# Video Games and Realism **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 7, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009 "2015-04-07T01:34:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pianodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e79b87/32.png) [@pianodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pianodave)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/1 "2015-04-07T01:34:00Z")
Hi Straight Dope, Question about video games. When dealing with a life bar, hearts, energy level, etc. it seems to me that whatever character you play still fights/interacts with the same “strength” or power when they are almost dead as when they are at full health. Has anyone heard of any games that are more realistic in this sense? In other words, when your character is hurting or injured, you fight/maneuver less effectively. Mortal Kombat/Street Fighter are some obvious examples. Someone with 10% of their total energy should not be able to kick or punch with the same power in real life. The only game I can think of that shows realism in this way was an old game called Time Killers, in which lopping off limbs invariably led to reduced effectiveness in combat. Can anyone think of any other games that reduce fighting strength accordingly with how much injury the character sustains? Thanks, Dave ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/2 "2015-04-07T01:51:28Z")
To an extent, [Bushido Blade](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushido_Blade_%28video_game%29) was like that. You could be injured during fighting that would cause you to not be able to use an arm or a leg. [Uncharted](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncharted) had its moments of realism, too. Such as the screen gradually “graying out” as you took damage, making it difficult to see what was going on until you could rest and heal. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/3 "2015-04-07T02:10:22Z")
Most strategy games do this. ---
**Author:** ![Wolverine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba9def/32.png) [@Wolverine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolverine)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/4 "2015-04-07T03:00:18Z")
**Vagrant Story** had damaged body parts change gameplay (less damage, less defense, no magic, etc. based on the body part injured). **Hybrid Heaven** for the N64 did something similar to this, but I don’t remember if the injured body part did less damage or not. It definitely affected your movement and types of attacks you could choose. ---
**Author:** ![Dioptre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/278dde/32.png) [@Dioptre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dioptre)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/5 "2015-04-07T04:33:04Z")
I’m not sure that “reduced capacity to fight” is very realistic. Red Orchestra has a game mechanic where any hit that doesn’t kill you outright requires bandaging very very quickly. Not fully realistic, but it’s a reasonable proxy for the fact that most injuries will take you out of the immediate fight. Interstellar Marines (not the height of realism, I’ll admit) has a mechanic where a hit that doesn’t kill you outright will disable your “suit systems”, leaving it difficult to identify friends versus foes, or to understand the status of the current round. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/6 "2015-04-07T04:52:53Z")
There’s a D&D video game where the character slows down during combat if they’ve been poisoned awhile. And your aircraft goes haywire shortly before dying in Raid on Bungeling Bay. There’s various tank and airplane sims, such as Atari 2600 Robot Tank, that feature reduced capacity after sustaining damage to various parts. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/7 "2015-04-07T05:41:15Z")
**Fallout 3** had a system which crippled parts of your body if you took lots of damage, so you couldn’t run fast, aim straight, etc. A lot of FPS games have similar systems. In some Final Fantasy games, a badly wounded character can randomly do a “desperation attack”, which is many times _stronger_ than your normal attack. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/8 "2015-04-07T09:25:58Z")
Hell, didn’t the original _Resident Evil_ games feature you limping around slowly as your health got really low? ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/9 "2015-04-07T09:36:47Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Hell, didn’t the original _Resident Evil_ games feature you limping around slowly as your health got really low? I think the _Silent Hill_ games still have this. Also _Super Mario Bros_: you lose your ability to throw fireballs, and then shrink, just like real…oh. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/10 "2015-04-07T12:12:39Z")
Off to the Game Room! ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/11 "2015-04-07T12:37:54Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > To an extent, [Bushido Blade](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushido_Blade_%28video_game%29) was like that. You could be injured during fighting that would cause you to not be able to use an arm or a leg. Also, a single cut would end most fights. I remember playing versus matches with my brother and/or a buddy of mine. One of the characters has a pair of swords, and he can throw the smaller one. I’d pick him, and right at the start of the fight, I’d throw the small sword. This had a pretty good chance of winning the match, and we’d laugh ourselves silly when it would work like six times in a row. By contrast, _Civilization V_ has military units deal less damage if they’re already damaged (though this represents having fewer soldiers, not injuries). Japanese units always deal full damage because of their faction ability, which is called Bushido. Heh. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/12 "2015-04-07T13:01:58Z")
