A staple of many games, fall damage punishes players for falling from high places. However, recent titles such as Super Mario Odyssey have shown how liberating it can be to remove this feature. How do you feel about fall damage? What games is it particularly annoying in? Are there any games that are better because of it? Games that are worse because of it? I have found that fall damage is typically a pretty small annoyance and doesn't ruin any experiences for me. I'd much rather it doesn't exist, however. The mechanic normally doesn't add anything meaningful to the experience. Plus, it is slightly obnoxious when the player has no idea how fall they can far without being hurt.
I can't think of a single game where fall damage is a good thing, it's one of the most arbitrary and pointless things any game that isn't striving for absurd levels of realism can incorporate. I can certainly think of more annoying game mechanics - anything RNG based springs to mind, as do mandatory minigames, gyroscopic aiming or motion controls generally, etc. - but that doesn't mean fall damage serves any purpose other than to annoy and to make descending from higher places a longer task than it ought to be...because really, in a game that doesn't strive to be as realistic as possible, what does it matter how I get from place to place? Surely the best, most user-friendly experience is to let me take the shortest possible route without repercussions? I can understand a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 and maybe the Souls series incorporating fall damage, because the former strives for realism to the point of excess and the latter will want to keep you on preset paths to force you into encounters with enemies and obstacles, but something like The Witcher III or Skyrim has absolutely no need at all for fall damage. One approach to it that I actually like was in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, where you can actually upgrade your character so that they don't take fall damage. Not only does that make a certain degree of sense in-game - after all, you're playing as a simulated character; nothing is technically real, and that would include falling from great heights - but it actually gives you the choice as to whether you want to put up with it or not. You know what the best way to approach unnecessary yet traditional video game mechanics is? Let the player decide what they want to do with it!
I actually don't play very many games with fall damage. The only examples that I can think of off the top of my head are the 3D The Legend of Zelda games. While I am not a fan of fall damage, I do feel like it works for the Zelda games as it serves as it can add a layer of puzzle-solving to the game's platforming elements, as you generally want to avoid falling anyway. If you fall enough to take damage, then you probably messed something up anyway, plus there are usually ways to avoid fall damage (such as rolling).
Keep it out of my platformers *stares daggers at Bubsy* Games with realism and the like I am fine with, it makes you have to figure out a way down safely which can make for some interesting situations (parkour climbing in WoW for example)
One time I fell down a well hidden hole in Minecraft that had to be at least 30 blocks deep... it took me like 5 seconds to hit the ground. I never found that hole or my items again Some people use fall damage against me in fortnite too.... I guess gravity isn’t my friend huh XD let’s delete this feature
Fall damage is so annoying. ::glares at Zelda:: But if you know what you're doing, fall damage is not that bad.
To me it's just a minor setback that normally doesn't ruin the game for me. There are plenty of games that have done it right simply for the logic and realism in it: GTA 5, Far Cry 4, Dying Light. These are all games where you'll easily know what heights kill you and what heights don't. And in those mentioned games there are plenty of items and/or environments that prevent you from getting killed by fall damage. Another game that I think handles fall damage well (even though it'd be better without it) is Mario 64 and its DS remake. Even if this game doesn't have the physics realism like the other games, you can still logically make out what will hurt you and what won't, Mario usually makes the "Wuuoaah" sound when he's falling at a height that will hurt him and on top of that, you can cancel the fall damage by either timing your groundpound or dive correctly or by landing in water. Aside from that I gotta agree with Wizard on this one. Platforming games are better off without fall damage.
I can only think of one game I've played where there's fall damage where it doesn't mean much really, FFXIV. There's fall damage but you can fall from the highest drop and not die no matter what from the fall itself, you'll always be left with 1 HP. Unless you get really unlucky and are low enough level for the nearby mobs to react to your presence you will most live. Is instead used by players to spawn a special rare mob that is triggered by players having critical HP aka really low HP. Wouldn't say is a good thing but it have its uses in the game.
The only game I can think of that I’ve played that had fall damage is Minecraft. Kirby games don’t have fall damage (as far as I know) and I’d like it to stay that way,
I kinda understand having fall damage, because older games weren't as big, so they want to make sure that you don't just leap over everything. Not having fall damage is so much fun though. I love playing Mario Odyssey and climbing up to the tallest place and just jumping off of it. It's so much fun.
It can stay in things like Minecraft and LoZ for short platforming challenges where the goal is to get across platforms of similar levels, or to keep the player on a certain track. But in a Mario game, where leaping from high heights is a favourite pastime of most? No thanks. I think it should stay out of most 3D platformers, full stop.
I find it annoying most of the time, but pointless in somecases. I'm looking at you Xenoblade. Seriously, fall damage in Xenoblade that doesn't kill you is pointless outside of battle most of the time because your health auto recovers outside of battle. Fall damage usually makes sense, but in some cases you can fall pretty far with little consequence. Especially if you land in water. As long as it stays out of platformers, I'm fine with it. Except in maybe Minecraft. It's a pain to fall just because you can't see your feet, and nobody likes playing Minecraft outside of first person.
I'm indifferent to falling damage, unless it manages to be a major annoyance, which isn't really a common thing. The only way I'll really get annoyed by it is if I am expected to take large leaps of faith, and get punished for doing what the game wants me to do.
I agree with you on this part, and I was thinking of Far Cry specifically, but also Fallout 3/NV/4. Several times in both of these games I've gotten onto the roof of a building either for a stealthy vantage point or being chased through a building, and I end up with bad guys blocking the only safe way down. So I'm faced with a decision and with just seconds to choose: stand my ground and fight off a wave of bad guys while I have no cover, or jump and try to limp away to safety hoping they don't finish me off of my reduced health from a distance. If there was no fall damage (less realism, sometimes more fun), then I could just do like Borderlands and jump off a 20 story tower and run off like it was nothing and not have that stress of decision-making. I for one like that stress of making a difficult virtual decision.
