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Health Systems… Many games follow a very simple “HP” system. You lose a few points, you find a Med Kit, you get back the lost Hit Points. Or you just hide in the corner while you genetically modified DNA grows back your limbs after suffering a direct hit from an RPG. Maybe it’s a mix of both, a shield that regenerates and health that does not. These are the most brutal basics. Even RPGs follow a very, very similar rule. There might be status effects, but they are very rarely “permanent”. When you are blind it’s because somebody cast a Blindness spell on you, and not because a Goblin poked your eyes out with a rusty dagger. Even if a Giant pummels you into a bloody pulp, leaving you at one “HP” a health potion will fix you right up! Internal Damage? What is that? Fractures? Disease? Don’t make me laugh! Health is not a complex addition to most games, not because the Developers are lazy, but because most games would become overly complicated because of it. Can you imagine just how short a lot of Zombie games would be over in the first few minutes if there was a realistic disease/damage system? What of Modern Shooters, where you can take countless direct hits without bleeding out on the side walk? If such mechanics were implemented most games would simply be too hard. That is not to say there are no games without such mechanics…

I hope you brought a lot of Ointment… Dragons tend to breathe an awful lot of fire.

Being “Human” – Video Games where Health is an Issue

I enjoy a good survival game. Especially the sort that grabs me by the hair, screams in my face, and then continues kicking me when I am down. The unforgiving settings, challenging enemies and deadly scenarios. A lot of Survival games do not focus on health that much, but let’s bring up the examples of games that do (at least to an extent).

Project Zomboid is a “light” example of a health system. You have bleeding, disease (zombie and natural), poisoning, blood loss. You have to tend to those limbs that get damaged during your fights, or when you fall off a tall building. You need to take Painkillers to ease the pain, and get yourself back to full health! Which is not as easy as it sounds, especially during a Zombie Apocalypse. Resources tend to be scarce, and if you are forced out of your hiding spot all your medicine is left behind. Keeping yourself alive is one thing. Keeping yourself healthy is something entirely different.

UnReal World is one of the most recent GREAT examples that I stumbled upon (thank you PC Gamer). It is a Survival Game about living in the Wilds during the Iron Age. You can get burned, frozen, stabbed, bashed, kicked, ripped to shreds, mauled, punctured and also dehydrated and malnourished. There are different Scenarios with which you can begin the game (some easier than others) and what you do after that is up to you! That is, if you survive the first winter. In this game everything is against you. The people, nature, the weather, even your own instincts. Surviving in this game is an art, and from the point of view of the health system a lot of things can kill you, in more than one way. Combat here is surprisingly complex. You do not have Health Points, you are very much a living being. You can get stabbed in the leg, but if it did not puncture a major artery you are mildly safe (or safer, depends how bad the wound is overall). You will have an extremely hard time destroying an entire village with just your fists, and forget about wrestling bears. You need different tools to keep yourself healthy, be it after battle, or during the night. You have to build a shelter and fire to keep yourself dry and warm. Hunt, grow, fish or trade for (quality) food. It sounds simple, but once you start playing the game you realise it is not.

Space Station 13 will be a Love-Hate relationship with a lot of people. The graphics and controls are difficult, there are a lot of trolls and really nasty people determined to ruin your day. I did stumble on some servers that shocked me with their innovation, and this time around I am thinking about the Apollo Server (EDIT: TG-Station Servers as well). What made the Apollo Server stand out is its Health system. Your body is divided into sections (hands, arms, head, eyes, mouth, chest, abdomen, legs and feet), and you have three different “damage” types (Brute, Burn and Toxins). This is what is available on any Space Station 13 server. You can beat a man over the head, thus causing him Brute Damage (and making him pass out) . When somebody walks through radiation they will suffer random genetic mutations (99% of them being very bad). You can suffocate, from lack of oxygen, or be incinerated when somebody sets the station alight. Wonderful, no? Apollo went a leap further to make your experience even more dramatic. Limbs can be lost, you can bleed out, your eyes can be poked out, sudden changed in room pressure can suck you out into space, or make you smash into objects. Of course, just like on any Space Station 13 server you could clone somebody who is deceased, but during my playthroughs I had some very dramatic situations. One time just as I entered the server I found myself stuck in Arrivals with another fellow. We decided to open up the Emergency Airlock that was blocking our way deeper into the station. The radios did not work so we really did not know what to expect. He decided to use a Crowbar he found and as he opened the airlock the pressure change was so much that both of his arms were ripped off, at the same time. Incidentally I was a Medical Doctor, but getting a man with heavy blood loss, through a station filled with vacuum, without working Radios would be a bit of a challenge. Another time (once again, playing a Doctor) I was sitting in the Reception, drinking some coffee (RP Server, go figure) when suddenly Security rushes in with a crew member who was a victim of a psychotic attack that resulted in him losing all of his limbs. Since it’s the future we made him some fancy mechanical prosthetics, but that does not change the fact just how dramatic things can be, when you play as a Doctor. This translates into other areas, such as firefights when your face could melt off from lasers, or close combat, where your arm, leg or ribs could be broken, making you suffer extreme pain, and thus unable to act properly. Even your mechanical limbs if exposed to EMP explosions might malfunction and explode. I do not know if the Server still uses such a health system, but it was one of the most intriguing ones available.