I’ve played shooters where your screen gets blurry and the sound echo-y when you’re hit and/or low on life. This does make it harder to pin-point who is attacking you and counter attack. Granted, with most shooters these days, you just need to take cover for a few seconds to recover. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/13 "2015-04-07T14:34:00Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > **Fallout 3** had a system which crippled parts of your body if you took lots of damage, so you couldn’t run fast, aim straight, etc. A lot of FPS games have similar systems… The [ArmA series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARMA_%28series%29)is known for this, if you switch “lots of damage” with “get hit at all.” If the hit didn’t just kill you outright, that is. At least in the first one, your character can’t regenerate on its own either, although using a medic can restore some function to the affected body part. I think in the second and third games that there’s a degree of self-help available if the character has the right medical equipment. ---
**Author:** ![FasterThanMeerkats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/278dde/32.png) [@FasterThanMeerkats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FasterThanMeerkats)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/14 "2015-04-07T14:43:14Z")
Almost anything involving machinery seems to simulate component failure pretty well. Similar to what others mentioned about flight sims, most space combat sims (Wing Commander series, etc) had weapon, shield, and engine component damage. Also the most variations on Battleship or naval warfare games (Battlestations Midway, Silent Service). And the Mech Warrior series. There would be a lot of times where you limped to the last waypoint with little to no weapons or armor left. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/15 "2015-04-07T14:46:17Z")
I believe in the Left 4 Dead games your ability to run around is tied to your health. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/16 "2015-04-07T16:46:00Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > The [ArmA series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARMA_%28series%29)is known for this, if you switch “lots of damage” with “get hit at all.” If the hit didn’t just kill you outright, that is. At least in the first one, your character can’t regenerate on its own either, although using a medic can restore some function to the affected body part. I think in the second and third games that there’s a degree of self-help available if the character has the right medical equipment. The first couple **Rainbow Six** games had something similar. Typically your characters were killed outright, but if they were just winged by the enemy, they’d limp, and have all sorts of trouble holding their weapons steady. Battlefield 3 and 4 have a suppression mechanic that makes it harder to aim/focus if you’re being shot at, and if you’re wounded, it’s harder to see/aim, but as far as I know, you’re not running any slower. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/17 "2015-04-07T19:32:07Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > … > > Also _Super Mario Bros_: you lose your ability to throw fireballs, and then shrink, just like real…oh. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/18 "2015-04-07T21:36:10Z")
Do bear in mind that while Critical Existence Failure (i.e. fine at 1HP, dead at 0) is a bit silly and forces an odd strategy where focusing everybody on one enemy at any time is best ; the other way has its own drawback. For example, in the first editions of the pen-and-paper RPG Legend of the Five Rings every character had X ranks of health, and past the first couple your samurai would accrue cumulative penalties in terms of dice rolled (the general system was “roll X dice, keep the Y best and add them up, if that total is \> the task’s difficulty you succeed, else you fail”). The problem with that was that the battle system essentially boiled down to “whoever scores a hit first wins”, because characters didn’t have huge amounts of dice to roll to begin with (the X) and with their now-reduced dice the wounded had much lower chances to hit their opponents back anymore, _or_ parry their strikes, meaning they’d get hit again etc… In that paradigm, a guy with an area of effect spell that did just enough damage to reliably put every other guy on just their first rank of penalty was a walking nuke. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/19 "2015-04-07T21:40:49Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > Also _Super Mario Bros_: you lose your ability to throw fireballs, and then shrink, just like real…oh. It’sa the coinsa. Sometimes they havea coins in them. ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009/20 "2015-04-07T21:54:56Z")
The combat in The Banner Saga works pretty much as you describe, with damage being scaled to HP. It makes the combat a little interesting in that once you really whang an enemy down to a couple HP left you can safely ignore them instead of finishing them off, although sometimes if your own HP gets low and you forget about it it can come back to bite you. The gameplay was pretty dull overall, but that mechanic occasionally made it interesting. Definitely more of an art and writing game. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-and-realism/717009.md?page=2)