Have you noticed how most games featuring a health system fall into one of two broad categories? They’re usually either of a recharging type such as that seen in the COD games, or a medi-pack type such as that seen in Bioshock. The question is: which type is best, and why do developers choose one or the other for their games?



The reason I’ve come to ask this question is because of the way Bungie are taking the health system in Reach back to a medi-pack type as in Halo: CE, rather than the re-charging one seen in Halo 2 and 3. My feeling is that a return to this kind of health system is a backwards step and may well detract from the gameplay in Reach.

Medi-pack health systems are great for single player games. They can be used to create a sense of tension in the player when they find themselves low on health and who knows how close to the next checkpoint or health pickup. This works especially well in survival horror games where a system of recharging health would remove a heap of the nervousness players feel. Knowing you have to just hide for a couple of seconds in order to return to full health just wouldn’t work in these games.



Nowadays the majority of multiplayer games feature recharging health systems, but why do they do so? It seems obvious to me that the reason for this is to maintain a fast paced level of gameplay that would otherwise be broken up by the necessity to search for a medi-pack after each encounter. Failing to go health hunting would leave the player at a marked disadvantage in their next firefight so the majority of players would be spending just as much time searching for health as they did fighting opponents. That’s not what online shooters are about which is why the genre has evolved the recharging system that means each battle starts off on an equal footing and is about outskilling your opponent.

That’s not to say that medi-pack systems are totally out of date in terms of online play. Just look at Battlefield for a great example of how such a system can force players to act as a team, moving in groups around the map and always trying to maintain contact with a medic who can heal the group. Again, this system keeps players in the thick of the action rather than forcing them to travel to an arbitrary health pack spawn. As for Reach: it has health pack spawn points that to me just seem out dated.



The best example I can think of to demonstrate how these two systems are suited to different types of games is Halo 3: ODST. The single player portion of the game featured a medi-pack system which made sections of the single player game tense, nervous and incredibly satisfying to complete. As for the multiplayer, that had the recharging system which kept the fast placed Halo gameplay we all know and love.

I hope I’m wrong and that the health system in Reach doesn’t detract from the gameplay at all, but the nagging doubt remains that I’ll be wasting time hunting for health packs rather than hunting down enemies. At least there’s only a few short weeks until my theory can be put to the test.