Dwarf Fortress is also one of the best Health systems I have found. I mean, your dwarves can die from an infection to their pinkie toe… That might be going a bit far, but there are other cases when the Health System is not as abstract. Your Dwarves may be impaled, chopped to pieces, trampled, kicked, punched… well, just like in the case of Unreal World and Space Station 13 a lot of things can happen to them. One of my somewhat morbid hobbies was to look, post battle, at what wounds my Dwarves sustained and how they were later treated by my Medical Personnel. I would trace down the causes of different wounds, and how the Dwarf continued to fight despite them. One such example was my Commander of the Guard who got impaled by a Minotaur but continued to fight. Another time, during a heated battle against goblins one of my Dwarfs lost his arm, yet he continued to use his shield as a weapon. Or how a Marksdwarf would fire a bolt in such a flawless manner that it would kill a Giant with a single headshot. Of course, there were the post-battle problems. Keeping a Dwarf alive with numerous injuries, or letting him eventually return to service was a huge challenge. The sturdiness of the Dwarves always impressed me. They would often continue fighting even when they would have spinal damage, or suffered heavy blood loss. In turn when you play with other races the situation changes somewhat. Humans are much less tough, as are goblins. I would also keep my fingers crossed for the wounded Dwarves, that they would eventually recover fully. Some of the most heroic Dwarves were those who suffered grievous wounds, time and time again, staring death in the eyes yet returning the next year. And for those who did not make it I would always have an impressive “Hall of the Elders” where they would be buried and their achievements noted down.

The roles of females in our culture, specifically in video games, has long been discussed and debated. There’s no denying the fact that Princess Peach sat up in a tower on her lonesome much like Helen of Troy, passing the time until a certain plumber would come to make a daring rescue.

I could count the numerous feminine characters who’ve been portrayed to be helpless, weak, merely a hazy silhouette stewing in the shadows of a shining male protagonist, though this article isn’t a rant about feminism more than it is an exposition, just some ramblings upon a subject others might rather push aside instead of pick apart. Strong women resonate deeply within gaming’s picturesque lineage, that’s not the point – where does this desire to save a victim stem from? Sure, it’s nice to parade around slicing and dicing as the ravishing Lara Croft…. the problem lies in the fact that this doesn’t always compare to the full-bodied thrill of unchaining your companion and exhuming him or her out of a dingy prison cell.

Oh, Peach…When will you learn?

And what about the lovely painted and decorated men who save these women? I think I can vouch for the collective whole of our society when I say how much people adore not only heroic characters, but drool over the idea of a superhero. Good looks, amazing abilities, indisputable vitality and stamina, these are the fictional gods that conduct our universe. What’s curious is how, even if we step back in history, maybe to Ancient Greece or Rome, the notion of heroes and damsels still conjured much affection in the populous, mere mortals in awe of Hercules, Persues, and, but of course, Achilles.

Is there something biological that draws us to this complex, a carnal chromosome woven into our DNA, or do we just enjoy watching a normal human suddenly find themselves shoulders-deep in power and immortality? It’s a very interesting theme, one clearly visible in some of the most popular IPs of the generation.

Bioshock gave us the remarkable opportunity to explore Rapture and the possibilities of either becoming a hero or a villain through various plot-driven choices; Infamous put us in the shoes of Cole MacGrath, a man who valiantly saved Empire City in some playthroughs, while in others, did not; finally, we come to Corvo Attano, a bodyguard turned juggernaut caught between a lethal or stealth-driven journey through Dunwall. Although each of these entries are different in a number of ways, they all meander back to one common thread: morality. Do I take the life of this Little Sister to make myself stronger? Do I forgo the shadows to massacre everyone in my path?

Heroes, damsels, and morality are like scalding tea, tar, and feathers from revolutionary times; even if you have one, it’s just not the same without the other two.

I implore you to post any comments, concerns, thoughts, and questions down below in the comment section. Mostly importantly, have an oh-so-Happy Easter!

Rebecca

I got lazy. This observation came from how I played my Strategy games. I got used to quick and easy victories, where a single decisive attack turns the tide of a war and finishes the campaign before Christmas. For a very long time the concept of Logistics evaded me, not because I was not familiar with it, but because it is not that visible, obvious or perhaps not even used in many games. In my case it appeared again during my Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai campaign game. I was playing as the Tosa, and after many preparations, mainly focused around turning my small economy into a powerhouse, I formed the best army I could and I deployed it on the Japanese mainland, ready to defeat the Shogunate loyalists. Everything was going well. Cities fell with ease, the enemy armies were crushed before me. After some time I reinforced my first army with two more, and my land-based domination was undisputed. Then I got a mildly rough awakening. When my Clan acted as the Emperor’s Vanguard, and the Shogun formed their own, my Armies were engaged into much tougher full-scale warfare. During one such battle one of my more recent armies fought desperately against three other armies. The battle was won, with much stress and worry and then I realized a problem this army faced, it lost one of its Cannon battalions. Normally that would not be a problem. You can recruit cannons anywhere you like, as long as there is an artillery range. That was the problem. My home-area of Tosa was beyond the sea. On the Japanese mainland the provinces that were under my control were behind a thick line of Allied provinces. In some of these areas there wasn’t an operational Railway line or structures allowing me to recruit artillery. In other words, gaining back that one unit would take me an extremely long time.

Trucks might lack weapons and protection, but they can transport men and equipment around a map quickly.