History Main / SubsystemDamage

* ''DeusEx'' has separate health for each body part of an entity. As each is damaged, a corresponding change occurs: if your arms are hit you can't aim as well or use two-handed weapons, if your legs are hit you can't run (or you can only crawl if both are "dead"), if your head is hit your vision becomes murky. You can also choose to heal individual body parts.

** The [[DisContinuity highly contested]] ThirdPersonShooter ReBoot actually retains this system, albeit simplified. Destroyed parts reveal their (inexplicably indestructible) skeletal frame and any attached weapons take a massive hit to their performance. Destroyed legs cause Wanzers to sort of waddle around at a snail's pace unless they use their boosters. On the plus side, deliberately shooting a part is now fully possible (and recommended, especially with the BulletTime mechanic)- meaning that skills that used to improve chances of hitting certain body parts have been removed or altered.

** The [[DisContinuity highly contested]] ThirdPersonShooter ReBoot actually retains this system, albeit simplified. Destroyed parts reveal their (inexplicably indestructible) skeletal frame and any attached weapons take a massive hit to their performance. Destroyed legs cause Wanzers to sort of waddle around at a snail's pace unless they use their boosters.

* ''WildARMS: Second Ignition'' had this in [[BossBattle boss fights]]. While you [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim could just kill the boss right off]], taking out the subsystems would net you extra experience, and would limit the number of attacks the enemy could use. Unfortunately, the attacks that were left tended to be the boss' hardest hitters.

* ''SecondSight'' (StealthBasedGame)he and ''{{Penumbra}}'' (AdventureGame with a dash of SurvivalHorror) both use the most basic form, with the main character limping when injured.

* In ''{{Metal Gear Solid 4}}'', shooting an enemy in the leg will cause them to limp. Arm injuries will cause his hands to shake and decrease their firing accuracy. [[BoomHeadshot Headshots are always fatal]] unless they're wearing helmets.

* Been part of the ''WWE SmackdownVsRaw'' wrestling games, allowing you to focus your moves on a specific area. Though this doesn't reduce opponents mobility, they are far more likely to submit via a hold that targets a badly injured area, than one that has taken no damage. similarly they're unlikely to get properly pinned unless there torso has been severly injured, making focusing on a specific body part a key strategy of winning quickly.

* ''{{ARMA}} 2: Operation Arrowhead'' (a standalone expansion on ''ARMA 2'') introduced this to the ''ARMA'' series, allowing damage and effects (i.e. inability to turn properly if a tank's treads are shot up). However, when running a combined ''ARMA 2''/''OA'' installation ("Combined Operations"), this does not apply to vehicles from ''ARMA 2'', whose only "subsystem" is the Hull.

* In most of the ''{{Ghost Recon}}'' and ''{{Rainbow Six}}'' series, getting hit in the limbs will incur some very serious penalties.

See also CognizantLimbs, for the [[BossBattle boss]] variety, and MultipleLifeBars.

See also CognizantLimbs, for the [[BossBattle boss]] variety.

* ''CommandAndConquer'' generals units will slow down (or limp)when near death. The offense Crawler, being a base on four legs actually limp when heavily damaged. Not to mention the voice synthesizer malfunctions too.
--->''EVA: Our Cr*fizzzle*er is critically da*static*eged!''

** FalloutNewVegas combines tracked body-part damage with permanent crippling (with Hardcore enabled) but provides certain items (the uncommon, but craftable, Doctor's Bag, and the adictive chem Hydra) that will restore limb condition without the help of an NPC doctor. With Hardcore disabled, gameplay is the same as {{Fallout 3}}.

** ''{{Fallout 3}}'', on the other hand, ''does'' track damage to body parts. And they can simply be healed with stimpacks (which your average player tends to stockpile, but your average NPC doesn't).
* ''{{Fable}} II'' has elements of this - such as shooting an enemy's weapon out of their hands, or doing a headshot (or GroinAttack...) Indeed, many games (namely [=FPSes=]) track headshots at a minimum.

* ''WingCommander'': Available for the PlayerCharacter ship, since the very first game, where you could lose subsystems that hamper your performance but don't kill you outright; some of the damage can be repaired by auto-repair systems if given sufficient time... unless that, too, was destroyed, in which case you were hosed. Losing a gun, though, wasn't fixed until after you returned to base.
** Starting with ''WingCommander III'', capships were given individually targetable turrets, and in ''WingCommander IV'' one of the Speradon missions involves destroying the engine exhaust ports on a carrier in drydock as part of an effort to keep it from escaping.

* The ''[[{{ptitleexh6mkl0fnye}} Char's Counterattack]]'' game for Playstation allows the player to target different parts of the enemy's mobile suit, with noticeable effects; destroying the head reduces accuracy, taking out the shield or left arm removes the ability to defend, blowing off a leg lowers mobility, and the destruction of any of the three removes any weapons linked to the appropriate part.

* Isaac of ''DeadSpace'' moves with a lot of gasping, grunting and limping when seriously injured.

[[AC:FirstPersonShooter]]

* The game ''[=SiN=]'' had different armor points for legs, torso and head.
** ''{{XIII}}'' has a peculiar example in which armor is destroyed first by damage in a somewhat locational manner. Since you can loot armor from fallen foes, it becomes imperative to go for clean headshots when looking for intact body armor, and silent takedowns for helmets.

* This could be done to the guards in ''PerfectDark''. Hitting a limb tended to worsen their accuracy and running speed, and could even cause them to drop their gun.

