“Still got one HP left!”

Yea going after a real “classics” here, Hitpoints.

The big problem isn't that Hitpoints system themselves are useless or outdated, by far not, there are many games that still do great with the classic HP systems. The problem comes in when games themselves get more complex but still use a “HP only” system.

Of course this primarily comes up in terms of combat. You can easily empty half a magazine of ammo into an opponent but somehow they won't drop or even twitch at it. Stab and slash someone several times with a sword and they won't even blink.

One issue I often run into in games like STALKER and FarCry is that hand grenades are nearly useless. You either capture someone in the “instant kill” area OR they just take some damage but are otherwise unimpeded to still act as if nothing happened.

And on the opposite end of the spectrum, while sometimes hilarious, you get absolutely stupid kills. Got an opponent down to 1 HP, he's still in full fighting condition and kill him by hitting his knee with an empty Styrofoam cup.

Now a solution could be damage effects that simply tie into how many Hps are left. It's done partly in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, enemies will walk slower or limp if they are seriously wounded. You could easily set points at which enemies show damage effects, 50% damage for unable to run, 75% damage for limping and so on.

But that leads into another big problem, enemies that have a ridicules amount of HP. My often mentioned example of an overpowered Mountain Lion in Oblivion is one of the worst case scenarios. Here it would have literally taken 200 arrows, all hits, to knock it down to anywhere near a kill, so even if it did show injure effects it wouldn't have brought me much.

And also one thing it all comes down to. Enemies being able to take a ridiculously powerful attack without any harm. RPG to the chest, nothing. Several machinegun rounds to the head, barely flinching. Of course in some cases it might be explained, but if said enemies did not wear any protection and it still happens you know you've got a problem.

So this leads back to an old favorite, Locational Damage and Damage Effects.

While quite common, at least in part, in most shooters it's still something many people seem to dislike, especially in the role playing dominated side (despite there being RPGs with locational damage systems).

Having a very simple LD/DE system would already help in many cases. The grenade example, enemies hit in the “injure” zone have multiple injures all over their body from shrapnel and the shockwave impeding their abilities to act. Hell even “ruptured ear drums” could be simulated by their aim being severely off or them having problems keeping track of you. The mountain lion example, an arrow stuck in it's legs and it would only limp.

Now I did say that LD is in many cases “partly” done in modern shooters. A problem there being that it is often nothing more than a damage modifier and an “instant kill” zone (head shots). You still don't have enemies reacting to injures or pain. Instead of breaking down on the ground or limping severely from a hit in the thigh they instead keep running, the only difference being that repeatedly hitting the leg takes 20 rounds instead of 10 in the chest.

Think of it like this, you have an enemy standing behind and obstacle and only the legs are in view. In most games you waste a magazine of ammo blowing away at the legs until he's dead. But think of the same scenario, you shoot the legs with a short burst, enemy drops down and you can shoot him in the chest now that he's exposed. Much more “efficient” and also “tactical”.

However it must be said again that this is by far not something for every game. Zelda would not require a LD system (though it does have enemies only vulnerable in certain locations), but first person RPGs, especially non linear ones, could profit from it as they are essentially action and player dependent.

Otherwise I would still encourage at least having health tied damage effects. For a linear style game those can already add more feeling for combat instead of grinding your opponents down with them still being able to fight even close to death.

To finish on a little side note on grenades again, how many games are there where explosions can actually knock enemies off their feet? No, not dead, just thrown to the ground.

I personally can't really think of any, so this may also be a point why in many games they are rendered useless. Though you may correct me on that as I lack the overview a bit.