Is it just me or is this one of the worst mechanics that have been taken by every action adventure FPS?

I guess I should explain what I'm talking about...

I'm playing a game... and I get hit and now there is red crud on my screen... The more i get hit... the more red crud I get on it.
And then, if I get low enough I lose sound and the screen goes monochrome and/ot it blurs.

...

Newsflash developers of said games. I'm having a hard time getting through this already as I'm obviously being hit. Why are you making a situation that I already am having problems with harder by making it so I can't pick out my enemies, I can't hear whats going on around me AND even if I can get around that I have a more limited view due to the red crud on my screen.

But it's more realistic you say... We're talking about games where people take more than one shot to various parts of the body and are still able to walk usually... Reality has gone out the window, and since when does blood get in the eyes that much. I suppose some people lose saturation and get blurry vision and such, but you know what else i know happens for people who are likely to be the characters in your game... adrenalin focuses them and allows them to see more sharply, s in able to distinguish their problems quicker... So realistically the opposite happens,

Is it just me that feels this way or does anyone else feel that this is one of the stupidest mechanics ever invented and needs to go away.

It's so they don't have to clutter up the screen with distracting HUD elements.

Oh, wait...

I like it.

I sort of disagree. In moments of great stress confusion tends to take over your senses and very likely your actions will get mostly driven at a subcouncious level.

I was thinking about this a few days ago when I was trying to imagine a gameplay where the main characters is controlled by an IA and your role is to suggest actions to it, say, by pointing places or queuing commands that the AI might take or not depending on it moral state...

I think you have a point. I've never really found it a problem though. I guess its also a good way to remove "health" from the ui.

Did you notice that this type of mechanics is used in conjunction with erasing the HP bar? Designers tried to increase immersion by removing such arbitrary stats on your HUD. And what better way to signalise to the player they got hit than to make the PC sway and see sh*t in a firefight? I mean, where did all the med kits go? Health regenerates on it's own (which is more unrealistic btw) and the tactics associated with remembering where was the last unused kit went out the window. I still tend to come back to Doom II just for that. And the anger after eating a health kit at 99% life.

Modern games changed from being upfront rambo FPS to cover based shootouts, with NPC's who occasionally (and by that I mean pretty friggin often) run at you Horde style, determination on their derpy faces, shooting with deadly precision from the hip. One reason for that is that players got better over the last few decades - they now use strafing (a thing unheard of in DOOM), shooting from corners and silently approaching their targets with silenced weapons. The system became more forgiving as well -- you no longer have to save each bloody second while at 10% HP, you don't have to run around the map with a chainsaw just cause you used up all your ammo in a giant firefight. Things became more geared towards story, art, interesting mechanics. One no longer thinks "will I survive the next corner?" -- he thinks "what will be around the next corner?".

Another forgiving mechanic I noticed is the "depleted HP bar" syndrome. Not once after receiving damage that depletes my HP bar (if one is actually visible) it stays depleted, and I do not die upon some further damage. It is not a lot of damage, but having this hidden amount of bonus HP kind of makes the game confusing.

Getting back on the topic, yes, it is a very noticeable feature. Sometimes it irks me, but more often than not I am compelled to avoid being hit than take a calculated risk in a shootout. Compare it to any older game w/o that feature - it would feel silly and somehow lacking right now. We, as players, got used to the blur and deafness and accepted it into our gaming lifes. The question is, what is the next step that the designers will take? Having the char vomit blood on random occasions while running for cover? Be reduced to crawling away for cover after sustaining critical damage? Only time will tell.


EDIT: Darn you people write fast Took me like 10 minutes to think this through and write and already 3 posts showed up

I sort of disagree. In moments of great stress confusion tends to take over your senses and very likely your actions gets driven at a subcouncious level.

that's true.. But...

