The first video game I ever played had what you could call a heads up display or “HUD.” That game was Super Mario Bros. Sure, it just told me my score, how many coins I have, what world I’m on, and how much time I have left in whatever weird measurement that was supposed to be, but it was still a HUD.
Other games around that time would share different information, like a life bar or magic meter. Things haven’t changed a whole lot today. Most games have the same kind of info all around your screen, usually spruced up a bit and made to take up way less space than it used to. Some older titles would use the entire bottom third of the screen as a HUD. Now it’s made to be more aesthetically pleasing, and in some cases look like it is a part of the world. This usually has more success in first person games, where you can pretend you’re seeing what the character sees, like Samus in Metroid Prime or Master Chief in Halo.
Sometimes the HUD even disappears until an action triggers its appearance. If you’re just walking around and exploring, there may be no HUD, but enter combat and now you see your health and other stats. Looking at something like Super Mario Galaxy, you can see your health when you get hit and it’s no longer full. Replenish it and the health meter goes away so that your view isn’t obstructed.
Then there are games like Fable 3 who have taken the lack of HUD to such an extreme that players are pretty upset. Simple but important information like how much health you have remaining is left to your best guess because that isn’t anywhere to be seen while playing. You’re also unable to see how many health potions you have left. Pausing the game doesn’t take you to a menu where you can access things like a map or switch out equipment, instead you’re taken to an actual location where you have to walk around to do all those things, so you have to go to a map room or weapons room. Even your money has it’s own McDuck-style bin.
This seems extreme, but is it actually hindering the gameplay experience, or is it enhancing it? If we take a look at Bethesda’s games like Oblivion and Fallout 3, personally I noticed a pattern with how I played those games, especially after I was into them for a few hours. I would take a quest, look at the map to see where it’s location is, fast travel if possible, point my character in the direction of that red or green arrow for the rest of the way, and then do whatever I had to do, usually murder somebody or something. I’d then head back, get my reward, and repeat with a new quest.
While I was able to get more done in a shorter time frame because I had a HUD and menus and the ability to fast travel, was I really playing a game or just going through the motions? After a while the whole process felt robotic. Really, though, the choice was up to me. If I wanted to skip fast travel, I can do that; the game wasn’t telling me I had to. If I wanted to have a more “realistic” experience and walk everywhere in the game, I could do that too.
The point here is having options, and that’s what developers need to give us. If instead of just removing the HUD in Fable 3, Lionhead decided to make it an option, this would no longer be an issue because then it’s up to you what experience you want to have. I applaud developers for trying to make games more immersive, but at the same time they have to remember that it is still a game.