[[AC:RealTimeStrategy]]
* Since all of your units are machines, ''CortexCommand'' allows your characters to be almost fully dismembered and keep on ticking. Lose an arm? No more two-handed weapons. Lose a leg? Hop. Lose both arms? Ram into the enemy. Lose both legs? Use your rocket pack to get around. Being dismembered even makes you lighter (good for flying) and smaller (good for mining.)
* ''DwarfFortress'' does this for every living organism except vermin, tracking damage on down to individual fingers, toes, organs, and even nervous tissue.
** And, in certain earlier editions, without taking into account surrounding tissue. It was at one point perfectly possible to take both of someone's ears off with a single arrow without hurting the head in-between.

* Critically injured characters have reduced speed in ''Spellforce'', making it easier to catch up with them when they [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere try to flee]].

* CommandAndConquer generals units will slow down (or limp)when near death.
** This is carried on further in the series.
** The offense Crawler, being a base on 4 legs actually limp when heavily damaged. Not to mention the voice synthesizer malfunctions too.

* In the space combat portion of ''StarWars: EmpireAtWar'', most capital ships and space stations have targetable subsystems for almost any system: each individual weapon, shield generator, engine, and hangar. In fact, the only way to destroy a ship is to destroy all subsystems. The ships show realistic damage when subsystems are blown up. Normally, ships have to take down shields first before targetting subsystems, but torpedoes and mass drivers easily pass through shields.

[[AC:TurnBasedStrategy]]

* SuperRobotWarsGC had this in spades.

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[[AC:Sim]]

** The earlier ''{{X-Wing}}'' had some elements of this (mainly with Star Destroyer shield generators), but it was greatly improved for the sequel.

* ''StarTrekBridgeCommander'' has this in abundance. Damage depends on where you hit and how strong you set your weapons, you can target everything down to individual torpedo tubes and phaser arrays, subsystems can be disabled but reparable or completely destroyed, doing so affects the ships's performance (an especially effective tactic is to knock out the enemy's sensor array as that renders them unable to target you and return fire), and the 3D models show realistic battle damaged, to the point where you can punch holes all the way through or lop off engine nacelles.
** And destroying the warp core/Power plant kills a ship/station outright even if they are probably over 50% percent integrity
* ''StarTrekStarfleetCommand'' lets you knock down an enemy's shields and beam commandos onboard to knock out subsystems. Ships generally don't blow up until they've lost so much functionality that they're reduced to drifting pieces of junk.

* Available for the PlayerCharacter ship in ''WingCommander'' since the very first game, where you could lose subsystems that hamper your performance but don't kill you outright; some of the damage can be repaired by auto-repair systems if given sufficient time... unless that, too, was destroyed, in which case you were hosed. Losing a gun, though, wasn't fixed until after you returned to base.

* In Flying Saucer, obscure flying simulator, your alien spaceship can sometimes malfunction in a funny way due to subsystem damage.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* As if MechWarrior wasn't a givaway, the hex based wargame ''BattleTech'' is all about this. Not only do the 'mechs have locational damage for the limbs, three torso locations (left, right, and center), and the head, but the individual subsystems, weapons and so on that are contained within them can be damaged too. This means you can trigger ammunition explosions that tear one apart from the inside, disable the gyroscope so it falls over, or go for a critical hit directly on the pilot...

* WARMACHINE uses this faithfully on everything large enough to warrant it. Every Warjack has a 6 column damage chart with a variable number of ablative "armour" squares in each column. After you hack through those, you start damaging vital systems which have real penalties when they fail. After enough systems give out, the 'jack shuts down.
* Battlefleet Gothic's critical hit system is a form of this. While a Cruiser still blows up after eight arbitrary damage points, critical hits give you a chance to knock out weapons batteries, cripple engines, disable shields, or simply do horrific extra damage as bulkheads collapse and hull plating shreds in the heat of battle.
* In keeping with its theme of "painfully detailed awfulness," ''{{FATAL}}'' allows you to [[YouFailBiologyForever stab a man in his Fallopian tubes]] without damaging the surrounding organs or skin.

[[AC:Other/Multiple/To Be Sorted]]

* In ''{{Bushido Blade}}'', you can get your limbs severed, affecting your combat capabilities in the following stages.

* The GundamVsSeries games set in the Universal Century have an ability called Revival which allows you to avoid death at the cost of a body part, taking with it any weapons or abilities linked to that limb. Several machines have this ability in ''Gundam Vs Gundam'', most notably the black Gundam Mk-II, which loses its left arm; since it has to reload manually, this means that post-Revival you can't use anything but your melee weapon.

* Similar rules apply to a ''Star Trek''-based LightGunGame in which you fight the [[YouWillBeAssimilated Borg]]. Justified, since something that's half robotic isn't likely to bleed to death.
* In the New England- based {{LARP}} ''Realms'', you take damage based on what body part gets hit. Hit in the leg? You can't use that leg any more (and hopefully you have good balance). Lose an arm? Hopefully you can fight with your other arm (and aren't using two weapons or a two-handed weapon).
* In {{MonsterLabs}}, monsters are killed if they sustain too much damage to their torso, while destroying arms, legs and head impair their fighting (and fleeing for legs). Though if they loose everything ''except'' the torso, they also die.

* The DOS game Lightspeed: Interstellar Action and Adventure has an "engine room" where you can store and apply various components to Screen Generator, Blaster Turret, Spindrive, Main Gun and Thruster systems. Each time you are hit, a component from a random system gets destroyed, which can have the following effects:

<<|VideoGameTropes|>>

* ''G-Nome'', a game about HumongousMecha, tracks damage to the various parts of your mecha. These being bipedal or quadrupedal vehicles, losing a leg is as immediately fatal as losing the cockpit.

* ''Left4Dead'' has you limp if you take enough damage.