#1 different people have different reactions. Those who have been trained for battle or have the fight reaction tend to go into the "subconscious level" we now more or less call "flow." This is a level that is created by training a skill, stressful situations that need immediate actions, and just plain getting lost in the events passing by. It pretty much re prioritizes brain functions so that muscle memory takes over and the conscious brain is left to only decide to stop. This would be more accurately displayed by better auto aiming and enemies colored so they stand out more so they become more saturated while the surrounding less so...and pertinent sounds become louder while background noise is shut out. The opposite of this is the flight mechanism heightens sound, blurs vision, and increases heart rate. as you run from every sound/site that could be dangerous.

We're playing with battle hardened characters or at the very least people trained for this situation or have to deal with it a lot during the course of these games so the former is more likely to occur than the latter in these people.

#2. As I pointed out. The situation is already difficult enough that I'm at that point already by adding those layers it is made harder to actually do the thing i'm supposed to be doing so it doubly punishes me by me losing health and making it more likely I'm going to lose more health by the fact my connection to the world is more tenuous and I'm unable to react as the character would in that situation... and it's just frustrating. and in my opinion bad design... Why make something harder when it is shown that the current difficulty is already too hard... It's like going "Digging a 10 foot cubed hole is hard to do with a shovel...so I think now that I've dug one foot I'm going to use a spoon the rest of the way"

#2. As I pointed out. The situation is already difficult enough that I'm at that point already by adding those layers it is made harder to actually do the thing i'm supposed to be doing so it doubly punishes me by me losing health and making it more likely I'm going to lose more health by the fact my connection to the world is more tenuous and I'm unable to react as the character would in that situation... and it's just frustrating. and in my opinion bad design... Why make something harder when it is shown that the current difficulty is already too hard... It's like going "Digging a 10 foot cubed hole is hard to do with a shovel...so I think now that I've dug one foot I'm going to use a spoon the rest of the way"

Can you name some game you have found this to be the case. I'm really not playing modern games myself, but maybe someone else could argue if it is bad design, bad implementation of the design or maybe just your personal feeling about it.

[quote name='Durakken' timestamp='1308555045' post='4825351']
#2. As I pointed out. The situation is already difficult enough that I'm at that point already by adding those layers it is made harder to actually do the thing i'm supposed to be doing so it doubly punishes me by me losing health and making it more likely I'm going to lose more health by the fact my connection to the world is more tenuous and I'm unable to react as the character would in that situation... and it's just frustrating. and in my opinion bad design... Why make something harder when it is shown that the current difficulty is already too hard... It's like going "Digging a 10 foot cubed hole is hard to do with a shovel...so I think now that I've dug one foot I'm going to use a spoon the rest of the way"

Can you name some game you have found this to be the case. I'm really not playing modern games myself, but maybe someone else could argue if it is bad design, bad implementation of the design or maybe just your personal feeling about it.
[/quote]

I don't really Play action/adventure/FPSs, but i have seen similar things start to happen in videos i've happened to see of other action/adventure/FPSs than the following....


inFAMOUS
Gears of War

I've run across it other games but i can't remember their names and inFamous has a litany of other problems, though it is an enjoyable experience over all

Contrary to real life warfare, games are pretty straightforward.

On the battlefield you can feel the smell of rotting flesh, clouds of smoke and dust blur your vision, your body is tired from carrying ammo and supplies, you can hear the moans of the wounded and mortar fire around you. Your body reacts after training and you are scared shitless that you will leave your pregnant wife all alone.

While playing a game you are sitting on a comfortable chair with a fizzy pop and left over pizza in the vicinity, you probably shut the blinds so the sun doesn't reflect on the screen. The dog looks at you in hopes that you will finally walk it. You are inside your loving home.

How do you expect these two situations to match the immersion? Designers are constantly challenged to suck you into the battlefield, make you feel like that poor bastard sent to war -- you are to shit your pants when faced with a 30 metre cyber demon, not calmly punch it dead with your fists. Things like blurring, pounding etc. confuse you as a player, trigger a red light in your head -- something is not right, I have to run to safety, hide, regenerate, think. Once you learn your lesson a few times, you start paying attention, using cover, flanking etc -- you start acting like the designers think a soldier should. They do it so we can safelly experience something that otherwise is not even remotelly fun.