What’s the best method for restoring health in an FPS? 1. Don’t restore health. This is the most realistic method. 2. Medics. Have a medic physically touch and heal you over a short period of time. “Medic!” 3. Health packs. Bricks of life dropped from medics or found by searching. 4. Health stations. Locations that will restore your health when you are near them. 5. Shake it off. Get out of the line of fire and have your health magically restore itself.
Depends on the type of game. If you're wanting a realistic shooter that's not too fast paced then you want a medic or health pack option. But even then I'd say a medic/health pack should never, (at least in mp), heal you fully. If it's a fast paced affair then you have to have regenerating health because you break the flow of the game by needing health packs or medics.
It seems the shake it off method is becoming really popular. It does keep the flow of the game going but it seems a bit unbalanced sometimes especially to snipers who may not be able to get off enough shots to kill a guy before he heals. I remember in BF1942 a player had to choose between going forward with minimal health or seeking out a health station. It was a strategic decision which added drama to the game.
I remember good ol' battlefield 2. I sucked pretty bad at it; I wonder if it was just the lag. Anyway, the words that my solider uttered most were "MEDIC!", or the equivalent of medic in other languages.
I would say the best method is a combination of all of the above (where necessary/applicable) but with limitations to how much each can do. Resting should restore some health, but only say a maximum of 20% of what you have lost Medi-kits should have to be used, taking you out of the action for a few seconds, but can restore up to 33% of what you have lost for a small kit, or 50% for a large kit. Stations the same as above for medi-kits. Medics should be able to restore the most health, but still only up to 75% of what you have lost. The taking time out thing and only restoring a percentage of what you have lost are the most important aspects for me.
Metal Gear Solid 4 kinda does this in a simplified manner. If you're at full stamina, you can lie and regenerate health 100% Getting shot/being chased/anything stressful diminishes your stamina. At reduced stamina levels, your ability to regenerate health is diminished as well and you can't regenerate 100% Rations recover a certain amount of health, depending on the type (fizzy drinks to full health rations) and whether Snake likes them or not.