normal, but when in critical condition your health will regenerate which will then stop at a certain point. Once this has happened you must grab a health pack to continue any further in your healing process. Prey is an example of this style; if your health is lowered to below 25%, it will regenerate back to 25% and then stop.
Others use segmented health bars, which will regenerate up to the next segment. Resistance: Fall of Man is an example of this style, with the player's health regenerating up to 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%, depending on which segment their health was lowered into. Again, using health items to restore the lost portions.
Another kind of game will have no segmentation and your entire life supply regenerates. This means when walking around in non-combat areas you are always at full health. These games have no need of health pickups, and often do not even show a health bar of any kind. In such cases, your closeness to death is mostly determined by indications of your character's pain, causing any combination of blurriness, red coloration, desaturation, and audio muffling. Since the player is already at the brink of death and typically in an intense situation when these audiovisual impairments occur, they often serve to seal the player's fate. The Call of Duty series is perhaps the most well-known example of this technique.
There are, of course, singular examples which don't quite fit into any of the above categories. In Just Cause 2, for example, the player's health will always regenerate a set amount from the point at which they stopped taking damage; whether this leaves them barely hanging on to life or fully healed depends on when they manage to get to cover, similarly to the segmented style. However, med kits will always fully heal their bar the rest of the way, acting similarly to the Prey-like style.
Regenerating Health games
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General Information
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| Concept Name: | Regenerating Health |
| Appears in: | 314 games |
| First appearance: | Ys: The Vanished Omens |
| Aliases |
Regenerative Health Healing Factor Health Regeneration |
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