Remove the HUD completely

Sorry for the dramatic headline but after reading a preview of the indie game Hellblade and watching a video I am deeply fascinated by the idea of having a completely HUD-less game. For example there are no health bars, instead blood splatters and blur effects indicate how wounded the player is...
We know that a HUD-less game can work as Ultima VII showed it. And somehow I have to say that to me it seems like a big step backwards to reintroduce a HUD.
I think that it could be revolutionary to create HUD-less RPG with an innovative method to access everything you need yet without cluttering the screen with windows, bars, outlines or texts. Nothing would diminish the immersion and the feeling of really being in this world.

 

in Ultima 7, you didn't know when you were about to die

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The borders of the screen could become red when you are wounded. A heartbeat could signal that you are very low on health.

 

Agree with the OP. I remember when this project was kickstarted and these forums opened up. It seemed that the devs and the backers were all on the same page back then. There was talk about little or no UI, no WoW leveling and grinding, no markers on the compass. Now we have a screen full of UI, leveling and grinding and markers on the compass. Over the past few years, a 180 took place..and it saddens me.

I'm still enjoying the game and still think the end result looks promising. With some changes in direction like the OP mentioned, this game can still be great.

 

That reminds me of the way Call of Duty did injury/death. Your screen would start with a few drops of blood when injured and it would get more and more prominent the closer you got to death. A very immersive and UI-less way of showing injury.

 

Call of Duty is a first person perspective game.

 

Yes, I know. That still doesn't mean they can't give a more immersive way of displaying injury in a game like SotA.

 

This is a strange one to complain about?!?

You can at present hide or auto hide or turn off almost everything in the UI.
ESC-->Game-->(select everything "Hide")

or F9

 

What I meant to say was: Create a game that does not need a HUD. Create an interface that works completely without any HUD elements like it was the case in Ultima VII. Something new, something (r)evolutionary.

 

I thought some degree of this was promised at some point? at least in regards to hit points or something...can't remember. sorry carry on.

But I am going to test it out now...see if I can play with almost everything hidden or auto hidden or turned off.

 

I like my HUD.

 

The will come, when SotA looks like this

 

In Ultima 7, also, you didn't know when you were hungry until you started to take damage, and you didn't know when your companions were hungry until they started to whine. That was a problem. Its also going to be a problem if we can't tell when our armor or weapons are heavily damaged, or we're getting encumbered.

So, if they got rid of all the HUD, they'd have to create good visual cues for everything, not just health.